J. P. Schneider Store

Duane's take

Now, I'll tell you this the way the marker tells it — straight from the official record, with a little room to breathe. This is the story of the J. P.

Schneider Store, right here in Travis County. A young man, a family debt, and a building that refused to quit. Pull up a chair.

Jacob Peter Schneider — Jake, to anyone who knew him — was born in 1852, and by the time the mid-1860s rolled around, not long after the Civil War had finally worn itself out, he was already earning his keep. Two jobs, if you can picture it: working the floor of William Brueggerhoff's general mercantile store, and part-time as a legislative page down at the Capitol. The boy was learning the trade from both ends — goods and governance.

Then, around 1870, something interesting happened. Jake and his mother, Margarita Schneider, opened their own store on the corner across the street — north of where Jake had been working all those years. Now here's a detail worth savoring: Brueggerhoff himself helped stock that new enterprise.

Why? In payment of a debt. The man Jake had learned from turned around and gave the new competition its first inventory.

You can't write that better than it actually happened. Business moved fast. By 1873, Schneider built this two-story brick structure — the one that still carries the family name — and converted that earlier building into storage space.

They called it the flour house. The Schneider residence sat across the street as well. So the family lived, worked, and stored their flour all within shouting distance of each other.

Now, if you're wondering what a well-stocked Schneider store looked like from the inside — let your imagination go downward first. The basement held meats, vats of wine and whiskey, and molding cheeses. The upper two stories were packed with large stocks of food and clothing.

This was not a modest operation. And Jake wasn't done. He also ran a wagon yard south and west of the store, complete with two camp houses for travelers passing through.

A man could roll into town with his wagon, water his horses, sleep under a roof, and buy his supplies all within the same general orbit. That's a whole little economy Jake had built. After Schneider's death — he lived until 1925 — the store passed into the hands of his son, F.

Ralph Schneider. F. Ralph kept the lights on, and when prohibition was repealed in 1933, he added a saloon in the rear of the building.

A practical man reading the times. Business operations ceased in 1935, and since then the structure has housed electrical and lumber companies, and at some point an art gallery. The building has been damaged twice by fire in recent years.

And still — still — it is owned by the Schneider family. A young man worked a counter and ran errands for the legislature. He and his mother opened a store with a rival's debt as their seed money.

They built in brick, stocked the basement with wine and cheese, and kept two camp houses lit for strangers passing through. That family has held on to that building through saloons and fire and a century and a half of Texas weather. Some things, it turns out, are harder to let go of than they look.

What the marker says

In the mid-1860s, shortly after the Civil War, Jacob Peter "Jake" Schneider (1852-1925) began working in William Brueggerhoff's general mercantile store, and part-time as a legislative page in the Capitol. About 1870, he and his mother, Margarita Schneider, opened a store on the corner across the street (north). Brueggerfhoff helped stock the enterprise in payment of a debt. In 1873, as the business expanded, and Schneider built this two-story brick structure, and converted the older building into storage space, called the "flour house". The Schneider residence was also across the street. The basement of the Schneider store contained meats, vats of wine and whiskey, and molding cheeses, and the upper two stories housed large stocks of food and clothing. Schneider also operated a wagon yard south and west of the store, complete with two camp houses for travelers. After Schneider's death the store was managed by a son F. Ralph Schneider, who added a saloon in the rear of the building after the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Business operations ceased in 1935, and the structure has since housed electrical and lumber companies, and as art gallery. It has been damaged twice by fire in recent years, and is still owned by the Schneider family. (1974)