Fredericksburg in the Roaring Twenties. (original) (raw)

Fredericksburgwas just a small county seat town barely three generations removed from its founding by German immigrants when civic leaders first began to understand the importance of tourism.

In the early 1920s, during the administration of Gov. Pat Neff, the Legislature created a state park commission and funded Texas� first state park. Thinking that having a state park would be a good thing for Fredericksburg, community members raised money to buy a tract of land with the intention of donating it to the state for park development and operation.

�Fredericksburgat that time was beginning to come into the limelight as a mecca for tourists,� noted a booklet compiled by Fredericksburg Publishing Co. in 1928 called �Most Important Happenings in Gillespie County during 1927.�

While not the snappiest title to ever grace a publication, the booklet is a snapshot of the community at the height of the so-called Roaring Twenties, a decadent decade (at least compared with the one before it and the one that would follow) about to end with a calamitous stock market crash.

The first two-thirds of the booklet are devoted to a month-by-month summary of significant local news like silver wedding anniversaries, the rare accidental death, weather extremes, sports news, and other events. In May 1927, for instance, Walmar Hohmann got more than 10 pounds of wool from a yearling goat and sold it for 70 cents a pound and the Stein & Metzger Creamery began operation.

The rest of the publication is devoted to what amounts to a Chamber of Commerce report. In fact, the booklet notes that the chamber had been organized that year with 225 members and a total budget of $4,750.

According to the organization�s lists of goals, the chamber hoped Fredericksburgwould gain another railroad line (never happened), intended to help the volunteer �fire boys� find a new home, planned to push for better highways and �Get more publicity for our town and more tourists to visit Fredericksburg.�

To that end, the booklet devotes more than a page to what was called the Fredericksburg Tourist Park. While the park had been started under the assumption the state would take it over, when the legislature did not appropriate any money for it, �the people of Fredericksburgimmediately got busy and organized an association, giving each donor a share of stock for each $5 subscribed.� By the time �Most Important Happenings in Gillespie County� came out, the park had some 150 share holders and a board of directors.

Located 1.25 miles from town off Highway 9 (modern U.S. 87), the park covered 34 acres dotted with oaks and pecans. In addition, a man identified only as L. Vorauer of the Fredericksburg Nursery donated 30 cottonwood trees in February 1927. The booklet did not say what direction the park was from downtown, but reading between the lines, a good guess would be that it lay near the old fair grounds since Baron�s Creek ran through it.

Park amenities included �two wells, tank, shower baths, 12 neat and up-to-date camp cottages, with and without garages, a nine-hole golf course, concrete swimming pool, 60 by 110 foot caretaker office, electric lights, campsites with tables, benches, cooking grates, etc.� The swimming pool had been excavated in April 1927 and was open in time for summer.

The Fredericksburg Park and Golf Association kept two caretakers on the payroll that first summer, one to oversee the park, the other to operate the swimming pool. Visitors paid 50 cents a day for a campsite, 1foracabinand1 for a cabin and 1foracabinand1.25 for a cabin with a garage. Firewood, water, baths and electricity were furnished �without further charge.�

Those wishing to play golf had to pay a 25 cent green fee, though association members could get nine holes in at a rate based on the amount of shares they held. For the younger set, the park also had swings and a merry-go-round.

According to the 1928 booklet, the park had already been visited by thousands of people, �all of whom are unstinted in their praise for the way the park is kept and the accommodations which it offers.�

The park made it through the worst days of the Depression. An ad in the San Antonio Express in June 1935 notes it was under new management and offered �comfortable furnished cabins, swimming pool, fishing, dancing, restaurant, [and] beautiful scenery.� An article in the San Antonio Light two years later, a decade after the locally run facility had begun operation, noted the park then had 20 cabins, including some with screened sleeping porches. By then the park also had a refreshment stand that sold �beer, ice cream, tobacco, candles, etc.�

A web site with thousands of digitized, searchable back issues of U.S. newspapers shows no further mention of the Fredericksburg Tourist Park after 1937. And typing the words �Fredericksburg Tourist Park� into the world�s most powerful search engine produces nothing about the park. What an internet search does show is that today Fredericksburghas no shortage of amenities for tourists, including two nearby state parks.

�

Mike Cox - May 10, 2012 column
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