O'Neil Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it along to you straight. Now, there's a certain kind of story where the most interesting character isn't a person at all. It's a brick.

Stick with me. Back in 1893, a contractor by the name of J.A. White was hired to build the first Collingsworth County Courthouse.

He built it right, and he built it out of locally-made bricks. But when the work was done, J.A. White had himself a surplus.

Extra bricks, just sitting there. So he did what any sensible man would do. He used them.

Right there in Wellington, he put up a store, the first brick commercial building the town had ever seen. Same bricks, second life. He sold that building in 1897 to a man named E.T.

O'Neil, born in 1857, and O'Neil ran a general store out of it. Now, O'Neil's years were 1857 to 1899, so his time with that building was brief. But the building kept right on going.

A meat market moved through. Then a music store. Then a drugstore.

Then several cafes, one after another, each one filling those brick walls with whatever the town needed at the time. Meanwhile, the courthouse those bricks originally came from, that first Collingsworth County Courthouse, it was razed in 1931. Gone.

But the bricks J.A. White had set aside, the ones he'd turned into this little store on the main street of Wellington, those were still standing. Still are.

In 1965, O'Neil's heirs sold the building to Cecil Browning. So the next time you pass a brick wall and don't give it a second glance, consider this: sometimes the leftover pieces outlast the whole.

What the marker says

Bricks visible in the facade of this structure were left over from construction of the first Collingsworth County Courthouse in 1893. Contractor, J.A. White built the courthouse of locally-made bricks and then, with the extra materials, erected this store, the first brick commercial building in Wellington. He sold it in 1897 to E.T. O'Neil(1857-99), who ran a general store here. The space was later rented by a meat market, music store, drugstore, and several cafes. The courthouse was razed in 1931, but the old bricks survive in this structure, sold by O'Neil's heirs in 1965 to Cecil Browning. (1975) Incise on back: Sponsored by Zoe O'Neil Small (Mrs. Clinton C. Small, Sr.)