The Founders Building

Grapevine honors the citizens whose vision, generosity, and commitment shaped the community across the 1800s and 1900s. Among the early settlers on the Grape Vine Prairie was Rev. E. Nathan Hudgins, who came to Texas from Belfant, Alabama, in 1854 with his wife Sarah Proctor, later married Susan Baker, raised a large family, and held a substantial homestead on both sides of Main Street. He gave land to his children, to the Methodist Church, for a public school, and for the right of way for the Cotton Belt Railroad. After the Civil War, he and other businessmen and farmers worked to secure a railroad connection for Grapevine, which ended the community's isolation, improved shipment of crops, increased prosperity, encouraged new commercial buildings on Main Street, and brought hotels, railroad workers, and new families into the town alongside founding families such as the Fosters, Leonards, Dunns, Minters, Halls, Hoods, Gibsons, Throops, Hallfords, Medlins, Cates, and Easters. The property later housed commercial ventures including Estill's Lumberyard, the Donnie Chair Company, and building supply businesses after Wm. Cameron & Co. opened a retail establishment there in December 1964. In 1990, Grapevine's City Council combined preservation-minded committees into the Grapevine Historic Preservation and Cultural Resources Foundation, which gained non-profit status and in 1991 became the Grapevine Heritage Foundation. That year the Foundation purchased the property, with board members pledging personal financial commitments, and volunteers renovated it into a Heritage Artisans Center using proceeds from Main Street Days and GrapeFest. After five years of operation, the Heritage Artisans Center became the Visitor Information Center in 1998, with artisans relocated to the Cotton Belt Railroad Section Foreman's House and further improvements funded by the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau. The building was dedicated in honor of the generations of citizens whose efforts prepared Grapevine's future and helped make it a distinctive place to live and visit.

Grapevine, Texas · United States