The Mystery of the Curving Wall

Perhaps it's because I sit by a window at the print shop which faces the construction project at the old Schreiner store building, but I've been very interested in the project's progress, and especially the long wall visible (and parallel to) Sidney Baker Street.

The Curving Wall

That cut limestone wall is intriguing to me for several reasons, but this week I discovered another part of the wall's story: if you face the wall, standing on Water Street, and looking down its edge toward the Kerr County Courthouse, you'll notice the wall is curved. It starts off nice and straight, running perpendicular to Water Street, but then it tucks toward Sidney Baker Street toward the back of the building.

Look for yourself: that wall curves a lot.

There's a reason for this curve, but first, more on that wall.

As seen from Sidney Baker St.

What we're seeing, as we look at the wall, is the interior wall of an old building. The large limestone blocks we see were once on the inside of the building; the outside of the building is on the other side, used as part of the wall in what was once the Ladies Department at Schreiner's when I was a boy.

Also, we're only seeing the first story of the old wall; it was originally a two story building.

And so that wall is the only remaining part of a building that is now gone; the other three exterior walls are all gone now.

That building was once the Schreiner Wool Warehouse; when I was a boy it was the Winn's variety store building. Before it was Winn's, it was Lehmann's. Winn's was a wonderful place when I was a child. All sorts of inexpensive merchandise, from comics and paperbacks toward the front of the building to a lunch counter in the back. In fact, several photos of the old luncheonette found their way into my recent book of Kerrville photographs.

I have several photographs of the old building in each of its incarnations, but one in particular is of special interest.

Boxcars at Water Street, Kerrville

In it you'll see railroad boxcars next to a two-story limestone building. Without some clues from an old map of Kerrville, it would be hard to figure out the location of the building and the railway boxcars. But an old Sanborn-Perris map of Kerrville from August 1898 gives the clue: there was once a railway spur in Kerrville that came from the old tracks along North and Schreiner Streets right down the middle of Sidney Baker Street. At the intersection of Sidney Baker and Main Streets, the spur cut into the 700 block of Water Street, entering about where the "Welcome to Kerrville" fountain is today and curving its way to a stop about where the sidewalk in front of the Schreiner Department Store is today.

The blue building, bottom
center, has a curved wall.

The old map shows the tracks curving toward the center of that block, then curving back to end up parallel to the opposite side of the wall we can now see as we drive along Sidney Baker Street.

When wool was brought to town, first by wagons, and later by trucks, it was taken to Schreiner's Wool Warehouse on Water Street. I have several photos of these wagons and trucks unloading there. The boxcars were there to pick up the wool and carry it to market.

It was to accommodate that railroad track that the wall curves, not the carelessness of the 19th century stonemasons.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who couldn't build a straight wall if he wanted to.  This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times on January 22, 2011