Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel - Spring, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Locally known as the "Wunsche Bros. Café & Saloon" for the last several decades until 2015 (when a fire caused significant indoor smoke damage, and the owners decided to put the building up for sale), the old 1902 "Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel" was an icon and tourist mecca for visitors to Old Town Spring, a small historic district with over 150 shops, restaurants, and art galleries located within the city of Spring, Texas (just north of Houston). The building remained has unoccupied since the fire, but as of March 2017 new owners have agreed to purchase the site and re-open the cafe in the next coming months -- luckily keeping it all in the same historical architecture and decor: (visit link)

A full description of this 1902 structure and its history is truly best described by its original NRHP nomination form (available as a PDF download on the Texas Historical Commission's Atlas website). It states:

The Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel is a simple, two-story, weather-boarded edifice. The building represents a genre of vernacular commercial buildings extant in the western U.S. in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because of their susceptibility to fire, modernization, and other hazards, relatively few buildings of this type remain intact. The present structure has been carefully rehabilitated and adapted for use as a saloon and cafe.

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A rectangular, wooden-frame building on brick piers, the saloon is three bays wide and four deep. Sheet metal covers the gable roof of the main structure, as well as the shed roof which extends over the two-story gallery. Historic photos indicate that the roof was originally shingled. Simple, chamfered, square posts support the porch, while a wooden balustrade encloses the second-floor gallery. All walls are covered with clapboard siding.

The gable end on the main facade is broken by a projecting, rectangular, false front used for the main business sign. The gable peak projects above the false front, creating the effect of a pediment. Windows have double-hung wooden sashes with four-over-four lights on the second floor, and generally two-over-two lights on the first floor except for a fixed, four-pane window in the east bay of the ground floor front. The lower front window originally had a single wooden shutter. This window originally was like most other double-hung windows of the builidng, but was enlarged around 1920. There is a double door with overhead transom on the first-floor front, with a single door above.

The second floor of the east, side, elevation is characterized by four single windows having four-over-four lights. The first floor is similar, but has a double door with transom in lieu of the two frontmost windows; the southernmost window was apparently added at a later date. The west elevation also has four windows on each floor, although the rear first-story bay is occupied by a single door and adjacent small window covered by a recently added shed-type porch roof.

A simple, one-story, wooden addition with a flat roof and balustrade has been built onto the rear of the building for use as kitchen and toilets. It is deemed noncontributing. The addition's principal architectural features consist of a projecting double-window bay, each window of which has four-over-four lights, and two eight-light windows on its west wall. A wooden balustrade surmounts the addition, whose roof is reached by an exterior, metal staircase with landing. There is also a new, small, covered entranceway on the west side of the original part of the building. These additions do not detract excessively from the architectural or visual harmony of the saloon.

Exterior colors were matched to original paint found on the west entrance door of the first-floor front porch, and are light green with dark-green trim. The painted sign which is alleged to have been executed in the early 1900s by an artist from a traveling circus, has been approximated from a period photograph.

The first-floor interior consists of a large front room with barroom counters on the south and west sides, the remainder of the space being filled with tables. Towards the rear, partition walls were added over the years to accommodate an added kitchen and rest rooms. The original interior stairwell has been retained on the west wall, but the partition which separated the stairs from the main room has been removed. The opening up of this space has not detracted from the building's visual integrity.

Interior walls are simply sheathed in horizontal, flat, planed planks, and the first-floor walls retain their original paint. The second floor mainly preserves its original configuration of rooms for boarders flanking a central hallway with a doorway at each end. Doorways into the boarding rooms have transoms and original screen doors. Three of the upstairs rooms have been combined for a banquet room, although portions of the original walls remain in place.

In the recent renovation, millwork for the bars on the first floor was executed with old heart pine. Floors were left in their unfinished state. Windows were reworked utilizing the original sashes, and most of the exterior siding was preserved. The building was also raised slightly. Clearly, an effort was made to retain the integrity and architectural simplicity of the structure.

The building is sited on a corner lot of approximately one-fourth acre, and is located across from the railroad tracks. There are no outbuildings on the lot, and landscaping is minimal except for a few large shade trees and planters to the west in a patio area with picnic tables for outdoor dining.

The Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel is now one of the oldest extant commercial structures in the Spring community. It survives on its original site. Erected by one of Spring's most distinguished pioneering families, the Wunsches, the building has served as a central gathering place since 1902. its simple architectural elements, once common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, now portray the pioneering spirit that helped develop the state. The current owner has renovated the structure for use as a restaurant and bar, and the saloon has become a focal point once again for this small community, which is some 25 miles north of Houston.

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Carl Wunsche and his family immigrated to Texas from the Kingdom of Saxony ca. 1846, and settled in Spring where there were already a number of other Germans. Wunsche is listed in the 1950 U.S. Census as a "farmer." With the growth of the town and area, the family began a gin and gristmill operation, and eventually opened a sawmill. The population of Spring grew with the construction of Houston and the Great Northern Railroad (later named the I. and G.N., or International and Great Northern) from Houston to Spring in 1971. By 1902, with the addition of the Fort Worth and Brazos Valley line, Spring had become a major switchyard facility with 14 track yards and a roundhouse.

In 1902, Wunsche's family members erected the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel to meet the increased need for accomodations for railroad employees. The Saloon, according to oral interviews with William (Willie) Wunsche, Jr., son of one of the builders, was erected in two months and utilized heart pine lumber from a local mill. The sign, which has been carefully replicated by the current owner, is said to have been painted by an artist with a traveling circus for $25.

By 1910 the population of Spring had swollen to 1,200, and an opera house and a number of hotels and saloons catered to railroad employees. In 1923, however, the railroad (now the Missouri Pacific) moved the roundhouse from Spring to Houston, and the decline of Spring as a bustling railroad terminus began.

Over the years the Wunsche family contributed enormously to the development of Spring. In the 1850s and 1860s, Charles Wunsche amassed over 3,000 acres of local land. The site of the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel was obtained by Charles Wunsche in 1862 as part of a 91-acre tract purchased for $80 from the assignee of Wiley Smith. Mr. Smith had acquired a patent for this land from the State of Texas in 1861.

As major landowners, the Wunsches engaged in farming, the timber business, and other commercial endeavors. The first automobile dealership in the area was started by William and Earl Wunsche, the sons of Charles Wunsche, Jr. In the 1930s, the Wunsche family donated 11 acres of land for a school, where the Wunsche Middle School now stands. In all, seven generations of the Wunsche family have contributed to the development of Spring.

Although the saloon remained in the ownership of the same family until 1982, from around 1916 on it was leased to various proprietors. The saloon closed during prohibition, and in the 1930s was leased as the Spring Cafe. It served hot meals and had boarding-house accomodations.

In 1950, a new proprietor, Viola Burke, leased the Spring Cafe, which became famous over the next three decades for its hamburgers and other fare. In 1982, Mrs. Burke's daughter closed the cafe when the building was sold by the Wunsche family, after 121 years of ownership, to G. Scott Mitchell. The building had fallen into substantial disrepair, but careful rehabilitation has made it a focal point of the community once again.

The roundhouse and other railroad buildings have been demolished or moved, leaving only the saloon as a structure with close ties to the railroading past. Other commercial buildings similar in style to the saloon have disappeared. Although several old-style buildings have been moved to Spring recently, the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Spring that reflects the true history of the community.

Street address: 103 Midway St. Spring, TX USA 77373 County / Borough / Parish: Harris County Year listed: 1984 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: Commerce/Trade (Restaurant) Current function: Vacant for now, but re-opening soon as a restaurant/bar once again Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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