Tourism has been a major part of the Rockport economy for generations, and in the 1920s and 1930s, as automobile travel increased, more visitors came to the area. The Cedars, built in 1928 by Dr. Joe and Mabel Bryant, became a popular tourist destination with seven resort houses on the property. It was sold to H.M. Daggett in 1929, and in 1930 Stanley Daggett and his wife, Flossie, acquired it and added two cottages. Annual gatherings of fishing and birding organizations and groups of families commonly brought many visitors there. Originally the property had outhouses, iceboxes, hot plates, and a windmill, but soon small bathrooms were attached to each cottage. By the late 1940s, the cottages offered hot and cold running water, gas stoves, refrigerators, and clothes lines. In 1946 Miss Ethel Jones of San Antonio purchased the property and hired an on-site manager. After retiring there in 1964, she sold The Cedars to her nephew, Charles Stevens, in 1971. Guests from Texas and from out of state continued to visit. In 1973 Stevens sold the property to a group of eight families, organized by the Robertsons, known as the Rockport Cedars Association, with each family retaining a cottage and the center space becoming common ground. Traditions continued there as these families and others enjoyed the coast and worked together for the annual pier review, when the pier and T-head are repaired. The Cedars represents economic growth and tourism in Rockport and continues to attract families to the Texas coast.