THE COTTONWOOD LIQUOR STORE IN TEXAS IS MORE THAN FAMOUS

Hugo and Schmeltzer. A turn-of-the-century liquor store, with Charles Hugo and Gustav Schmeltzer as its proprietors.

Now, the store, especially on the outside, had an old look to it. As a matter of fact, it was partly new and partly old construction. The recent additions, however, carefully copied the original structure. And the original structure of this liquor store was an honest-to-goodness Franciscan mission: Saint Anthony of Valero, it was called.

Somewhere along the way, because the mission was nestled in a grove of cottonwood trees, folks began referring to it simply as "the Cottonwood." Some said it was a shame that the old mission had been turned into a liquor store, and many folks were still wondering how it had happened in the first place. I'm going to tell you the rest of the story.

Saint Anthony's Mission was built between 1716 and 1718. As the 19th century was about to dawn, the place was abandoned. The structure fell slowly into ruin. Itinerants used it as a place to sleep. After a while, two or three families moved in and were calling it home. About this time, people in the area nicknamed it the Cottonwood.

Then the Catholic Church, which still owned the mission, got wise. Here was a building falling down, with all this land going to waste. Why not lease the property to somebody who might fix it up in the bargain? And that is just what the church did.

The local town folk objected at first. If the property was no longer being used for church purposes, they argued, why not have it declared public property? The town even took the matter to court, but the town lost. The Cottonwood passed through various hands after that; it was even a police station at one time.

But then, finally, the church grew weary of leasing the place and decided to sell it. In November of 1877, the church sold it for the sum of twenty thousand dollars. The buyer was a grocer named Granet—G-R-A-N-E-T. It was Mr. Granet who did the remodeling I told you about, but he did it while attempting to preserve the architectural integrity of the original Catholic mission.

Granet’s establishment turned out to be something of a general store. You could purchase groceries, you could also purchase cigars, imported China, and other things like that. When Granet died, Hugo and Schmeltzer bought the establishment. That's when it was turned specifically into a liquor store.

And that is the complete history of the Cottonwood. Almost. I say almost, for in 1905, a historical society purchased the property for the state of Texas for seventy-five thousand dollars. They purchased it because of something that happened there in 1836. Because a small band of Texas volunteers had fought there—had fought to the death against the Mexican Army.

You're ahead of me, aren't you? The old mission is a liquor store no more. It is now, and forever will be, a shrine. It is still called the Cottonwood, only in Spanish. You pronounce it The Alamo.

And now you know the rest of the story.