Jefferson's downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places

In the 1840s and 1850s, Jefferson was one of the busiest inland ports in Texas. Steamboats moved goods between Jefferson and New Orleans along Big Cypress Bayou. Jefferson was the main trading hub for all of northeast Texas. That boom ended in the 1870s. A natural log-jam called the Red River Raft was cleared. That dropped the water level. Railroads also skipped Jefferson and went to Marshall instead.

The slowdown saved many of Jefferson's old buildings. In 1971, about 47 city blocks with 56 historic structures went onto the National Register of Historic Places. That is the federal list of buildings worth protecting. About 10 more buildings have their own listings on the Register. Two of them are the Excelsior Hotel and the Planters Bank and Warehouse. If you own a building on the Register and use it to earn income, you may qualify for a federal tax credit of 20% on repair work. That credit does not apply to a home you live in. The Texas Historical Commission handles the state side of these programs.