Early Commercial Building
Dublin, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Constructed of wood about 1880 by Joseph E. Bishop, son-in-law of A. H. and Sarah Jane Dobkins, founders of Dublin. Veneered 1895 with native stone,and remodeled 1943, 1965. Colorful, important occupants have included banks, medical clinics, a drugstore, newspaper plant, saloons, and a dress shop. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1880 Joseph E. Bishop — son-in-law of A.H. and Sarah Jane Dobkins, the founders of Dublin — put up this wooden commercial building, later veneered in native stone in 1895 and remodeled in the mid-20th century. Over the decades it housed a colorful parade of tenants: banks, medical clinics, a drugstore, a newspaper plant, saloons, and a dress shop.
Why it matters
The building is a living record of a small Texas town's downtown, where a single storefront could hold the whole commercial life of a community across generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joseph E. Bishop
- · A.H. Dobkins
- · Sarah Jane Dobkins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hogan Blacksmith Shop
Dublin, TX
Former Confederate cavalry blacksmith William Alexander Hogan brought his family from Mississippi to Dublin after 1870 and opened a shop on Elm Street as railroads drew cattlemen and cotton farmers to the region. His son Chester carried on the trade, and Chester's son Ben—who caddied at 11—grew into a world champion golfer who used blacksmithing skills to modify his clubs and, in 1953, opened his own club-manufacturing plant. The Hogan family held the land until donating it to Dublin in 1997.
Dublin National Bank
Dublin, TX
As the railroad arrived and cotton money flowed into newly incorporated Dublin, former railroad president John G. Harris and three partners founded the Dublin National Bank in 1893. It weathered the hard years, absorbing the town's only other bank in 1933, and has operated from the same spot ever since. Today it stands as the oldest continuously operating bank in Erath County.
Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company
Dublin, TX
In 1891 Sam Houston Prim arrived in Dublin with $680 of bottling equipment and set up shop at Patrick and Elm streets. He began bottling Dr Pepper and, in 1925, formally claimed a 44-mile distribution territory centered on the town. According to the marker, Prim had bottled the drink longer than any other person by the time of his death in 1946, and his works is recognized as the oldest Dr Pepper bottler in the world.
William T. Miller Grist Mill
Dublin, TX
Built in 1882 by a trio of stonemasons for William T. Miller, this two-story native-stone mill ground the grain that fed a young Erath County. It moved with the times—from steam power to a crude-oil engine in 1918, then to feed production after new owners took over in 1926—before being donated to the Dublin Historical Society as a museum in 1974. The sturdy stone walls are a rare survivor of the small-town gristmills that once anchored rural economies across Texas.