Why isn't the Courthouse the center of downtown Kerrville?

In most county seats in Texas and elsewhere, the courthouse is at the heart of the commercial district.  In many of these towns the courthouse sits in a green square and is surrounded on four sides by commercial and retail buildings. Generally, the citizens built a courthouse and businesses grew around it. Not so Kerrville. When you look at old city maps, you'll see that the county courthouse seems to sit on the edge of downtown. The greatest concentration of businesses is within one block of the Schreiner store. I've been pondering why this might be.  I was a bit slow figuring this out, but the answer is that Kerrville grew up around the Schreiner store. Charles Schreiner owned much of the land downtown and erected commercial buildings on many of the surrounding lots which he then rented out. This shrewd maneuver meant that virtually all those with business downtown had to pass by his store.  Others then erected their own business buildings nearby, drawing more people to this small area.  For years the principal business street was Water Street, where the Schreiner store is located, rather than Main Street where the courthouse is.  This Sanborn map of Kerrville in 1916 shows this clearly. The commercial development then was concentrated along Mountain Street (now known as Earl Garrett) and Water Street.  Even though today there are commercial properties surrounding the courthouse, the feeling is of parking lots on three sides and a row of professional offices on the remaining side. In all these years,there have been very few retail businesses in any of the buildings or lots facing the courthouse.  There were few a century ago and few today. Charles Schreiner's influence in how Kerrville developed continues today.