Pilarczyk Store

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Pilarczyk Store in Karnes County. Now settle in, because this one's got some age on it. We're talkin' about a building that went up in 1875, making it the second oldest store in Panna Maria.

Second oldest. Which means there's one older, and that alone tells you something about how long folks have been doing business in this corner of Texas. But we're here for this one today.

The Pilarczyk Store. Built in 1875, and still standing with its original rafters and floors intact. Go ahead and let that sink in.

The same wood holding up the roof, the same planks under your boots, all the way back to 1875. Now look at the back and sides of the building, and you'll see the stones mortared together. That lime used for the mortar, it wasn't ordered out of a catalog.

It was fired right there in home kilns. Somebody built a kiln, fired the lime themselves, and laid those stones. That's how this building got made.

Stone by stone, with material they produced with their own hands. Then in 1913, a man named Victor Pilarczyk bought the store, and the name stuck. And the place kept evolving.

Come 1919, the first gas pump was installed. The building that started in 1875 with lime fired in home kilns was now fueling automobiles. Same original rafters overhead, brand new era pulling up to the pump.

That's the Pilarczyk Store. Built tough, kept going, and still carrying the story in every board and stone.

What the marker says

Built 1875; second oldest store in Panna Maria; still has original rafters and floors. Lime for mortaring stones (visible on back and sides) was fired in home kilns. Store was bought by Victor Pilarczyk, 1913. First gas pump was installed 1919. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968