Site of First Livery Stable

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what stood on this very spot in Junction, Texas. Back in 1879, a man named John Allen put up what would become the busiest spot in early Junction: the first livery stable. And I mean busy.

This was the place you brought your ranch teams to be fed and housed when you rode into town. This was where you rented a horse and buggy if you needed one. And this, maybe most importantly, was where the men of Junction gathered to gossip and to trade.

You want to know what was happening in Kimble County? You didn't go to the courthouse. You went here.

Built by John Allen on this lot, though the story goes back a little further than 1879, because a public corral was already operating on this very ground as early as 1877. So the land had a purpose before the stable ever went up. By the time a man named T.

M. Hodges owned it, something was coming down the road that no livery stable could outrun. The automobile.

And sometime in the 1920s, that was that. The busiest spot in early Junction, outmoded just like the marker says, by progress rolling in on four rubber tires. Some things get replaced.

Some things get remembered. This one got both.

What the marker says

Busiest spot in early Junction. Fed and housed visiting ranch teams. Had horses and buggies for public hire. Men collected here to gossip, trade. Built 1879 by John Allen on this lot where public corral operated as early as 1877. Owned by T. M. Hodges when outmoded by autos in 1920s.