Domino Parlor

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. There's a stone building in Gillespie County that has lived a few different lives, and every one of them is worth a minute of your time. The original part of the structure, and we're talking stone, with a cellar underneath it and a vaulted ceiling arching overhead, went up in the early 1850s.

The land belonged to a man named John Schmidtzinsky, a pioneer settler in the area, and whoever he hired to lay those stones knew what they were doing, because that cellar is still there. At some point the place became a pharmacy. A pharmacy, in a building with a vaulted cellar.

There is something almost stately about that. Then came the early 1900s, and with them came H. R.

Richter. Richter set up his jewelry store right there in that same stone structure. But here's where it gets a little more interesting than your average jewelry counter: Richter also sold musical instruments.

And that front room, the same room where you might come in to buy a watch or a brooch, was used for concerts. So picture that. Music bouncing off stone walls that had already stood for half a century.

Meanwhile, Richter's own family was living in the rear section of the building. Home, store, concert hall, all under one roof. In more recent years, the building took another turn entirely, housing a cafe and a domino parlor.

From vaulted pharmacy cellar to jewelry and live music to dominoes on a cafe table. Some buildings just refuse to be only one thing.

What the marker says

The original part of this stone structure, containing a cellar with a vaulted ceiling, was built in the early 1850s on property owned by John Schmidtzinsky, a pioneer area settler. Once used as a pharmacy, it housed H. R. Richter's jewelry store in the early 1900s. Richter also sold musical instruments, and the front room was used for concerts. His family lived in the rear section of the building. In recent years a cafe and a domino parlor have been located here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980