This angle shows the little bedroom off to the side (no pic as we made a mess last night).
As for the bathroom --- well ---- there it is. I know this seems bad, but I used a long rage lens and it's really only about a minute to get there. Now, what is it like inside?
Instantly, we are in trouble. I just don't want to do a drive-by and get grouchy. Yes, it happens, even with food. Instead, I spot a church on the hill that peaks my interest.
First, however, there is a park across the street and my peek over the hill nets me these guys. As I go to take their picture, I've been followed by someone trying to get me over the grumpys. It works.
We've gone "across the tracks" to the older, Hispanic area of the city and the building of interest is the Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. The side building (one the right and almost out of view) is the current Parish Hall. The Parish Hall is the site of the oldest church in Alpine. It was called Our Lady of Guadalupe and completed in 1892. It was in continuous use as a church until 1942 and as a Parish Hall since.
In we go ---- oh I love it. Simple lines and gorgeous windows --- the things that make me be at peace.
Even the doors are incredible. (I'll say this again because some may have missed it before, we are not Catholic, just really love the old churches and admire the architecture and design.)
Although originally called "South Railroad Avenue," by 1930, the street had been renamed "Murphy Street" to honor the towns founder. Along with Holland Avenue, Murphy Street was one of two main business streets through town. However, because the north side businesses burned three separate times (in 1888, 1907, and 1911), the structures that line Murphy Street are considerably older that those seen on Holland Avenue today. For this reason, Murphy Street remains the oldest business district in Alpine and one of the most authentic "Old West" style front streets in the state of Texas.
For most of Alpine's history, the town was strictly segregated with Hispanic residents confined to the area south of the railroad tracks. Those who ventured north of the tracks were expected to carry their U.S. identification cards and were unwelcome after dark. Because of this division, Murphy street served as an important business district for southside residents - and the only part of Alpine that was racially integrated.
I can start walking again. First up is the Hotel Ritchey (#2 on the map).
Now - First known as the City Hotel, the original one-story structure was built in 1886 out of adobe bricks. By 1908, a two story frame addition was built which increased its capacity to some 10 hotel rooms. In 1914, the property was sold and renamed the Hotel Ritchey after the new owner. Located just across from the shipping pens on the Southern Pacific Railroad, for decades it served as a convenient and economical choice for cowboys and ranchers overseeing their cattle shipments out of town. Around 1950, however, the hotel closed and the building began its slow decline. In 2000, amidst plans by the city to demolish the ailing building, a local contractor purchased and stabilized the structure. In 2012 it was sold again and the restoration completed in 2018.
Second in the walk is the Mercado (#3 on the map).
The Mercado was originally built around 1902 as the Alpine Furniture Company which it remained for three decades, and through several owners, until it was purchased in 1937 and opened as Valadez's Meats and Groceries. As the first Hispanic-owned business on Murphy Street, for more than 30 years the market served the local southside community. In 2008, the structure was purchased and restored and today serves local residents as the Murphy Street Mercado.
Third is Alpine Studio (sorry, my shadow ruined the already blurry picture) (#4 on the map).
The Alpine Studio was built by pioneer photographers for portrait work, film developing, and framing. In 1928, the building was remodeled in Mission Style, complete with metal Spanish tile roofing, "oriental stucco." and arches. As the premier early Alpine photographers, the owners many photos of the town and its people serve as an enduring legacy of their efforts. The renovated studio is now available as a vacation rental.
Further down Murphy Street.
