Albert Lee Patton Building

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Albert Lee Patton Building in Fredericksburg, Gillespie County. Now, Albert Lee Patton was a Missouri man, born in 1851, and he came up learning the tinsmith's trade. That's a precise kind of work, tinsmithing.

Patient. Exacting. And somewhere in the early 1870s, this young man pointed himself toward Texas and landed in Fredericksburg.

He made his way. Built himself a general mercantile and hardware store. And then, in 1897, he did something that still stands today.

He constructed a two-story building right there adjacent to the east side of that store, native limestone, the way Fredericksburg builders knew how to do it. Solid as the hill country itself. Now here's the part that tells you something about the man.

The ground floor, he put to work for the community. The Citizens Bank took up residence there, serving folks through the years, all the way until it closed in 1932. That's a long run.

Depression-era closings claimed a lot of banks, and this one was no exception. But up on the second floor, that was home. Albert Lee Patton, his wife Emma, born a Wahrmund, and their five children lived up above all that commerce and banking activity, right in the middle of town life.

Patton lived until 1934. He'd come a long way from Missouri, trained his hands on tin, and left Fredericksburg a building made of limestone that's still standing and still worth marking. Not bad for a tinsmith.

What the marker says

Missouri native Albert Lee Patton (1851-1934), trained as a tinsmith, moved to Fredericksburg in the early 1870s. In 1897 he constructed this two-story native limestone building adjacent to the east side of his general mercantile and hardware store. The ground floor housed the Citizens Bank until it closed in 1932 and the second floor area was used as a residence by Patton, his wife Emma (Wahrmund), and their five children. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980