Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to stay connected during our journey to understand the unexplainable.
After the death of Hofheinz in 1880,, his son-in-law, Adolph Reissig, purchased the store and surrounding property from the estate.
Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to stay connected during our journey to understand the unexplainable.
He and his family continue to operate the store. However. Reissig, a tailor by trade and was in business with Minchen Meyer whose establishment was on Pecan Street, where the Littlefield building now stands. Reissig specialized in the making of fine coats and tailored many clothes for Austin City Marshall Ben Thompson, who was a notorious character turned lawman.
Thompson was as well known for his dapper suits as he was for his 32 Killings, And for him, Taylor Reissig always included a particular pocket on his trousers to hold a gun Thompson was never without. Thompson called him by the name Dutchy as he did not speak English too well.
When Dutchy died, his wife asked her son Herman to remain nearby. She built a five room frame house at 604 East Third for Herman and his bride in 1907. Mrs Reissig had added the frame gallery, which wraps around the East End of the main stone house, in 1892.
Before his father-in-law passed. Herman was a printer by trade, he organized Austins First Printers Union, while his father-in-law and other relatives continued to operate the grocery store and Saloon, which closed prior to Prohibition and became part of the grocery store. Beginning in 1935 Reissig devoted all his working hours to the grocery store and continue to do so until December 31, 1952, when he closed the doors of the grocery store for the last time. The grocery store had then been opened for 98 continuous years, one of Austin’s oldest.
But the old store carries on.
The property was purchased on December 1, 1966. From Herman by the present owners, Thomas Ballantyne Cowley, Leon Aubrey Nease and W Cleigh Nease. Hey, Cortana. Restoration and renovation of the property was started immediately, following as closely as possible the original design and construction of the buildings, as evidenced by old photographs, in preparation for Waterloo Compound antiques and interiors.
The Sunday House, formerly a corn crib, later. Converted into a tenant house for freed slaves,
was restored in 1968 and in 1972 became the Sunday House Lighting Company. This frame building is the oldest building on the property, dating from around 1852. Originally, the lower level being a corn crib, the floor was about four feet deeper than it is today, and the cedar posts that support the structure extend from the original 4 foot depth to the roof of the second story. First renovated for rental after the War Between the States. The Sunday House was a house of ill repute around the turn of the century. It’s 10-foot proximity to the railroad tracks may have had something to do with this second story activity. I don’t actually believe that that’s true, even though that is on the website for the original Waterloo compound and antique business. We know for a fact that in 1900, living in the Carriage House as part of of the Sunday House was a preacher and his family? Their name was the Masons. It seems with old buildings history is more exciting if they’re of a house of ill repute or a brothel.
In 1976, the Sunday House Lighting Company moved into the Wetting Cottage, built for Herman and his bride. Refurbished in 1967,, 1973,, 1976, and last in 1981 as a residence for Leon Nice, the cottage has housed several shops, including a Glazer, toy maker, weaver, lampmaker and potter.
The wine cellar was in the main building and opened in 1973 and is now stocked with vintage clothes from 1840s through 1950s. This room, whose original stock was supplied from a vineyard on the grounds, is decorated with unique and antique neon lighting. In 1974, careful restoration began on a building in the northeast corner of the compound. This building, originally constructed as a rental for freed slaves after the War Between the States, houses Vicks Batten Shack, its exterior walls were the interior walls. Newspapers and rags stuffed in the cracks to keep out the wind verified the mid 1860s data. Originally, its two rooms had porches extending to the north and south. The north porch was removed to make way for 8th Street. The south porch was enclosed in the 1870s to add two more rooms and an open dog run style entrance hall.
The carriage house was restored in 1981 as a central kitchen, keeping room with a large fireplace for the owners. Finally, but importantly to be mentioned, is the remaining double Privy. Originally built in the 1880s, it was modernized with flush toilets in the early 1900s. In its history it has seeded heads of state, ex slaves, landed Gentry, and wealthy customers, as well as not so wealthy customers at the Waterloo compound.
