An Oddly-Shaped Block in Downtown Kerrville

The block as it appears on the revised 1950 Sanborn map of Kerrville.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Over the last month or so, I’ve watched the demolition of the old Entertainmart building on Main Street in downtown Kerrville. The building is being removed to make room for a new branch office of Frost Bank, as well as some retail building spaces. Change happens. 

As of 04-16-25

The only building remaining on the block is the Voelkel Building, there at the block’s southern corner. That building started out as an automobile sales and display office. 

I was born here in the early 1960s and remember downtown Kerrville from the late 1960s on, especially after my parents purchased our printing company from the Hunter family around 1965. I feel like I’ve spent most of my waking hours in downtown Kerrville since then.

I still work a block away from the former site of the hospital where I was born -- so I’ve gone a long way in life.

August Braeutigam Blacksmith
Shop, 1895

The block where the demolition is taking place is known as Block 22 and Block 44 of the Schreiner Addition. If you take a long view of things, that block has been constantly changing for over 100 years.

The earliest photograph I have of anything on that block dates from around 1895; the latest several I took this week.

The commercial building which held Entertainmart had several tenants in recent memory. Before Entertainmart, Hastings operated there. Hastings was a book store and video rental place, mainly, and moved into the space in the early 1990s. A clothing store, Weiner’s, was in the spot for about five years, closing in 1989.

Aerial around 1960

The business most of us remember operating in that building was the H-E-B Grocery Company. It was originally in a modest building which faced Quinlan Street, but over time the store expanded in size with new construction and consumed other structures on the block, including the George H. Callcott auto parts store (which faced Water Street), and, in its last remodel there, turned the entrance toward Main Street.

I have vague memories of other buildings on the block facing Main Street, especially at the corner of Main and Clay streets, but those memories are pretty dim.

Memorial Funeral Home
photo from Jeannie Stover Berger Collection

The very earliest photograph I have of a structure on that block is of the blacksmith shop of August Braeutigam. It’s a great photo, showing a group of men, with tools of their trade, posing in front of the little shop. It was taken around 1895. The building itself still shows up on the 1930 map of that block, though by then it might not have been the site of a blacksmith workshop.

Another interesting building which once stood on that block was a house that was once the home of two of Captain Schreiner’s daughters – though they lived there at different times, each as newlyweds. More recently that home was a funeral home, the Memorial Funeral Home. I don’t remember the building, but it was possibly there when I was a boy.

For an oddly-shaped block, it’s had a lot of different uses: private homes, a gas station, auto parts, groceries, and even video rentals. Its new chapter begins soon.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who tolerates change more easily the older he gets. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead April 17, 2025.

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