Beer Office and Bottling Company

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Fayette County, there stands a building that has been, in its long life, a fine hotel, a beer office, a bottling operation, and a piece of living Texas stone. Let me walk you through it.

F. W. Grassmeyer, back between 1856 and 1859, commissioned German-Texan stonemasons to raise this place.

And they did not cut corners. The style was Italianate, commercial, the kind of building that announces itself. For decades it operated as a hotel, welcoming guests right up until 1893.

Then things shifted. A German immigrant by the name of Fritz Presun came along and purchased the structure, turning it into a regional sales office for large American breweries. A beer office, sitting in that solid Italianate shell the stonemasons built.

Now Fritz was not a man to stop at one good idea. In 1897 he added a bottling operation right there on the premises, and he gave it a name worth saying out loud: The Crown Soda Factory. When Fritz was done with his chapter, his son Henry took up the reins, kept the business going, and even branched out, selling oil and gas from the same address.

One building. Stonemasons, a hotelier, a German immigrant, a bottling crown, and eventually oil and gas. That old Italianate shell has held more enterprise than most blocks ever dream of.

What the marker says

F. W. Grassmeyer commissioned German-Texan stonemasons to construct this Italianate style commercial building between 1856 and 1859. The structure served as a hotel until 1893, when German immigrant Fritz Presun purchased it as a regional sales office for large American breweries. In 1897 Presun added a bottling operation, The Crown Soda Factory. His son Henry continued the business and also sold oil and gas here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1983