Gentry and Shelton Building
Stephenville, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1870s, Stephenville’s population was around 300 people and contained a handful of businesses in wooden buildings along the town square. In 1870, James A. Shelton purchased lots on the southeast corner of the town square to open a new business. James A. Shelton was born in North Carolina in 1825 and served with the 21st Tennessee Infantry, C.S.A. After the Civil War, he and his wife, Alabama A. Shelton, and their children, moved to Erath County. For a time, Shelton served as an Erath County Sheriff’s Deputy. He was a prominent citizen who helped organize the first bank in Stephenville. In 1873, Shelton and his business partner, George W. Gentry, signed a contract for the construction of an imposing limestone structure, the first stone building erected on the square. George W. Gentry, also from North Carolina, lived in Virginia before moving with his wife, Caroline M. Gentry, daughter and servants Lucy Jenkins, Possum Jenkins and John Jenkins. upon his arrival in Stephenville, Gentry established himself as a merchant. He served as the District Clerk from 1872 to 1876 and was elected Commissioner of Erath County Precinct Two. As the oldest surviving historic structure situated on the courthouse square, the building is a two-part masonry commercial block with an unfinished basement. Transoms adorn the front façade. over the years, many businesses operated out of the building, including a mercantile store, county government offices, meeting site for social clubs, a tire shop, automotive parts store and saloon. local tradition states that before the courthouse was completed, the basement was used as the county jail.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1873, this limestone commercial block was the first stone building on Stephenville's courthouse square, raised by merchants James Shelton — a Confederate veteran and former deputy — and George Gentry. Over the years it housed everything from a mercantile store and county offices to a tire shop and saloon, its basement reputedly serving as the county jail before the courthouse was finished.
Why it matters
As the oldest surviving building on its town square, it anchors the commercial heart of a frontier county seat as it grew from a cluster of wooden storefronts into a permanent town.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James A. Shelton
- · George W. Gentry
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dawson Saloon
Stephenville, TX
Built in the early-to-mid 1890s on a prominent corner of Stephenville's courthouse square, this limestone building likely first housed the Dawson Saloon. Under owner W. A. 'Billy' Dawson, with beer-barrel seating set out along the sidewalk for cowboys and passersby, it was a popular watering hole until his death in 1901. The building later held a restaurant, a confectionery, and—longest of all—Novit's Department Store, run by Belarusian immigrant Morris Astonovitsky until 1957, and its rebuilt limestone columns still mark the square.
First National Bank Building
Stephenville, TX
Erected in 1889 to house Stephenville's first bank, this Romanesque Revival landmark was the earliest of three courthouse-square buildings designed here by celebrated San Antonio architect J. Riely Gordon. Its heavy stone arches and Queen Anne tower announced the prosperity of a growing cattle-and-oil town. The bank thrived until depressed prices forced a 1925 merger.
Crow Opera House
Stephenville, TX
Built before 1892, this limestone building housed the Erath County National Bank on its ground floor under president Dr. M. S. Crow. At the suggestion of his wife, Mollie Jane Crow, the upper floor became an opera house seating about 400 that hosted plays, dances, and community gatherings until the rise of motion pictures dimmed it by 1920. Its Romanesque style later sheltered other businesses.
Stephenville Drug Stores
Stephenville, TX
On the corner of Washington and Belknap, a single 1897 brick building — its bricks hauled from the coal-and-brick company town of Thurber — housed a continuous run of Stephenville drug stores for nearly a century. From founder F. A. Schnabel in 1899 through a string of local pharmacists and finally Eckerd, the corner served as one of the essential gathering points of small-town Texas life until 1994. The soda fountain and prescription counter were as much civic institutions as commercial ones.