Weyrich Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Weyrich Building in Kendall County. Now, not every building on a Texas main street has a story worth slowing down for, but this one just might. Let me set the scene.

The year is 1877. A man named Charles Weyrich, also known as Carl, has just relocated from Gillespie County, and he's got his eye on a lot right here in Boerne. He buys it.

Just like that. A man with a plan. Weyrich was a tinsmith by trade, and he didn't waste much time getting settled.

In 1878 he married Sophia Beyer, and right around that same time he commissioned this building. Limestone rubble, rectangular plan, a proper stone parapet up top, and those paired double doors with their raised hood-shaped lintels and keystones standing watch on the front facade. Somebody wanted that building to look like it meant business.

And it did. Weyrich ran his tinsmith operation out of this very spot until 1883, when he divided the lot and sold the building. Six years after buying it, he moved on.

What came next was a quiet kind of busy. A series of businesses moved through these limestone walls over the following thirty-seven years, most of them grocery stores. Folks keeping their shelves stocked, their neighbors fed.

Then the building shifted again, becoming at different times a residence, an office, and an art studio. One building, a whole procession of lives. And through all of it, those hood-shaped lintels haven't moved an inch.

The Weyrich Building stands today as one of the oldest commercial structures in Boerne, which means Carl Weyrich picked a pretty good lot back in 1877.

What the marker says

Charles (Carl) Weyrich bought this lot in 1877, shortly after relocating from Gillespie County. Weyrich established himself as a tinsmith and married Sophia Beyer in 1878, commissioning this building around the same time. Weyrich’s business remained here until he divided the lot and sold the building in 1883. A series of businesses, mostly grocery stores, operated here for the next 37 years. The property was later a residence, an office and an art studio. The rectangular-plan vernacular rubble limestone building is one of the oldest commercial structures in Boerne. It features a stone parapet and paired double doors with raised, hood-shaped stone lintels and keystones on the primary façade.