Beeville Post Office
Beeville, Bee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first post office was established in Beeville in 1859, the year after the town's founding. The 1918 building was the first Beeville post office constructed on Federal property - previous locations were county- or privately-owned. The building is a significant example of small town post office designs produced by the U.S. Treasury Department in the early twentieth century. Soon after construction began, a tragic incident occurred with great legal implications. J.P. Hermes and Robert B. Brown, both contracted to remove excavated dirt from the foundation, were hostile towards each other, and Brown began carrying a gun to the worksite for protection. On May 7, 1917, before a crowd of witnesses, Hermes threatened Brown with a knife, and Brown pulled out his pistol and shot and killed Hermes then walked to the courthouse and turned himself in. Brown was found guilty of homicide, but the case was later appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In an opinion delivered by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the court ruled that Brown had acted in self defense, thus establishing the right to use lethal force when facing a lethal attack. The 1918 post office is a one-story brick and limestone building with a raised basement. The design features Classical Revival style architecture and symmetrical facades. The primary entrance includes a pedimented portico on four Doric columns and a recessed doorway topped by a semicircular fanlight. The flat roof includes a cast stone stringcourse and brick parapet with regularly-spaced wooden balustrades. In 1961 a compatible wing was added to the north and west sides of the original floor plan. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beeville got its first post office in 1859, but the 1918 Classical Revival building — with its Doric portico, fanlight doorway, and brick parapet — was the first raised on federal ground. During its construction a feud between two dirt-hauling contractors turned deadly: in 1917 Robert B. Brown shot and killed J. P. Hermes, who had come at him with a knife. Brown's conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that helped establish the right to meet a lethal threat with lethal force.
Why it matters
An ordinary small-town post office became the backdrop for a landmark Supreme Court self-defense ruling that still shapes American law.
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Related people
- · Oliver Wendell Holmes
- · Robert B. Brown
- · J. P. Hermes
Related events
- · Brown v. United States
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Railroad in Bee County
Beeville, TX
On June 14, 1886, the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass train steamed into Beeville to a cheering crowd — the payoff of a campaign by rail promoter Uriah Lott, cattleman Captain A.C. Jones, and rancher Frank Skidmore, who donated land and money to bend the line through Bee County. When a second line arrived in 1889, Beeville became a rail center shipping cattle and cotton far and wide, with passenger service peaking around 1918 at eighteen trains a day on one line. Highways eventually undid it all: passenger service ended in 1952, the depot fell in 1958, and the last train left the county in 1994.
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