THE BOTTLE HOUSE:
The Bottling Works was founded in the early 1920‘s by Basil Matthew’s father and uncle, Walter Matthews. It was the original Alpine bottling plant, “...next door to Thain’s Studio, a little garden and then the bottlin’ plant alongside it....the plant was about 60 feet wide and maybe about 100 feet long. It had a porch with a loadin’ dock out on the north side...facin’ the depot, the railroad tracks...there was no sign...people just knew. There was no street signs in Alpine and everybody knew everybody..”*
This original plant, The Bottling Works, was the hand bottling kind that used to be called a foot stomper. “...it’s the machine that has no electricity, no power. The power is all in your feet and in your hands...the bottles had to be taken off the bottle (washing) machine, put on crates and carried over to the bottlin’ machine. We’d have a stack of clean bottles here and then (we’d) bottle them. It was just a one man operation....well, actually...one man runnin’ the washing machine and one doin’ the bottles.. our trucks couldn’t carry but about 50 cases in them, those ol’ Model T trucks..just me, my dad and my brother...of course, one of us would be there all the time...but we didn’t run the bottlin’ process every day...about 2 days a week, you’d bottle up enough for that week .....Basil Matthews p.22 -24
“..we ordered extract from these extract companies..and we’ld mix it with sugar and water..one of our biggest expenses was the sugar..the extracts were strawberry, lemon, lime, vanilla and Delaware Punch...and at times we’ld run Orange Crush...but it didn’t take much carbonation and we had trouble with the yeast forming in it....by not having the carbonation, it tended to get bad and formed this yeast ....it made sort of a wave, it looked like a piece of paper floating in there...”
“(In 1929)..my mother drank some Dr. Pepper up there in Waco and she just insisted on it...we just hounded the Dr. Pepper company to start it here..they finally sent a man out here...and he told me, ‘Well, now you’ve got to put Dr. Pepper signs on your trucks and you gotta git a new bottlin’ machine.’ We was using a foot stomper. Used to be, you did a bottle of beer with it (laughing)...The Coca Cola plant was in Marfa...Coca Cola was the leadin’ drink then and eventually Pepsi-Cola caught up with it...we made the first Dr. Pepper ever in West Texas here!...the first wood barrel of (Dr. Pepper) syrup came to Alpine...we mixed our own syrup on everythin’ else..
At that time, we didn’t have a refrigerated water system. So I took a barrel and put a copper coil in it and put a 50 lb block of ice in there to cool the water that was goin’ to the machine. Because the gas will not mix unless you’ve got cold water.... .It was a one man job..we’d set a case of empty bottles down there and just pick one bottle at a time. ...
*Oral History, Basil Matthews 04 M438cu 1988, p.7-24, SRSU Archives
Currently it is operating as a B&B.
Before we even have a chance to go inside, this shelter is near the parking lot. It is a replica of the Willow and Sotol Apache Wickiups. The lodges were generally built of willow withes (a tough flexible twig) stuck into the ground and bent over to form together a round-topped hut - just high enough for a man to sit upright in it. This willow framework would be typically covered with skins. The chief's house was larger and sufficiently high to allow one to stand and had a hole in the top to let out the smoke from the fire.
Hello Fort Davis. It was established in October of 1854 with six companies of the Eighth U.S. Infantry for protecting travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. It was abandoned by Federal Troops in April of 1861 and reoccupied in 1867. Troops from the post helped to bring about the peaceful settlement and development of the region. It was deactivated in 1891. I'm sharing one of the placards on the grounds for you to see overall size and where the main road was at the time. 
Inside the restored building to my right is an idea of what the enlisted quarters were like.
The ruins in this area are the foundation bricks showing approximate size.
12 oz. pork or bacon OR 20 oz. fresh beef OR 22 oz. salt beef
18 oz. soft bread or flour OR 16 oz. hard bread (hardtack) OR 20 oz. corn meal
Per every 100 rations (think days) add:
15 lbs. beans or peas 15 lbs. sugar 4 qts. vinegar 4 lbs. soap
16 lbs. rice or hominy 4 lbs. salt 4 oz. pepper 24 oz. candles
16 lbs. green coffee OR 8 lbs. roasted coffee OR 2 lbs. tea
In addition to or as substitutes for other items, desiccated vegetables, dried fruit, pickles, or pickled cabbage might be issued.
Various forms of support for the Army utilized other nearby buildings. There was a bakery, a guardhouse, barracks, the post headquarters, a chapel, shared officer's quarters, married enlisted men's quarters, signal/telegraph office and more.
