| First frequented by Orcoquisac Indians and visited by
Spanish and French explorers, Spring, Texas located 25 miles northwest
from downtown Houston became a trading post in 1838. Earlier, in the 1820's
a number of Austin colonists had settled nearby. In the mid 1800's, German
farmers immigrated to the area now known as Old Town Spring.
The original town of Spring was platted by the Houston and Great Northern Railroad in 1873. The roundhouse and 14 track yards were added in 1902. An opera house, hospital, lumber mill and several hotels and saloons were built close to the railroad tracks to house, feed, fete and "otherwise" entertain over 200 railroad men stationed nearby, reaching a population of 200 by 1910 Prohibition and transfer of the rail yard to Houston in the early 1920's, along with the Great Depression of the ë30's reduced Spring to a country village of a few small homes and shops. Both original depots are gone but a similar one build in 1907 was relocated from Lovelady, Tx 125 miles north. It burned to the ground in May 1999, but another replica has been built on the same spot and houses Puffabelly's Depot Café. Old Town Spring owes its resurgence to a big, juicy hamburger. In 1949, Viola Burke began operating the Spring Café on Midway in the former Wunsche Bros. Café & Saloonfest, built in 1902. She turned out hand-patted hamburgers, and the place became known for "the best food and slowest service anywhere." The Spring Café attracted retailers to the surrounding area, providing café customers a way to kill time while waiting for their hamburgers. In 1982, the building was bought and renovated by Scott and Brenda Mitchell and again was named Wunsche Bros. It is one of the few buildings that is listed on both the Texas and the National Registries of Historic Places. Whitehall, a restored two-story Victorian home built in 1897 on Main Street (Spring Cypress) has been a familyhome, a boarding house, a funeral home, a church, a schoolhouse, a hippie commune, an office, a beauty parlor and currently, an antique shop. Many of the merchants in the 12-square block area of Old
Town Spring occupy the original, modest houses of the town and the former
bank and post office. Others occupy old houses moved from outlying areas,
or unusual newly-built Victorian style houses, their numbers growing from
10 merchants in1980 to more then 180 today.
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