The Famous Door

I will return to exploring downtown buildings, but today I want to talk about a building I am currently researching outside downtown.  This is the Famous Door Cafe, located at 215 West Barnett Street.  This building was in existence by June, 1929, so it is at least 83 years old. It MAY be older.  Oral history states it is closer to 100 years old.   

undated photo

The first record in the newspapers of a business here is in the Kerrville Mountain Sun, June 6, 1929, when Kelley's Cafe is mentioned in an advertisement as an agent for Pennant S.A.E. Motor Oils.  Henry Kelley was also listed as a Pierce agent.  In addition to the cafe and grocery, there were variety of other businesses based here over the years, including a taxi stand (phone  A R T H U R)  and a barber shop.   

In September, 1933, Kelley's Cafe and Grocery was one of the first eight applicants in Kerrville for a retail beer license at the end of Prohibition, and the only one not on Water Street.

In 1934 Henry Kelley hired Edward Bratcher, cook at the Blue Bonnet Hotel, to work for him and later sold him the business.  It was Kelley's Cafe until some time after mid-1939 when Bratcher took over the business and the name changed to Bratcher's Recreation Hall, Grocery and Cafe (1940), then Bratcher's Place (1942), and later to the Famous Door "Famous for Friends, Food, and Fun".  At the time it close in 1996 it was said to be the oldest black-owned business in Kerrville.  Probably true.  The property today is the oldest black-owned commercial property in Kerrville. 

A. L. "Pinkie" Lewis, a white man, owned the property for many years, but eventually sold it to Ed Bratcher.  It appears from the deed records that Lewis financed the purchase, probably because banks wouldn't lend an African-American the money back then.

Ed Bratcher was well respected in Kerrville. As an example, In 1942, he was chairman of the "Negro celebration" for the Infantile Paralysis Foundation, held at Bratcher's Place   The dance was part of President Roosevelt's Diamond Jubilee Birthday Ball. The whites held a dance at the Goss' Place on the Old Junction Road.  The Mexican community had yet a third dance.  Separate celebrations were held because this was during the segregation era when white and black were forbidden by law to mix.   

Newspapers items and city directories document the use of this building as a cafe, grocery, and dance hall.

This is said to be the first fully racially integrated business in Kerrville, that white teens would come to hear good music and get some great food, and Ed Bratcher would allow them to stay as long as there was no trouble or until the sheriff came and told them to go home.  I don't know if it's possible, but I would like to more fully document this. Oral histories are great, but written documentation is best.   

I am also looking for the names and proof of the some of the bands who performed here.  Three names I have are: Max Range, who performed with several bands, including the Tradition Band from San Antonio; Bobby "Blue" Bland--originally from Seguin TX; and Punty Guitar and his band, an R&B artist/group from San Antonio. Punty Guitar performed with more than one band.

I plan to update this page as I get new information.