Old Central Drugstore

The telephone exchange upstairs belonged to a fast-growing state system. Dallas installed the first common-battery switchboard in Texas, powering telephones from central batteries, on February 13, 1899, and by April 1906 the state had 102,443 telephones. Cleburne opened the first automatic exchange in Texas in 1903; a fire ended it in 1912. By 1946 some 349 companies besides Southwestern Bell ran 794 exchanges with 182,704 telephones. In 1955, the year after the exchange left this building, Texas had 2,398,521 telephones from 311 companies, the two-millionth was installed in the governor's office, and direct distance dialing began at Harlingen.

What the plaque says

Old Central Drugstore Alphons Walter (1866-1957), a Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker, had this 2-story building erected in 1905. He sold the property in 1909 to Robert G. Striegler (1874-1934), a noted Fredericksburg civic leader who operated the Central Drugstore on the lower floor. Despite later changes in proprietors, the drugstore occupied this site for over 70 years. the local telephone exchange leased the second floor for offices and a switchboard until 1954. The building has also housed doctors' offices and Herman Heyland's photographic business. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — steps away
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 0.2 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.
• Fort Martin Scott — 2.3 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Luckenbach — 9.5 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Market Square (Mark Platz) — steps away
• Gillespie County — steps away
• Bethany Lutheran Church — steps away
• Birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN — steps away