Old Boehm Store

Duane's take

The official marker's the one tellin' this tale, and I'm just Duane, passing it along. Now, before a town can really call itself a town, it needs a place where people can gather, do business, shake hands, and argue about the weather. In Lavaca County, that place was the Boehm Store, and the story of how it came to be is tied directly to one of those moments when a railroad shows up and a whole new world follows right behind it.

The year was 1887. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad was coming through, and with it came the founding of what folks called New Moulton. Brand new town, brand new opportunity.

And Edward Boehm, born in 1854, was not a man to let opportunity roll past him on those iron rails. He built a frame store that very same year, making it the first business in New Moulton. The first.

Before the dust had even settled on the new town's name. Now, a good store doesn't stay the same. It grows with the people it serves.

In 1897, Boehm enlarged it. The business was doing what a good business does, expanding to meet the need. But Edward Boehm wasn't finished.

In 1906, he rebuilt the whole thing, this time using native stone. Not wood. Stone.

The kind of decision a man makes when he intends for something to last. Edward Boehm passed in 1920, but the store didn't close. It didn't fade.

His sons, Vladike and Edward Jr., succeeded to ownership and kept the family name right there at the heart of New Moulton. Some buildings are just buildings. And some are the first thing a town ever had.

This was that.

What the marker says

This was site of first business in "New" Moulton, founded 1887 on advent of San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad. In the same year, Edward Boehm (1854-1920) built a frame store; enlarged it in 1897; and in 1906 rebuilt, using native stone. His sons Vladike and Edward, Jr., succeeded to ownership. 1971