DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most folks walk down Guadalupe Street in Austin without giving a second thought to what might be sitting right under their feet — but hold on, because there's a story down there worth knowing. It starts with a man named Jean Schneider, who around 1860 set his sights on the northwest corner of Guadalupe and Live Oak streets — that's what they'd later call 2nd Street — and started building.
He had plans. Big ones. A brewery, if you can picture it, rising up right there on that corner.
Jean even built a stone vault as part of the foundation, solid as ambition itself. But 1862 came, and Jean Schneider died, and that brewery never opened. Just like that, the dream stopped at the foundation.
Now here's where the story takes a turn instead of an ending. Jean's widow, Margarita, and his son, Jacob Peter, weren't ready to let that corner sit idle. Around 1870, they opened a store at that same location — the same ground Jean had prepared — and that stone vault he'd laid into the foundation?
They put it to work for storage, exactly as it stood. The Schneiders weren't finished yet. In 1873, they built a brand new store right across the street.
The old building got itself a new calling too — folks started knowing it as the Flour House, used for storage. And then, sometime after that, somebody had the notion to dig a tunnel right under 2nd Street, connecting the two Schneider buildings together beneath the road. Two buildings, one family, one tunnel threading between them under the stone and soil of Austin.
Now the original Schneider store is gone. Time took that one. But that underground vault — the one Jean Schneider built before the Civil War, before he ever got to open so much as a single barrel of beer — that vault is still there.
Sitting under the street. Quiet, patient, and stubborn as old stone tends to be.
What the marker says
Jean Schneider built a structure at the northwest corner of Guadalupe and Live Oak (later 2nd) streets circa 1860, with the intention of establishing a brewery. His death in 1862 prevented the opening of the business. Jean’s son, Jacob Peter, and his widow, Margarita, opened a store circa 1870 at the same location, and a stone “vault” built by Jean as part of the foundation was used for storage. The Schneider’s built a new store across the street in 1873, and the old store became known as the “Flour House” and was used for storage. A tunnel was later built under 2nd Street, connecting the two buildings. Although the original Schneider store no longer exists, the underground “Vault” remains. (2009)