Caspar Real Homestead

The small log cabin known as the "Little House"

This beautiful Victorian-era house, located on Lower Turtle Creek Road, is the Caspar Real homestead. Built by Caspar and Emilie Schreiner Real in the 1870s, it is one of the oldest homes in Kerr County and has been continuously owned and occupied by the same family. The fifth generation of Reals now own and live in it. Their grandchildren represent the seventh generation to enjoy this house.

The small barn between the house and garage encloses a log cabin thought to be the older of the two cabins.

Born near Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1824, Caspar Real came to Texas from Alsace in 1848, landing at Indianola. From there he moved to Bexar County and worked as a carpenter, then became a rancher, raising sheep and cattle along Martinez Creek. He had heard of the springs and creeks of the Hill Country, so when a severe drought arrived in 1857 he moved his cattle and sheep up the Guadalupe and settled by a spring on Turtle Creek. It is said he brought the first sheep to Kerr County and some of the first Hereford cattle.

There are two log cabins on the property, one of which is thought to be the first home of Caspar and Emilie before they built this two-story home. Both cabins are still in use today, one as a guest house, the other as a storage building. Family tradition says the one being used as a storage building was first used by the men who tended the livestock and is most likely the oldest of the three buildings.

Caspar Real served in several public offices, including county treasurer 1864-65, tax assessor and collector 1866-69, cattle inspector 1871-72, sheep inspector 1879, county commissioner 1883-85. He died in 1893. Emilie followed in 1918. They are buried together in the family cemetery not far from the home they built.

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If you have a home more than 50 years old that you would like me to  research and write about, please contact me at dgaudier@gmail.com  This address is only for blog mail and is checked infrequently.

605 Earl Garrett Street

This Victorian at 605 Earl Garrett Street was erected by Banks B. Lowrance, a native of Mississippi.  I have been told this house was built in the 1890s, however Lowrance and his wife Linton did not purchase the land from I. N. Denton until May 4, 1904. They paid $45, a price that indicates a vacant lot. The house was probably built shortly after.

Banks Lowrance was a paperhanger.  On March 8, 1902, an ad ran in the Kerrville Mountain Sun "Lowrance and Goodwin.  Crackerjack Painters and Paperhangers.  Shop next to Dr. Palmer's Office." (Dr. Palmer's office was in the 600 block of Water Street.)
On July 26, 1902,  the newspaper reported "Lowrance & Goodwin left this week for the Shell Lowrance ranch on the Divide, where they will be engaged for the next two weeks painting Mr. Lowrance's house."

Politically active, Lowrance served as a city alderman 1903-1905. In 1920 he and Ben Smith were appointed judges for the municipal elections, then in 1926 he lost to Frank Moore in the race for Constable, County Precinct No. 1. That appears to have been his last foray into local politics.

His wife Mabel Linton Lowrance died of pneumonia died in 1932.
Her obituary from the February 4, 1932, Mountain Sun:

Pneumonia Fatal to Mrs. Banks Lowrance.
Following a brief illness of pneumonia, Mrs. Mable Linton Lowrance, 53, wife of Banks Lowrance, died Monday at the family home on Earl Garrett Street.
Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon from the chapel of Smith Funeral Home, with Rev. Clift M. Epps, pastor of the First Methodist Church, officiating.  Burial was in Glen Rest Cemetery.
... Members of Miss Hardie Avera's Sunday School class served as flower girls.
... Mrs. Lowrance was a native of Kentucky, where she was born November 20, 1878; but she had lived in Kerrville much of her life.  ...
Surviving are her husband, Banks Lowrance; her mother, Mrs. Nyal Estell Davis; a son, Howard Lowrance; two daughters, Mrs. Elvie Morgan and Miss Amie Lee Lowrance; two sisters, three brothers.

I've never heard of flower girls at a funeral.  Does anyone know what they did?

