Hill Country Day Trip

Story written by Lindsey Bertrand, photos by Lauren Salazar.

Lewis Bros. Store Front

Lauren Salazar

Store owner Pat Sullivan revisits past lives of the historic location.

Lauren Salazar

It’s easy to imagine the Lewis Bros. Store in Pipe Creek as a garage and filling station. The sounds of cars and trucks whizzing by on Highway 16 drift through the open front door, and the orange Gulf gas signs look right at home, if a little rusty around the edges. Today’s patrons don’t stop for a fill-up, though. They come for antiques, architectural pieces, boutique clothing, metal art, vintage lighting, original art, even fresh eggs and local honey. Some just want to see inside the nearly century-old structure. “People stop to take photos of the building all the time,”says shopkeeper Pat Sullivan. “They either remember it from their childhood, or they drive by often and are just curious.” Built as a garage in the 1920s, though no one is sure of the exact year, the store predates Bandera Electric Cooperative by at least 10years. The Lewis family bought the building in 1929 and lived in what had been the garage bays while they remodeled it into a grocery store. The family, including brothers Milton and Walter, ran the store and added a gas pump as automobile traffic between Pipe Creek and Bandera picked up. When BEC connected Lewis Bros. Store to electricity in 1943,it was the fifth member account in District 1, and it served as a grocer and anchor in the Pipe Creek community. By providing food and other necessities,the Lewis family’s commitment to residents mirrored the cooperative principle of concern for community for decades.

Pat Sullivan and Laurie Gibson welcome visitors to the store.

Lauren Salazar

Antiques fill the Lewis Bros. Store to the brim.

Lauren Salazar

In the early 1970s, employee Laurie Gibson remembers riding her Welsh Pony to the store to get penny candy. “Even then there was a kerosene pump out front,” she says.“It was still ‘in the country,’ and it still has that charm today.” Since then, the building has housed a barbecue joint, beauty salon, woodworking shop and resale store—and that’s just what Sullivan and Gibson can recount. Fred and Darlene Hildebrand bought the property in 2000,and Fred used the building for storage until Sullivan opened up shop in 2017with seven vendors. The current merchandise is an eclectic mix that suits Sullivan and customers just fine. About 20 vendors supply items from the everyday (vintage Butterick patterns and Pyrex bowls), to the downright odd (an antique barber’s chair upholstered in red velvet and a javelina skull), and the stock changes almost daily. Sullivan also accepts items on consignment, which means a number of local residents continue to be involved with the store, including a couple with a dismantled windmill and Harvey Raab, the “Honey Man.” “Many members of the Lewis family have stopped by,” Sullivan says. “And we just love that they are still connected to this place.” Today, Sullivan keeps a scrapbook with copies of old photos and tidbits of information gathered from local residents, previous owners and their families behind the counter. It documents the store’s many lives and tells the story of the kind of community that can only be found in a rare, old place—a place with a lot of life left in it. To celebrate their second anniversary, Lewis Bros. Store is hosting an outdoor pop-up market to the side of the store on Saturday, March16. Share your memories of the Lewis Bros. Store on BEC’s Facebook page and connect with the Lewis Bros. Store on their Facebook page.

Lewis Bros. Store Second Anniversary Pop-up Market: Saturday, March 16, at 8529 State Highway 16 S. Pipe Creek, Texas

Lauren Salazar