Aerial photos of Kerrville -- when were they taken?

Downtown Kerrville, an image from the estate of Dash Peterson.
When was this photo taken?
Click on any image to enlarge.

Last week, Nathan Fitch and his mother, Rachel Fitch, were kind enough to share some photographs with me – and with all of us.

Mrs. Fitch’s company, Fitch Estate Sales, conducted a sale at the home of the late Dash Peterson last weekend. Nathan Fitch owns Mr. Peterson’s old house. They were kind enough to let me see some of the historic photographs Peterson left behind.

There were some truly historical photos in the boxes they loaned me, and I’m still processing them, hoping to write about them here later. This week, however, I wanted to share some images from the Peterson house that might spark a few memories from people around my age.

Among the items in the house, I found a box of color slides, and it contained aerial images of Kerrville I’d never seen before. The box didn’t identify the photographer.

Kerrville State Park

Looking at the images, I recognized the Kerrville of my childhood. One photo shows both the Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital and the Blue Bonnet Hotel in the downtown area. Another shows what was then the Kerrville State Park, now the municipal Kerrville Schreiner Park. Another shows Louise Hays Park as I remember it from the late 1960s – early 1970s.

Are there are enough clues in these photographs to guess the date of when they were taken?

Let’s see.

On the aerial image of downtown, the two big clues are the hospital and the hotel. The hospital was built in 1949; the hotel was torn down in 1971.

That gives us 22-year gap to work with.

Louise Hays Park

Beside the hospital is the old J. C. Penney store, and next to it, a stone building that was originally Charles Schreiner’s Wool Warehouse. Later this building was used as a retail space, first by Lehmann’s, then as a Winn’s variety store. Looking closely at the sign in front of that building, it says Winn’s. The Winn’s store opened on Water Street in April, 1964; that means our gap is now seven years.

I noticed the hospital has seven stories in this photo; the seventh floor (and part of the sixth) was added after 1949. You can tell, because the seventh floor was clad in a light blue material. A quick bit of research shows that work was completed in 1965.

Now we’ve narrowed the gap to just six years. Can we close the gap further?

I notice the old First United Methodist Church above the Blue Bonnet Hotel, but its construction and demolition are outside the limits we’ve already set. Walgreen’s sits on that spot now.

Above the hospital, almost to the edge of the image is the freight station for the railroad; this is a different building than the passenger depot which is now the home of Rails, A Café at the Depot. Again, outside of our 1965-1971 time gap.

Finally I noticed, just to the right of the Blue Bonnet Hotel, the vertical decorative stripes of the Kerrville Telephone Company switching office in the 800 block of Water Street. That building was finished in 1969 – and built on the site of the old Henke’s Meat Market.

So, I feel confident these photographs were taken between 1969 and 1971 – so, about 1970.

What do you think?

I’m grateful to the Rachel Fitch and her son Nathan Fitch for their generosity.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who collects historical photographs and other items from Kerrville and Kerr County. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times April 1, 2023.

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