Second Mile Rec. Center

Trail
Type
Building
Date
after 1939
Address
502 Pecan St.
Blanco, TX
Names
Blanco Flea Market
Wool and Mohair Warehouse #1

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Sheep were raised in the Blanco area as early as 1859. Wool and Mohair Warehouse #1, built after the 1939 Thanksgiving Day fire by Charles Crist as the Texas Hill Country became one of the leading areas for the production of these fibers, is a good reminder of Blanco’s ranching and agricultural roots. Crist built an earlier grain warehouse (Warehouse #2) adjacent to this site (corner of 5th and Live Oak) in 1930 that was recently demolished.

Crist first organized a small wool warehouse business in a part of his feed store on the square (see Crist Building, #2). The first of the two warehouses (1930) was built to store grain, and the second was built to store wool and mohair. After Mr. Crist’s death, the business changed hands many times. Ultimately in the mid ’60s Aaron Posey, Crist’s son-in-law, became owner of the business. Charles and Ralph Dellano bought the property in 1990.

Both warehouses were lofty one-story rectangular structures resting on cedar pilings. Horizontal board siding covered the frame buildings, which had corrugated metal gabled roofs. One can imagine buyers feeling and judging the graded and sorted wool and mohair.

Wool and mohair production ultimately proved unprofitable when coyotes became a problem to farmers with sheep and goats. The buildings ended their existence as wool and mohair warehouses in 1968 or 1969. The remaining building served as the Blanco Flea Market, owned by Jackie Hatch.

Today the Franklin Family owns the building, now used as a youth recreation center for Blanco.