DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker in Flatonia tells it, here's the story as I've got it. Now, most towns out on the Texas plains are lucky to have one claim to fame. Flatonia went ahead and put two of them in the same building — and that building has been a lot of things to a lot of people ever since.
Dr. George Washington Allen, born in 1849 and gone by 1903, founded the Flatonia City Hospital in 1896. The building itself was completed the following year, raised up to serve the medical needs of a growing railroad town that needed tending to.
Solid construction, Romanesque Revival style — the kind of building that says it plans to stick around. And stick around it did. Now here's where the story takes a turn that only Texas can provide.
About 1910, the second floor — the same floor where sick folks had been laid up and looked after — became the site of the City's Opera House. One floor, two entirely different chapters of human experience. You have to appreciate that kind of range.
Then in 1914 the whole building was sold to a man named H. E. Olle, who leased it out for over sixty years.
Sixty years. Through whatever the twentieth century threw at Flatonia, that building kept finding new purposes. A drugstore.
A chicken hatchery. A skating rink. A cafe.
Every one of those a whole different world under the same Romanesque roof. Hospital. Opera House.
Chickens. And folks doing the two-step on skates. That building has seen more of Texas life than most places twice its size, and it's still standing there in Fayette County to prove it.
What the marker says
Dr. George Washington Allen (1849-1903) founded the Flatonia City Hospital in 1896, and this building was completed the following year to serve the medical needs of the growing railroad town. About 1910 the second floor hospital space became the site of the City's Opera House. In 1914 this Romanesque Revival building was sold to H. E. Olle, who leased it for over 60 years. Businesses located here have included a drugstore, chicken hatchery, skating rink, and cafe. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983