It's good to have brilliant friends. Aaron Yates, whose family I've known my entire life, combined one of my old Sanborn-Perris maps of Kerrville (from August, 1898) with a modern image of the downtown area.
The bridge on the left side of the image is the Sidney Baker bridge at Louise Hays Park.
The yellow "buildings" were frame; the blue, stone; the green, I believe, were metal.
I look forward to your comments on these! Thanks, Aaron!
Click on image to enlarge
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| Kerrville, as it was, as it is. By Aaron Yates. |
Neat!!
ReplyDeleteI see something strange in this photo.
ReplyDeleteI can see where the old dam was constructed, but I see what looks like the remains of another old dam.
If you look below the current dam you see the remains of the old dam that we know about.
However, if you look below the existing footbridge (in line with the Schreiner One Building), you can see a line of "white water" that crosses the river.
I don't remember hearing about two "old dams" so I wonder if it could have been a temporary dam that was built to hold or reroute the river while something else was being built.
It's just a natural land fixture isn't it? below the foot brige? I've been down there many times and remember a small "water fall" if you will below the footbridge.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe it's natural; there's a concrete berm on the south side of the river, and the cut is very straight, almost exactly perpendicular to the flow of the river.
ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have a photo of the concrete berm?
I have searched my antiquated brain, time and time again, yet I cannot recall ever having heard of a structure built across the width of the river, at that spot.
Yet, there indeed seems to be the remains of some type of dam just below the footbridge.
Most interesting!!!
Because the structure seems to be almost directly behind the old red brick building, (the one used by the ice plant and the mill before it), I wonder if it somehow channeled water into the second canal that was dug behind the red brick building?
ReplyDeleteI think a clue about the "little dam" below the footbridge can be found at http://joeherringjr.blogspot.com/2010/12/kerrvilles-louise-hays-park-built-in.html
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused (not a new trait for me).
ReplyDeleteWasn't the pontoon bridge built upstream from the dam? The water in the pontoon bridge photo looks very deep in contrast to the water where the "below the footbridge structure" was built.
All this expelled brain energy is making me feel the need to drink a Coke Zero.
The concrete berm on the south side of the river is what makes this a mystery for me.
ReplyDeleteIn all the older photos of Kerrville that I've seen none showed this permanent or semi-permanent structure.
The structure may have been temporary while Louise Hays Park was being built, or it may have had something to do with the old mill.
Either way, I'm perplexed.