Early Commercial Building

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Dublin, Texas has got buildings, and then it's got this building. The one we're talking about went up around 1880, constructed of wood by a man named Joseph E.

Bishop. And Bishop wasn't just anybody passing through. He was the son-in-law of A.

H. and Sarah Jane Dobkins, the very founders of Dublin. So you could say this building had roots before it had walls. Well, it had walls.

Wooden ones. But the story wasn't done yet. Come 1895, somebody looked at all that wood and decided this place deserved something more permanent, something dug out of the ground right there in the region.

They veneered the whole thing in native stone. Same building, new skin, and a whole lot more attitude. Then it got remodeled in 1943.

And again in 1965. This old structure has been reinventing itself longer than most towns have been standing. Now here's the part that really tells you something about a place.

The occupants this building has seen over the years read like a short history of everything a Texas town needs to survive and misbehave. Banks have operated inside these walls. Medical clinics.

A drugstore. A newspaper plant. Saloons, more than one by the sound of it.

And a dress shop. Under one roof, across the decades, you've got the money, the medicine, the gossip, the headache, the cure, and the outfit to wear to whatever comes next. Joseph E.

Bishop built something in 1880 that Dublin is still using. That's not just a building. That's a town holding on.

What the marker says

Constructed of wood about 1880 by Joseph E. Bishop, son-in-law of A. H. and Sarah Jane Dobkins, founders of Dublin. Veneered 1895 with native stone,and remodeled 1943, 1965. Colorful, important occupants have included banks, medical clinics, a drugstore, newspaper plant, saloons, and a dress shop. (1972)