In 1934 "Miss Amy B. Lowrance " was in a car wreck.  The Mountain Sun reported it this way:

Girl Victim of Wreck Improving.  Miss Amy B Lowrance, 19, daughter of B. B. Lowrance, Wednesday was reported to be making satisfactory improvement from injuries received in an automobile collision which occurred Wednesday night of last week.
Miss Lowrance, who is at the family home on Earl Garrett Street, suffered a compound fracture of the pelvic bone.  ... expected to recover.  [She was thrown from the car when it was hit from the rear.]  On E. Water Street near the Lucas Cafe.

Five year earlier her father had been struck by an automobile at the corner of Main and Earl Garrett, knocked down and badly bruised.  He was also taken to Secor Hospital, but his injuries were not as severe as his daughter's.

Banks Lowrance died in 1941 and is buried at Glen Rest.
From the January 9, 1941, Kerrville Times: 

Rites for B. B. Lowrance, 70, Held Friday.
Attack of Pneumonia Is Fatal to Pioneer Man Who Had Lived Here 53 Years. 

Mr. Lowrance passed away on New Year's Day at 5 p.m. at the family residence, 605 Earl Garrett Street.  He had been in failing health for several months and was stricken with pneumonia, resulting in his death within a few hours.

Funeral rites for Banks B. Lowrance, 70, a resident of this city for the past 53 years, were held Friday afternoon from the Smith Funeral Home chapel with Rev. J. R. Hilliard, pastor of the First Methodist Church, officiating.  Burial was in Glen Rest Cemetery.

Born April 17, 1870, at Burnsville, Miss., Mr. Lowrance, as a youth of 17, moved with his parents to Kerrville in 1887.  He grew to manhood in the city and until recent years followed his trade as a painter and paperhanger.  Soon after Kerrville was incorporated he served one term as an alderman in the '90's.  [correction: 1903-1905]
While he was of a retiring disposition, Mr. Lowrance took an interest in public affairs and was an advocate of community advancement.  ...
Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Elvie Morgan and Miss Amy Lee Lowrance, and one son, Howard Lowrance, all of Kerrville.  The grandchildren also survive.

For a bit of local color, B. B. Lowrance is mentioned in a March 12, 1936,  Kerrville Times story.
The first water delivery in Kerrville was water hauled from the river to individual water barrels all over the city.

"When housewives were low on their supply, they would hang out a red flag as a signal for more water. Wash day was 'Trades Day' to the water haulers, and businesslike and civic-minded, they did everything in their power to sponsor cleanliness in the community.  B. B. Lowrance, an old-timer here who remembers the conditions, says that red flags hung out by housewives for rush orders looked more like a small-pox epidemic or a modern communist uprising than wash day."

B. B. Lowrance's heirs transferred the property to A. P. Allison "assuming all taxes" in 1941. Allison made repairs to the residence, rented it to Cecil Roe for a while, then sold it to Ruby Phillips in December 1943 for $2,000.  
She later sold it to Delia Whitehouse, who owned it until 1954. 
It has had a series of owners since and since 1992 has had commercial use, most recently as a bed and breakfast.

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If you have a house more than 50 years old that you would like me to research, please contact me at dgaudier at gmail dot com. 

Meta Paul's Boarding House

This Victorian house on Bushwhack Creek in the Upper Turtle Creek community originally was at 941 Main Street in Kerrville, about where the Catholic school gym parking lot is today.
Built about 1890 for Green and Mollie Coleman, it was moved in 1985 to a rural property where it remains today.   We believe the  black and white photo below, which shows the house in rear view, was taken just before the Armistice Day parade in 1919. 

Here is the house today from a similar view.

This house locally is known as Meta Paul's Boarding House.
Mrs. Paul was the daughter of Henry Henke.  In 1922 her huband, Elo Wied, an auto mechanic in Gonzales, died when a car he was working on fell on him.  At the age of 27 she was now a widow with three young children to support somehow.  She moved back to Kerrville where her father bought the house next door and helped her set up a boarding house.  She later married Henry Paul, and while the marriage ended in divorce in a few years, she was ever after known as Meta Paul.
She was well-known for her excellent cooking, especially her cream puffs. There were wait lists for her two lunch seatings every day.

This house is one of the few remaining houses in Kerr County with any connection to Admiral Chester Nimitz.  Nimitz, who grew up in Kerrville, was first cousin to Meta Paul and visited this house.

