The Badger Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it to you straight with a little color on the side. Somewhere on the Courthouse Square in Burnet, there stands a two-story limestone building that has been, at one time or another, just about everything a small Texas town could need. That's not an exaggeration.

That's just what the record shows. Pull up a chair, because this one covers some ground. The Badger Building, completed about 1883, was built for two men: local financier Dr.

W. H. Westfall, and Captain Brandt Badger, born in 1839, a Georgia native who had served in the Confederate Army from Texas during the Civil War.

Now that's a resume before the building even opens its doors. Captain Badger and his son Walter set up shop on the ground floor, running a wholesale and retail drugstore. The second floor was divided into five rooms and leased out as office space.

Practical men, building a practical building. Then, in 1885, Badger sold the business. But he wasn't done with the region, not by a long shot.

He later partnered with Adam R. Johnson, and together they helped establish the nearby town of Marble Falls, sitting fourteen miles to the south. For the latter part of the nineteenth century, the building settled into life as a hardware store, which is about as honest a use as limestone can ask for.

Then came 1903, and the newly formed Burnet National Bank moved in and made it home. That bank held on through the decades, through the turning of a century, through a World War, and then, the economic depression of the 1930s closed it down. The building, though, kept going.

The State Parks Board used it. The Burnet Rural Telephone Company ran its lines from there. The Farm Loan Association took a turn.

Doctors came through. Lawyers set up shop. Various businesses, the marker says, and you get the sense there were more stories in those walls than any one sign could hold.

From 1948 to 1959 it served as the Burnet Post Office, meaning for over a decade, every letter coming in and going out of that town passed through those old limestone walls. And then, in 1966, the building became home to the Youth and Community Center. A drugstore, a bank, a post office, a meeting place for the young.

Captain Badger built something in 1883 that Burnet just kept on needing.

What the marker says

Completed about 1883, this two-story limestone structure is representative of other commercial buildings located on the Courthouse Square in the 1880s. It was built for local financier Dr. W. H. Westfall and Captain Brandt Badger (b. 1839), a native of Georgia who had served in the Confederate Army from Texas during the Civil War. Badger and his son Walter operated a wholesale and retail drugstore on the ground floor. The second floor area, divided into five rooms, was leased for use as office space. Badger sold the business in 1885 and later, in partnership with Adam R. Johnson, helped establish the nearby town of Marble Falls (14 mi. S). For the latter part of the nineteenth century the structure housed a hardware store. In 1903 the newly formed Burnet National Bank was located here and remained at this site until it closed as a result of the economic depression of the 1930s. The Badger Building has also been used by the State Parks Board, the Burnet Rural Telephone Company, the Farm Loan Association, doctors, lawyers, and various businesses. From 1948 to 1959 it served as the Burnet Post Office. In 1966 the structure was occupied by the Youth and Community Center.