Jackson Warehouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture West Texas in the late 1870s. The cattle trails are dusty, the money is moving, and a man named T.

E. Jackson is paying close attention to both. Jackson was a prominent businessman out of Fort Griffin, fifteen miles north of Albany, and he had the kind of foresight that separates a man who builds something lasting from a man who just passes through.

So he built a warehouse. A solid, serious structure meant to anchor a general merchandise store right there in Albany. And anchor it did.

That building didn't just serve one generation of commerce. It served more than a hundred years of it. Photography studios set up inside those walls.

A cafe fed the folks who came to town on business or on the trail. The place took on a life of its own, wearing different hats across the decades. Then in 1887, the well-known department store Sanger Brothers took ownership of the Jackson Warehouse, and they held it until 1906.

Think about that. A prominent retail operation, in Albany, Texas, deep in cattle country. That tells you something about what Albany meant to the region.

This town was a supply point, a serious one, for the whole West Texas cattle industry. Ranchers and drovers and merchants all had reason to come through, and the Jackson Warehouse stood at the center of that commercial current. A building outlasts the businesses inside it, and it outlasts the men who build it, and if it's lucky, somebody eventually looks up and says: this matters.

The Texas Sesquicentennial, commemorating 1836 to 1986, made sure Albany's old warehouse got that recognition. T. E.

Jackson built for the long haul. Turns out, he was right to.

What the marker says

T. E. Jackson, a prominent businessman from Fort Griffin (15 miles north) built this structure in the late 1870s as a warehouse for a general merchandise store. For more than 100 years, it served the town of Albany as the site of various commercial business, including photography studios and a cafe. The well-known department store Sanger Brothers owned the Jackson Warehouse from 1887 until 1906. The Jackson Warehouse is important as a reminder of the commercial business that made Albany an important supply point for the West Texas cattle industry. Texas Sesquicentennial, 1836-1986.