The post chapel was also used as a schoolroom five days in the week. On Friday nights from 8-12 is was used by the officers' families for a dance, the music supplied by the post band which ceased exactly at midnight, leaving lancers or waltz unfinished. Every Sunday evening the post Chaplain preached in the chapel, certainly a useful and adaptable edifice and definitely the community center. Very little of this building still stands.
Today, it is furnished to the time when Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, commander of the black Tenth U.S. Cavalry, and his family lived here, 1882-1885. The kitchen is unattached and the first place I go. Naturally.
The front parlor - The Griersons purchased new parlor furniture in anticipation of their move to Fort Davis. The best and newest furniture was on prominent display in this formal room. Guests, both military and civilian, were entertained here. Children were discouraged from playing in the parlor and rarely were welcomed in it.
The back parlor - the family often spent evenings relaxing in this comfortable room, playing music and table games, reading aloud, and talking. This room offers one of the most personal glimpses into the Griersons' lives.
The Master Bedroom - Ben and Alice, who were in their fifties when they lived here, enjoyed this room as their private retreat. The photograph above the mantel, a favorite of Ben's, is of Alice and their two older sons, Charlie and Robert. Like other items in the house, the large wardrobe was owned by the Griersons and is a good example of fine Victorian craftsmanship.
The back bedroom - Harry and George, the youngest of the Grierson children, shared this room. Avid outdoorsmen, both boys took every opportunity to hunt and often bagged enough game to supply meat to other families on the officers' row.
The "bathroom" - Under Grierson's leadership the fort was modernized and expanded. A steam engine pumped water from Limpia Creek to a holding tank where it gravity fed to the fort. This room had an indoor faucet and was used for bathing. A portable tin tub was propped against the wall when not in use. The room was used not only for bathing but for sewing and storage as well.
The Servants Quarters is a small room at the back of the house - This servant's quarters is furnished for a woman, but there were also many men servants along officers' row. Enlisted men working as "strikers" could earn $5.00 to $10.00 a month in addition to their army pay of $13.00 a month. Single women were difficult to keep, as enlisted men viewed them as potential brides. Many officers' wives kept busy recruiting and training new servants.
The front porch - looking both ways -
The dome of the 30" telescope is right below us. It was completed in 1970 and is used for observing solar system objects such as asteroids, as well as starts, galaxies, and cluster of galaxies.
Right across the street is McDonald Observatory's first telescope. This is the original unit in the complex, forming one of the great observatory centers of the world. Built in the 1930s under terms of legacy from William Johnson McDonald, a Paris, (TX) banker interested in the stars. McDonald was a well-educated man and lived frugally. As a hobby, he read science books and viewed planets through a small telescope. His will granted the bulk of his estate ($800,000) to "build an observatory and promote the study of astronomy." This site was selected because of its high ration of clear nights, it's 6,800' altitude, it's distance from artificially-lighted cities, and its quite low latitude that permits observation of southern skies. The observatory was operated for its first 25 years mainly by astronomers from the University of Chicago, more recently primarily from the University of Texas. Until 1948, its 82" telescope was second largest in the world. Its fine work and site have resulted in teh addition of other telescopes, including a 107" instrument sponsored jointly by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Space Foundation, and the University of Texas. Discoveries made here have included interstellar polarization and the satellites of several planets.Mister had so wanted to tour it, but it was sold out weeks ago and we've been on a waiting list that didn't work out. Life goes on.
We can see Mount Fowlkes Summit across the way and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Yep, headed that way.
THIS one we can see through windows and there is NO WAY I can photograph it all.
Check out the size of the mirrors in this telescope and there are 91 of them.
I grabbed one info pic just so I can read and understand a little more each time. The interactive stations helped a ton.
Well, that's it for the first half of today. See you in the next post for the remainder of Mister's special day. I'm posting the map here but all we have done so far is from the red dot to the observatory on the upper road.
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