No Curb Service

Here is the building with the sign when it was outside.

This sign, found on an inside wall at Herring Printing, 615 Water Street, is an historical remnant.  It can be seen from the street if one knows where to look. 

The sign references two old businesses: the  Modern Beauty Salon and Campbell's Cafe.    When I first saw this I thought the reference was to curb service being offered (or not) at the beauty salon!  That was certainly an intriguing idea, one difficult to picture.  I now know that Campbell's was a cafe that originally offered curb service.  At some point curb service was eliminated at the cafe, which is probably when "No Curb Service" was added and the word "Curb" painted over.

As you can see in the black and white photo, this sign used to be on the outside of the Modern Beauty Salon building.  In the same photo you can see a vacant lot next to the Modern Beauty Salon building. That vacant lot once was the parking lot and part of the curb service area for Campbell's.

Mr. Bruce O. Long opened the Modern Beauty Salon at 617 Water Street on Saturday, October 23, 1937, in the "new Parsons Building".  The business changed hands a few years later, when Mae Walz purchased the business and added a Merle Norman Studio. (The building address had changed but it's still the same building.)

In July 1949, Rae Fergason, Ann Hammock and Eloise Brown announced they were "glad to see their old friends and to make new ones at the Modern Beauty Salon."

In October, 1949, it advertised late night hours, an unusual idea at the time. "The Modern Beauty Salon announces a special night service for BUSINESS WOMEN and NURSES By appointments only on Wednesday nights until 9 p.m.  617 Water St."

The business continued until at least 1950 according to the city directory.

The next business in the space may have been Howard Wilson's print shop. If so, it wasn't here very long.  The only record I can find of this print shop is in a news story about Paul McDonald, Co. reporting that he bought the printing plant of Howard Wilson in 1951. Four years later McDonald moved his shop from 617 Water Street to a new building in the 500 block of Sidney Baker Street.  J. Marvin Hunter's print shop was apparently next, followed by Herring Printing in 1965.

As for Campbell's Cafe, whose name occupies the lower part of the sign, the Kerrville Mountain Sun July 10, 1928, ran the following news item,  "Campbell & Son of San Antonio have opened a drive-in hamburger and drink stand on Water Street in the tile construction building erected for them by Bert Parsons.  Facilities for curb service are available, as well as parking space within the enclosure housing the building, and tables and seats have been arranged under outdoor lights for the convenience of those who desire to be out in the open while partaking of refreshments. "  The cafe moved down the street from 611 to 307 Water Street in 1932, then four years later returned to the original location.

The building the cafe occupied was torn down a while back. By 1948 its old parking lot was replaced with a commercial building, and thus the reason the old sign is now inside.