A brand new H-E-B for Kerrville -- in 1936

Photograph taken in a Kerrville grocery store.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Many of the photographs in my collection contain mysteries. Sometimes I just don’t know the who, when, what, where, or even the ‘why’ of an image. Sometimes I know one part – the what, for example – and have no idea about the other questions.

Of course, not knowing drives me a little bit crazy.

Take, for example, a photograph of an elderly woman, surrounded by people, including a man at what looks like a xylophone, in the middle of a grocery store.

The 800 block of Water Street, Kerrville

The ‘who’ on this one is easy – the woman’s name is Florence Thornton Butt. She opened a grocery store in Kerrville in 1905. She’s being photographed at a grocery store event, obviously later than 1905. 

Who is the man just to the right of Mrs. Butt?

Some have speculated it’s her son, Howard E. Butt. However, visiting with a member of the Butt family years ago, it was pointed out that the man’s shoes look new. According to family lore, Howard Butt Sr. put a lot of miles on a pair of shoes. The family member thought the shoes were clue enough that the man is not Howard Butt.

I don’t know about the shoes, but the fellow doesn’t look like Howard Butt to me. I have photographs of Mr. Butt at various times in his life – from his high school days at Tivy, to photographs taken late in life – and he never looked like the man in this photograph.

Perhaps figuring out when and why this photograph was taken would help.

I got this photograph over 25 years ago from a woman living in Arizona. She sent it to me because it was a photograph of her father, the musician behind the xylophone, a man named Stanley Thal. I’m not sure she knew Florence Butt was in the photograph.

The Thal family arrived in Kerrville around 1935, and moved to Terrell around 1938. While here, Mr. Thal taught music lessons, sold instruments, was a band conductor, and tuned pianos. I have a photo of his music students that looks straight out of “Little Rascals.”

Evidently, Mr. Thal also played music at grocery stores.

Centennial Wafers

There’s a clue in the photograph about when the image was taken. One of the products behind the man to the far right is labeled ‘Centennial Vanilla Wafers,’ and sold for 15 cents a bag. On either side of the word ‘Centennial’ is a small image of the state of Texas.

Texas celebrated its centennial in 1936. Perhaps this photograph was taken then.

A quick look through the local newspapers of 1936 quickly led me to the Kerrville Times of July 30, 1936. A featured section of the newspaper reported Howard Butt was opening a new ‘Piggly-Wiggly’ store in the 800 block of Water Street, about where One Schreiner Center stands today.

The new store featured a fancy storefront, ‘constructed throughout with Vitrolite plate glass in colors of cream, red, and blue, with a predominance of black.’ I have a photograph of that storefront. It looks pretty swanky.

The new store boasted 4,500 square feet, and parking for 100 cars.

The special section also outlines the manager of the new store, Mr. Jesse R. Gibson. Gibson was the manager of the H. E. Butt Grocery store in Kerrville, starting in 1934; he’d been with various south Texas Piggly-Wiggly stores previously.

Interestingly, the section also shows two photographs of Mr. Gibson. Judging from those photographs, I believe he is the man standing next to Mrs. Butt.

1. Stanley Thal
2. Unknown, but with apron, likely store employee
3. Unknown
4. Unknown, but possibly a shopper
5. Unknown, possibly a shopper
6. Possibly Mary Juanita “Bama” Pearson Butt
7. Florence Thornton Butt
8. Jesse R. Gibson

The woman shown to the left of Mrs. Butt may be her daughter-in-law, Mary Juanita “Bama” Pearson Butt, the widow of Mrs. Butt’s eldest son, Charles. I’m not positive, though.

I don’t recognize the others in the photograph. I think the woman standing behind the others might be a shopper, along with the man in the straw hat. I notice the young man standing behind the boy is wearing a white apron; I suspect he is an employee of the grocery store. One more man wearing a white apron is in the photograph, but he’s standing behind flowers directly behind Florence Butt.

Gentle Reader – if you recognize anyone in this 1936 photograph, I’d appreciate your help in identifying the rest of those in this image.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who enjoys studying historical photographs of Kerrville. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times July 8, 2023.

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