DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Austin Street Mercantile in Marion County. This old building went up before 1866, back when this city was riding high as the greatest inland port in the southwest. Let that sink in for a moment — the greatest inland port in the whole southwest.
Whatever was movin' through this part of Texas, it was movin' through here, and a building like this one was right in the thick of it. Under one roof it managed to house offices, a grocery, a saloon, and a drugstore, which tells you something about the priorities of the era — a little business, a little provisions, a little medicine, and somewhere in between all of that, something a bit stronger to get you through the afternoon. Now the building saw its share of commerce and characters, but the story that really sticks is this one.
In 1882, a woman named Sallie Harrison was given this very building as a gift upon her marriage to a man named C. A. Culberson.
A wedding gift. Not a brooch, not a parcel of land out back — the whole mercantile building on Austin Street. Sallie Harrison was counted among the famous owners of this place, and you can see why the name stuck.
As for C. A. Culberson, the man she married that year, well — he didn't exactly fade into the background either.
He went on to become governor, and then a United States Senator. So that building standing there on Austin Street? It was once a wedding gift, handed to a woman at the height of a city's glory days, in a town that called itself the greatest inland port in the southwest.
Some gifts you remember. Some buildings, too.
What the marker says
Building. Typical of city's heyday as greatest inland port in southwest. Erected before 1866. Housed offices, grocery, saloon, drugstore. A famous owner was Sallie Harrison, given this building (1882) on her marriage to C. A. Culberson, later to become governor and U. S. Senator. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970