Nimitz Hotel Accounting Books Collection

Collection

Identifier: 000068

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Nimitz Hotel Accounting Books Collection contains ledgers, register books, and daybooks that document the financial operations and guest activity of the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas, from 1853 to 1926. These volumes record guest names, hometowns, dates of stay, room assignments, and, in some cases, company affiliations, illustrating patterns of travel and lodging over more than seventy years. Several register books are custom-made and include physical features such as blotting paper, sketches, and printed advertisements, or survive only in fragmentary form, reflecting their practical use and period commercial practices.

Financial records in the collection include ledgers and daybooks that document guest charges, payments, hotel expenditures, and daily purchases from the hotel’s saloon and general store between 1877 and 1883. An accountant’s book spanning 1918 to 1926 demonstrates the continued evolution of hotel bookkeeping into the twentieth century. Together, these materials offer insight into the business operations, hospitality practices, and local economic life of Fredericksburg, Texas, across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Dates

Creation: 1853 - 1926

Creator

Nimitz Hotel (Fredericksburg, Tex.) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from this collection in any form must be obtained from the National Museum of the Pacific War, Center for Pacific War Studies.

Biographical / Historical

The Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas, was purchased in 1855 by Charles "Chas" H. Nimitz, a German immigrant and entrepreneur who played a prominent role in the town’s early commercial life. Operating as both a lodging house and a community gathering place, the hotel served travelers, residents, and business interests in the region. In addition to accommodations, the establishment included a bar and a general store, reflecting the multifunctional nature of nineteenth-century hotels in small Texas towns.

The Nimitz Hotel maintained a structured system of recordkeeping to manage its operations and clientele. Register books recorded guests’ names, places of origin, dates of stay, and room assignments, while daybooks documented daily transactions, including guest purchases at the bar and general store. Financial information was consolidated in ledgers that tracked charges, payments, and expenditures, demonstrating the hotel’s evolving bookkeeping practices and providing insight into the administrative management of the Nimitz Hotel from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

Extent

1.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Nimitz Hotel Accounting Books Collection contains ledgers, register books, and daybooks that document guest activity, financial transactions, and hotel operations at the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas, from 1853 to 1926.

Arrangement

This collection consist of six boxes divided into three series:

Series I: Register Books Series II: Ledgers and Accountant Books Series III: Day Books

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These materials were donated to the Texas Historical Commission in 1974 (Accession numbers 0195, 0196, 0197, 0198, 0199, 0200, 0201, 0202, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0207, 0208), by Mary Rockwood in 1980 (Accession number 0518), in an anonymous donor in 2004 (2004.567), and by Jeff Wahrmund in 2013 (F2013.047).