W. R. Reinstein Store - Main Street Historic District - Chappell Hill, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 30° 08.539 W 096° 15.435
14R E 764204 N 3337732
Constructed in 1878, the W. R. Reinstein Store in Chappell Hill, TX was ultimately annexed with the neighboring Chappell Hill Bank building and is one of the 26 "Contributing" buildings within its NRHP-designated Main Street Historic District.
Waymark Code: WMME3A
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/07/2014
Views: 5
Chappell Hill's NRHP Main Street Historic District is an area covering 36 buildings, most of them built between 1850 and 1915 and reflecting the many variations in architectural style within that period in history. For more information on this particular Historic District, please see the following waymark: (
visit link)
The founding of the town of Chappell Hill is contributed to Mary Hargrove Haller who purchased a 100-acre site in this part of Texas on February 2, 1847 and subsequently commissioned a survey and the plotting of town lots. Just three years later, Mary Haller and her husband Jacob began building a two-story frame house now known as the "Stagecoach Inn" at the northwest corner of the center of that new town.
The W. R. Reinstein Store, located on Main Street just a block South of the "Stagecoach Inn", was built 1878 on the site of an old fraternal lodge known as Sterling Hall, the meeting place for the Knights of Pythias in 1876. It was built by a German settler, W. Reinstein, who along with two other German settlers (Henry Schaer and P. Lesser) established businesses on Main Street and became the focal points of the town's business community.
The building was ultimately annexed with its neighboring (and very small) Chappell Hill State Bank building, which was established in 1907 and formerly Farmers State Bank, the first financial institution in town. Per that bank's Texas Historical Marker:
"Farmers State Bank [...], renamed Chappell Hill Bank in 1986, also acquired the 1878 W. R. Reinstein Store, a one-story, four-bay brick building with arched entry doors, a stepped parapet and decorative brick corbelling."
Per the official NRHP records, the W. R. Reinstein Store building is a:
"One-story, four-bay, masonry commercial building containing double French doors with narrow glass panels. Brick relieving arches span all four openings. There are no windows, except for a single one at rear. Cornice enhanced by decorative brick corbeling. Above cornice is stepped parapet with central panel. Curved corrugated, tin canopy appears in historic photograph dated ca. 1907, and may be original to the structure. Rear, double, wooden service entrance door. Stepped brick parapet wall at west end of south wall. Building has remained visually unaltered since its construction. Original site of two story wood-frame Sterling Hall. Cistern below floor at rear of structure. Building is still in original family."