Alpine Texas downtown
— the town the mountains hold open.
Not only on a wall.
Alpine Texas downtown, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A railroad town at 4,475 feet, set between the Davis Mountains and the Glass Mountains in the high desert of West Texas. The Sunset Limited still stops at the depot. Murals run the length of Holland Avenue, and the Holland Hotel keeps the corner it has kept since 1928. Sul Ross students and Big Bend travelers cross paths in the same coffee shop most mornings.
The place, in three passes.
Alpine sits in Brewster County at 4,475 feet, the largest town in the Big Bend region of far West Texas and the seat of the largest county in the state. The Davis Mountains rise to the north, the Glass Mountains to the east, and Big Bend National Park lies about 80 miles south. Population is around 5,800, anchored by Sul Ross State University. The town grew up around the Southern Pacific railroad in the 1880s; Amtrak's Sunset Limited still stops at the historic depot three times a week.
Holland Avenue, the main downtown corridor, runs parallel to the rail line and carries most of the town's historic stock. The Holland Hotel opened in 1928 to a design by El Paso firm Trost & Trost, a Spanish Colonial Revival landmark that anchors the corner of 5th and Holland. Large-scale murals along the avenue (including the Big Bend mural at 209 W Holland and the Stardust Steakhouse façade) give the streetscape its character. Most of the surrounding storefronts date to the 1900s through 1940s, low brick and stucco built for a railroad-era main street.
Most travelers reach Alpine from El Paso (220 miles west) or Midland (160 miles north), or by Amtrak's Sunset Limited from New Orleans or Los Angeles. The town is the staging point for Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the Marfa art scene 26 miles west. Elevation keeps summer evenings cooler than the rest of Texas; winter days run mild with cold nights. The Museum of the Big Bend on the Sul Ross campus is open Tuesday through Sunday and is free to enter.
