The known history of the building which became 217 - 219 South Commercial Avenue began in 1888 when two wooden frame buildings, which occupied only about two-thirds of the lots, were at this location. At this time an agricultural equipment business was located at 219 South Commercial Avenue. By 1904 a sample room for traveling salesmen was located at 217 and a second hand bicycle shop was at 219.
The
rock building at 219 South
Commercial Avenue was built in 1905 by a Mr. Wylie,
who owned and operated the
Wylie Hotel there. The
building at 217
South Commercial Avenue was added by 1907. There were
many businesses located on the
first floor over the years, but the second story was
always a hotel.
In 1929, the Modern Hotel was located on the
second floor of the both buildings.
Entrance to the hotel was gained by climbing
the stairs on the south
side of the building facing East College Avenue. The lobby
was located inside the door at the
top of the stairs.
At this time, it was
owned by Mrs. Mae Hambright, who also lived there. The name
of the hotel was changed to the
Commercial Hotel about 1929 was operated from about
1955 until 1973 by N. B.
“Boots” and Ruth Ewing, who also lived there.
As far as I know, the second story has not
been used for a business
purpose since that time. In the
early
days, the address of the second story was known as
219 ˝ South Commercial Avenue.
"In 1929, Home Bakery was located at 217 South Commercial Avenue. W. J. Strickland was the proprietor." (Coleman City Directory, 1929 - Hudspeth.) In May 1946, Gwynn
Elliott opened Elliott’s Bakery at
217 South Commercial Avenue,
located next door to Henning’s Jewelry. Elliott was
a B-25 Army Air Force pilot in
World War II. He
was from Brownwood,
where his father, C. C. Elliott operated Elliott
Bakery. J.
L. Moore was employed as a baker.
In October 1948, The
Book Store, owned and operated by Howard N.
Burpo opened at 217 South Commercial Avenue. The store
carried a full line of books, cards,
stationery, etc., with book rental library. Before
coming to Coleman to establish the
store, Burpo was in Abilene with the city library.
Helen
and Ed Burnam, along with their sons,
Joe Ed and Kenneth, moved to Coleman on December
15, 1948, and purchased The
Book Store. The
Burnams liked to read and
loved books and children. Many
children’s books, all kinds of models and other
types of handicraft were added
to The Book Store inventory. In 1951,
The Book Store had been enlarged to twice the size
as it was when purchased,
carrying a complete coverage of all magazines with
over 500 titles from which
to select. Their
selection of
pocketbooks was the largest in West Texas, with
over 600 titles on hand with
new selections arriving each week. With
two boys, the Burnams knew that all children
enjoyed reading comic books, so The
Book Store Comic Club was started. A
card was made out in the name of the child buying
comic books and a record kept
of each child’s purchase. As soon as
the
required number of comics have been purchased a
gift box of pencils with the
child’s name printed in 22 karat gold on them was
presented to the child. A complete
up-to-date lending library
department was used many times each day by Coleman
housewives who only wanted
to rent a book for a few days. The Bible
and dictionary section carried a range of
inexpensive volumes to the very best.
A wide
choice was available if one was
looking for games, puzzles, mechanical toys, guns
and pull toys, as well as a
selection of model airplanes, Indian bead sets,
leather work kits, copper disk
tooling sets, kites to fly, and model cars to
build. There
was a large selection of Gibson greeting
cards, boxes of Wyckoff stationery, personalized
or plain. The
Book Store became the headquarters for Cub
Scouts and Boy Scouts as the boys were active in
these groups and Ed became
both Cub master and Scoutmaster. Ed was
camp director at Camp Tonkawa Boy Scout Camp near
Buffalo Gap for twenty-one
years, between 1950 and 1972. Both boys
became high ranking boy scouts. The
Burnams lived in the rear of The Book Store for
their first five years in
Coleman. The
Book Store was listed in
the Coleman city directory, with no telephone in
1962. The
Western Union office was also located
there in 1962, with Helen Burnam as the operator.
Ed and
Helen divorced in 1968. Ed
returned to teaching math at Mozelle, then
at Novice, retiring in 1976. Helen remarried
Jack
Rambo. For
me, in my junior high and
even high school years, The Book Store was the most
wonderful place to visit in
Coleman! And
if you needed to read a
book fast, they had Classics Illustrated!
The first picture included
with
this article shows a view of the Wylie Hotel in 1907. Note there
is no outside stairs at this time. Early maps
show these stairs were added between
1916 and 1923.
When built, there must
have been a stairs inside one of the first story
buildings to the second floor. The
second picture shown here is
that of the Commercial Hotel on the second floor
with the Good Year Tire Store
and Help U Self Market and Grocery on the first
floor in 1940.
Note beds at the hotel were 50 cents, 75
cents and a dollar.
Also note the
traffic light at the right of the picture.
At this time it said, “No Left Turn.”
Later, this was changed to, “No U Turn.” |
