Partrick Building

Duane's take

Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about the Partrick Building in Kinney County. In 1885, a man named Dr. William Partrick looked at a piece of ground in this corner of Texas and decided one building wasn't going to cut it.

He commissioned adjoining commercial spaces right here at this site, and he wasn't thinking small. The single-story section got a drug store. The two-story section got a dry goods store and a hotel.

Two stories, two businesses, one doctor running the whole show. Now if that sounds like a man who liked to keep busy, just wait. Because out back, the operation kept growing.

Later outbuildings included a beer vault, a windmill, an elevated tank, and a bake oven. A beer vault. In the same complex as the drug store.

Dr. Partrick apparently understood something about the full spectrum of human needs. Now, the building itself tells its own story even before you learn a single name or date.

Local stonemasons cut and laid rough-cut ashlar limestone blocks, then finished the lintels and windowsills in dressed limestone. That kind of craft doesn't happen by accident. It happens because somebody knew exactly what they were doing, and the building has been standing here long enough to prove it.

Dr. Partrick held onto the property until 1913, when he sold it to R. Stratton and Company.

The building moved into new hands, but it kept standing. Kept weathering. Kept taking its knocks from the floodwaters that came through this part of the country.

By the 1950s, the original metal balcony had given way to a suspended wooden awning, and a stabilizing concrete veneer had been laid at the base to address that recurring flood damage. Changes made not out of fashion, but out of necessity. That limestone holds the memory of every hand that shaped it, every season that tested it, and every flood that tried its patience.

And it's still here.

What the marker says

In 1885 Dr. William Partrick commissioned adjoining commercial spaces at this site, operating a drug store in the single story and a dry goods store and hotel in the two-story section. Later outbuildings included a beer vault, windmill, elevated tank and bake oven. Dr. Partrick sold the property to R. Stratton & Co. in 1913. The Partrick Building exhibits the skill of local stonemasons in rough-cut ashlar limestone blocks and finished limestone lintels and windowsills. By the 1950s, a suspended wooden awning replaced the original metal balcony and a stabilizing concrete veneer at the base addressed recurring flood damage.