Manuel Hardware Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Manuel Hardware Building in Lampasas County. Now settle in, because this old building has been around a good while, and it's got plenty to say. The year was 1884, and on property owned by a man named John R.

Guynes, somebody put up a building meant to last. Two stories tall, Italianate style, with a faux masonry plaster block façade, rough-cut limestone walls, round windows, a chamfered corner entry, and an ornate metal cornice sitting up top like a crown. Now if you know anything about Lampasas, you know that kind of craftsmanship doesn't go unnoticed.

One of the very first tenants to walk through that chamfered corner entry was the First National Bank. The bank, right there from the start. Then came the 1890s, and a pair of partners, Barnes and Higdon, took up residence in the building and made it their place of business for that decade.

When the century was drawing to a close, in 1899, W. F. Barnes, one half of that partnership, purchased the building outright from Guynes' estate.

He didn't hold it long. In 1900, a man named J. N.

Manuel came along and bought it. And that, folks, is where the story really digs in its heels. The Manuel Hardware Co. moved in and stayed for the next sixty years.

Sixty years of hardware, of commerce, of Lampasas folks coming through that corner door. The building just kept standing, those limestone walls holding every bit of that history inside them. By 2002, somebody decided it deserved a proper restoration, and that's exactly what it got.

One building, one corner, more than a century of stories. Not bad for a piece of property old John R. Guynes picked out back in 1884.

What the marker says

This 1884 Building was constructed on property owned by John R. Guynes, and the First National Bank was one of the first tenants. Partners Barnes and Higdon occupied the building during the 1890’s, and W.F. Barnes purchased the building from Guynes’ estate in 1899. J. N. Manuel purchased the building in 1900, and it housed the Manuel Hardware Co. for the next 60 years. The two-story Italianate Style commercial building features a faux masonry plaster block façade and rough-cut limestone walls, with round windows, a chamfered corner entry, and an ornate metal cornice. The building was restored in 2002. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2009