The tale of The Seahorse Inn
The Seahorse Inn Gay hotelier developed first Mustang Island beach resort in 1950s, opened doors to LGBTQ guests DAVID WEBB | Contributing Writer davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com PORT ARANSAS — The Texas Gulf Coast is known for growing colorful characters, and Jack Coffman Cobb, a gay hotelier who opened Mustang Island’s first beach resort and developed its first beach apartments, still stands out as one of the most memorable almost four decades after his death.
Port Aransas is no longer the small fishing village it was when Cobb launched his resort on top of one of the beach town’s highest sand dunes in 1956.
And today, most of the newcomer residents and visitors know little of Cobb and his avant-garde hotel that featured one of the area’s first swimming pools.
But old-timers well remember him and the hotel he christened the Seahorse Inn which featured an elegant restaurant and bar. They also recall with a shudder the grisly murder of Cobb’s life partner and heir, Michael Robert, in 1996 that led to the resort’s demise 11 years after the developer’s death. (You can read about that online at DallasVoice.com/a-man-and-a-murder-remembered.) Jack Cobb with a friend at Seahorse Inn In the beginning When the Seahorse Inn first opened, its flamboyant operator and the guests he sought out from the arts world — many of whom were gay — quickly became a topic of gossip and speculation about wild parties and bizarre behavior.