This house is my home.  We feel honored to be the caretakers of this very special house.

408 Water Street

ca 1988, Kerr County Historical Commission collection

THIS POST HAS BEEN MODIFIED DUE TO NEW INFORMATION.
This house at 408 Water Street was surveyed for the Texas Historical Commission in 1973.  At that time it was described as a "highly ornate Carpenter Gothic of the Late Victorian era." It was said to the  "first frame ell-shaped Victorian cottage. " The description also indicates there was a rear addition, put on before 1973.  The house was remodeled in September 1983.

I had speculated that this house may have been moved to this lot. My reasoning for why is below.

Thanks to Mary Lee Jobes Stewart, I have learned that this house was indeed moved. Her mother Alice Domingues Jobes said that the house was originally on the Louis Schreiner property (where the Butt-Holdsworth library is now).  Mrs. Jobes remembered that the house was cut in two and part moved to this lot.  After looking at Sanborn maps, I now know that it was next to the long building at 433 Water Street that is sometimes referred to at the old Schreiner bowling alley.  That building was moved to 415 Clay in 201l, is now called the Dietert Mercantile, and is once again a retail building.

Read about it here:http://www.depotsquarekerrville.com/index.php/history/depot-square-history

This house appears on the 1904 Sanborn map as a residential property.  In front of it was the old Dietert Mercantile building. The house and store building are at the foot of Quinlan Street. Sometime around 1916 the house was moved to 408 Water Street  so that a new addition could be put on the back of the Dietert Mercantile building.  At this time the mercantile building became the Schreiner's private bowling alley and a rock fireplace was added.

I am still not sure of the age of this house, but it predates 1904, and is possibly as old as the 1884 Dietert Mercantile building. 

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Here is my reasoning for why I thought this house had been moved here:
In 1915 Charles Schreiner sold the lot this house sits on, and the adjoining one, to Dr. William Lee Secor, wife Hattie Secor, and W. L. Council for $550 (an average of $275 each). This price suggests these were vacant lots.
In 1920 Council and the Secors sold just the one lot where this house is to Dr. J. D. Jackson for $3000.  The most reasonable explanation for the large increase in price is that a building now sat on the lot.  Wm. L. Council was a builder and could have erected this building, however he had a distinctive style, one quite different from this house. In addition, by 1915 or so this Victorian style was fading in popularity.
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The house has been a commercial property since 1984.

W. G. Garrett, Jr. House

Described as a "five-room cottage at the junction of Broadway and Main Street", this late Victorian house at 1105 E. Main Street, was erected in 1912 for Mary and William G. Garrett, Jr. The name of the contractor, as reported in the San Antonio Express for Feb. 12, 1912, was W. L. Council, inc.
They were married June 9, 1912 and owned this home for the rest of their lives.  W. G. Garrett, Jr. died in 1965 and Mary in 1981. They are buried at Glen Rest Cemetery.
William G. Garrett, Jr. was a brother of Earl Garrett for whom the street is named.

Today it houses BCFS Health and Human Services.

UPDATE:  On January 22, 2016, this home was demolished by the Cailloux Foundation who were the new owners.

Comparette House

I happened to be volunteering today at the Kerr County History Center when a lady came in very distressed about the condition of this beautiful house.  I decided to blog about it.  I too am worried about it.
The Comparette House is, since 1979,  a Recorded Texas Landmark, one of the earliest such in Kerr County.  It currently sits vacant.  Our visitor reported it is being vandalized.

Built in 1890 by S. W. and Laura Smith, this two-story Victorian at 1001 Jefferson Street was later the home of D. H. Comparette, organizer and manager of the Kerrville Telephone Company.  The Comparette family owned it from 1905 to 1977.  More recently it was"Joe's Jefferson Street Cafe" and now stands vacant.  It was rezoned in 2011 and has been proposed for conversion to apartments. The property is now for sale. It sits on the edge of both commercial and residential areas.  This lovely house is a very grand house by Kerrville standards.  It features fish-scale siding, Queen Anne porches, decorative facade, and gables.  I hope someone--soon--will come along who will take it on and restore it.

1988- Kerr County Historical Commission collection