HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Cobb's Market

Calvert, Robertson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Original meat market here in 1868 was remodeled into present Victorian building of handmade brick in 1878, by Mrs. Ella Oscar. Original fixtures still used include wood burning stove of cast iron, marble top counters, meat saw rack. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

A meat market opened on this Calvert corner in 1868 and was rebuilt a decade later as a handsome Victorian storefront of handmade brick. Remarkably, its 19th-century working fixtures survived in use โ€” a cast-iron wood-burning stove, marble-topped counters, and the old meat saw rack. The building was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967.

Why it matters

Everyday commercial buildings like a small-town market are rare survivors, preserving the tools and textures of how ordinary Americans shopped and worked in the Gilded Age.

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Related people

  • ยท Mrs. Ella Oscar

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Jacques Adoue Building

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Old Calvert Foundry and Manufacturing Company

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Town of Calvert

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Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Building

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James S. Hanna raised this Calvert building in 1868 for a general store, and it passed through owners who each wove commerce and banking together โ€” including a Battle of San Jacinto veteran, the Rev. Robert Crawford, and J. S. McLendon, who ran a store and a private bank under its roof. In 1887 it became the birthplace of the First National Bank of Calvert, later renamed Union State Bank and finally Citizens Bank & Trust. Its exterior still carries the 1887 styling of a Gilded Age banking house.