Round Top Library Website
In early spring of 1999, Christopher Travis had been driving his grandmother from her home in Milam County to the hospital in Temple, Texas. As they drove through the small hamlet named Buckholz, he saw an unusual old building far off the highway.
Later that day, he returned to Buckholz and asked around until he found out the name of the owner and contacted him. Elbert Svetlik, the elderly farmer who owned the building, had been a member of the Hope Lutheran Church Council in the late 1960’s when that body decided to build a new brick church.
Mr. Svetlik could not bear the idea that the old gothic church would be demolished, so he acquired it, move in onto this property just outside the down and turned it into a hay barn. There it sat for 30 years until he gave Travis permission to look at it in February of 1999.
Travis immediately fell in love with the old church but Mr. Svetlik was no more eager to sell the structure than Travis was able to pay for it. So it was not until May of 2001 that Travis was able to talk the old farmer into giving him a six month exclusive right to purchase the Hope Lutheran Church, at which point Travis began to raise the money to purchase it.
He created a set of architectural drawings and a plan for the expansion of the Round Top Children’s Library, and presented it to their Advisory Board at its annual meeting.
Some of the members of that Board were people with considerable financial resources. He and his wife thought it might be possible to raise a few thousand dollars from each of them, and use that money to begin a capital campaign for the purpose of moving the old Hope Lutheran Church to Round Top. Being optimistic people, they I imagined that after a few years of hard work, they might be able to raise the money it took to restore the old building. Sadly, their hopes were dashed as the meeting ended without a single check being donated to the effort.
Three days later, one of the members of that Advisory Board, Sterling B. McCall Jr., called Cheryl and said that he had talked to his wife Marianne – and that they had decided to fund the project. He explained that they loved Round Top, and wanted to do something to help the Fayette County community.
Chris Travis donated the majority of his architecture fee for the renovation of the Hope Lutheran Church and three bids were taken from experienced restoration contractors. Travis’ construction company, Round Top Companies Inc., was the low bidder and by early August in 2001 they were hired by the Round Top Library Association to begin the process of dismantling, moving and restoring the historic structure.
That was a complicated process. The building had to be moved in seven pieces across three counties to the property on Mill Street. Each piece had to be carefully braced, cut into sections, and then lifted by a large crane onto the trailers and dollies of house mover Vernon Yoakum of Brenham, Texas. The Travis’s son and construction manager, Shiloh Travis, managed the project along with job foreman Mike Pavlicek of Fayetteville.
On a rainy November 15, 2001, the first pieces of the future Marianne and Sterling McCall Library Building rolled into Round Top and the process of putting it back together began.
With its larger facility, the Round Top Library Association’s Board of Directors, which had grown considerably from its three founding members, decided to expand its mission to provide services to adults. They changed the name of the institution to the Round Top Family Library.
By 2013, the Round Top Family Library had grown to become a community center for the 4000+ residents of North Fayette County and adjacent areas of Austin, Lee and Washington counties. It offers a wide variety of programs for children, families and seniors; free Wi-Fi internet access for all patrons, a public playground for children, many community events and the beautiful Grace Memorial Garden.