Old Central Drugstore

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Old Central Drugstore in Gillespie County. Now settle in, because this building has lived more lives than most people you'll ever meet. It starts in 1905, when a Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker by the name of Alphons Walter had this two-story building erected right here in Fredericksburg.

Alphons Walter, born in 1866, knew how to build things meant to last. And last it did. Four years after he put it up, in 1909, he sold the property to a man named Robert G.

Striegler. Now Striegler, born in 1874, was what you'd call a noted Fredericksburg civic leader, and he set up the Central Drugstore on that lower floor. That name stuck, friends.

Proprietors came and went over the years, but the drugstore? It held its ground on this very site for over seventy years. Seventy years.

That's not a business, that's a landmark in motion. Meanwhile, up on the second floor, the local telephone exchange moved in, leasing that space for offices and a switchboard, and they kept at it all the way until 1954. So while folks downstairs were filling prescriptions, someone upstairs was patching calls through to half the county.

The building also made room for doctors' offices over the years, and for Herman Heyland's photographic business. One building, one corner of Fredericksburg, and more chapters than most places ever get. Robert G.

Striegler passed in 1934, and Alphons Walter, the Swiss watchmaker who started it all, lived all the way to 1957. He got to see what he built become something the whole town leaned on. Not bad for a jeweler with a good eye and a two-story plan.

What the marker says

Alphons Walter (1866-1957), a Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker, had this 2-story building erected in 1905. He sold the property in 1909 to Robert G. Striegler (1874-1934), a noted Fredericksburg civic leader who operated the Central Drugstore on the lower floor. Despite later changes in proprietors, the drugstore occupied this site for over 70 years. the local telephone exchange leased the second floor for offices and a switchboard until 1954. The building has also housed doctors' offices and Herman Heyland's photographic business.