Wahrmund Millinery, Moellendorf-Dietz Bakery

Duane's take

Here's the marker's own account, the way I tell it on the road through Gillespie County. Now, some buildings just sit there. And then there are buildings that seem to reinvent themselves every generation, like they can't quite make up their mind what they want to be when they grow up.

This one goes back to about 1876, when it went up as a combination residence and business for the family of George Wahrmund. Right there in the front rooms, his wife Elise ran a millinery and dressmaking shop. You want a hat, you want a fine dress, you came to Elise Wahrmund.

The family lived in the same walls where the customers browsed. That's a certain kind of life, no boundary between home and work, the shop bell and the supper table sharing the same air. Then the Wahrmunds pass out of the story, and in come Mr. and Mrs.

James T. Clark. From 1901 to 1913, they turned the whole place into a boarding house.

Travelers, workers, folks passing through Gillespie County, they all found a bed and a roof under that roof. Twelve years the Clarks ran it, and then that chapter closed too. Now here's where the building really settles into itself.

Starting in 1924, somebody fired up a bakery inside those old walls, and that bakery, under one name or another, under one set of hands or another, would keep on running all the way to 1966. First it was Martin Schult working the ovens. Then William Moellendorf took over.

Then Theodore and Edgar Dietz carried it forward. Four decades of bread and baking in a building that started out selling hats. Erected about 1876, still standing, still telling its story.

Some buildings, I'm telling you, have got more lives than most people ever get.

What the marker says

Erected about 1876, this building was a combination residence and business for the family of George Wahrmund, whose wife Elise had a millinery and dressmaking shop in the front rooms. Mr. and Mrs. James T. clark, 1901-1913 owners, ran a boarding house here. From 1924 to 1966, the structure housed a bakery, operated in succession by Martin Schult, William Moellendorf, and Theodore and Edgar Dietz. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978