Books by
Michael Barr
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The
present and future of transportation mingled in plain sight along
Fredericksburg's
Main Street in 1917. A customer in need of a new set of wheels had
to decide between a Pekin Standard 2-horse wagon from Edward and Louis
Oehler or walk a few doors down to Louis Kott's Ford dealership and
drive off the lot in a new 20 horsepower Model T. Welcome to the 20th
century.
The transportation landscape was changing fast. In 1917 William Hoffmann
was a blacksmith, wheelwright and farrier with a shop next to Otto
Kolmeier's on Main Street. By 1920 he spent most of his time repairing
gasoline engines.
Before WWI the Joseph
Brothers, Max and Fritz, ran a blacksmith and wheelwright shop at
132 East Main Street. They also did horseshoeing. By the 1920s they
were fixing cars and selling Dodges. |
Automobiles
on Fredericksburg's Main Street
Photo courtesy Gillespie County Historical Society |
To be honest,
citizens had mixed feelings about the changes. Fredericksburg
was a quiet, orderly village until automobiles came thundering down
Main Street without regard for public safety, scaring the daylights
out of horses and pedestrians.
Some of those drivers were crazy. They enjoyed knocking down wooden
street signs. The Fredericksburg Standard reported that mischievous
drivers "seemed to take a special delight in giving the street marker
a jolt that usually incapacitated the wooden structures and necessitated
their continuous repair. In order to enforce an observance of the
rule of the road on the streets of the city, the wooden markers have
been reinforced by a granite marker weighing half a ton. The driver
that now attempts to give the markers a gentle jolt for pastime will
very likely come to grief and his car sent to the garage doctor."
In the culture war between people and machines, the government took
sides with the automobile. People felt they were being snowballed
by a slew of new laws that favored machines over ordinary citizens.
"Again the rights of pedestrians have come under the review of the
Court of Appeals," a Fredericksburg Standard reporter wrote,
"and the drivers have won. The Court emphasized the duty of the man
afoot to keep his eyes open and to look out for vehicles. The admirable
restraint of the Court is shown by its forbearing to rule that an
auto driver is entitled to damages from the man who musses the vehicle
by getting run over."
In a move that delighted drivers, the County Commissioners Court voted
to tar and gravel Main Street in January 1922. Three months later
the Commissioner's Court voted to cover Main Street with a hard surface
topping, 60 ft. wide, from the Nimitz
Hotel to Jacob Kraus Corner.
By 1923 just about everyone understood that, for better or worse,
automobiles were here to stay. That year a bill came before the state
legislature that would increase the legal speed limit from 25 mph
to 35 mph. The same bill proposed a 2 cent tax be added to the price
of every gallon of gasoline, the proceeds used to build and maintain
roads.
The local Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to State Rep. Sam Johnson,
asking him to oppose the bill. It passed anyway.
In 1941 the city responded to increased automobile congestion by installing
5 traffic lights on Main Street at the intersections of Washington,
Llano, Adams, Orange and Edison Streets. At the same time the council
voted to allow U-turns at cross streets where there was no traffic
light. Those intersections included Main and Lincoln (Keidel Hospital),
Main and Crockett (Post Office) and Main and Milam (also known as
Schneider's Corner).
As a safety measure the city painted pedestrian lanes at the traffic
light intersections so that people on foot could safely cross the
street "when favored by the green light." Cars waiting for the light
to change were to stop behind the pedestrian lanes.
"Heretofore," the newspaper reporter complained, "some motorists have
driven half way into the intersection before coming to a halt."
The transition from horse power to automobiles wasn't smooth or easy.
I drove down Main Street just this morning, and it's still crazy out
there. I think we have a few more kinks to work out. |
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