Timeline : Hoerrs of Denison

1876-1877 John Hoerr and August Hoerr own J. Hoerr & Brother, manufacturing soda, mineral water, and ginger ale. The factory is located on the corner of Morton Street and Fannin Avenue in Denison. John resides on the south side of Morton between Burnett and Fannin avenues (the same place as the factory). August lives in Dallas, Texas. An advertisement in the City Directory lists a second location for the company on the north side of the square in Dallas, Texas. [Source: City Directory]

1876-1877 Odd Fellows, Denison Lodge No. 161, IOOF - Organized February 1873. Present membership about 40. Hold meetings every Friday evening at Masonic Hall. Officers - August Uhlig, N. G.; John Hoerr, V. G.; J. A. Brenner, Secretary; H. P. Jefferson, Treasurer.

1891-1892 Brown & Hoerr operates the "Cabinet Saloon" at 224 West Main Street. Stephen T. Brown and Louis Hoerr are the owners. [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Pollard, Hoerr & Co. is at 305 West Main Street. Principals are L. E. Pollard, Louis Hoerr, and Stephen T. Brown. The firm offers "wholesale and retail hardware, queensware, tinware, stoves, guns, cutlery, etc." Also "shelf and heavy hardware." [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Brown & Hoerr operate the "Cabinet Saloon" at 224 West Main Street. Stephen T. Brown and Louis Hoerr are the owners. [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Louis Hoerr resides at 503 West Main Street. Also residing there is John L. Hoerr, bookkeeper at Pollard, Hoerr & Co. [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Stephen T. Brown resides at 409 West Gandy Street. [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Phillip D. Pollard is a tinner at Pollard, Hoerr & Co. His residence is at 729 West Gandy, where he lives with Louis and Carrie Lebrecht. [Source: City Directory]

1896-1897 Phillip D. Pollard Jr. is a tinner at Pollard, Hoerr & Co. He resides on South Fannin Avenue beyond the city limits. [Source: City Directory]

1898-1899 Pollard, Hoerr & Co. is at 305 West Main Street. Nearby, at 309 West Main Street, is W. A. Hallenbeck, Confectioner and Bakery. [Source: City Directory]

1898-1899 At 307 West Main Street, above Felix Tachini Saloon and next door to Pollard, Hoerr & Co., is Joseph Thompson (colored), barber shop. He lives at 321 West Bond Street. Oscar Thompson (colored) also lives there. Caesar A. Bryant (colored) is a barber at James Thompson. He resides at 701(b) West Morton Street. [Source: City Directory]

1899-1900 Brown and Hoerr are proprietors of State National Exchange Saloon, 302 West Main Street. Stephen T. Brown is married and living at 509 West Gandy Street. Louis Hoerr rooms over 503 West Main. [Source: City Directory]

420 - 422 West Main Street
Louis Hoerr - Jerry Strait Building
Constructed ca. 1906, it is the finest example of Richardsonian Romanesque style in Denison. Photo by Mavis Anne Bryant, ca. 1996.
Note center door shared by both sides of building, requiring owners of the two sides to cooperate.

In the left side (No. 420), many tenants have come and gone over the years; currently the Silverwise family owns the building.
Upstairs, the right side (No. 422) housed a telephone and telegraph exchange in 1907 - 1923; payment windows are still there.
Downstairs, Denison's first movie theater, the Empire Theater, opened in 1906 and closed late in 1909.
By 1917, J. A. Burch had a furniture store downstairs; and in 1927, Militari's Shoe Shop occupied the space.
More recently, Tucker Furniture occupied 422 for many years, until early 2004. This storefront - including the traditional awning - hasn't been altered.

A Denison newspaper carried LOUIS HOERR's obituary on April 5, 1921, at age 73. It states that he was born in Germany (Hesse, Darmstadt, 1848) and came to America as a teenager, "settling in Denison in the full strength of his productive powers. He reared a family in this city." The 1880 Census listed him as a bartender and widower. City Directories indicate that, throughout the 1890s, Louis was a partner owning saloons on Main Street, as well as a wholesale/retail hardware store called Pollard, Hoerr & Co. The Hoerr-Strait building in Denison was constructed ca. 1906. The obituary states that Louis owned several Denison business buildings bearing his name at the time of his death and was a member of the Society Vorwaerts, a local German cultural club. Louis died at the Durant OK home of his only surviving child, a daughter, Mrs. W. H. Reilley. He is said to have had a brother, August, living in Dallas.

This Louis Hoerr is not be confused with his nephew, LOUIS AUGUST HOERR, a prominent citizen of St. Louis, Missouri. Biographical works published in St. Louis in 1912 and 1921 state that this Louis was born in Denison on April 27, 1876. He was the eldest of nine children of a German immigrant chemist, John Hoerr, and his wife Mary Bergmann Hoerr. John Hoerr and his brother August were manufacturing soda, mineral water, and ginger ale in Denison and Dallas by 1877. [Our building's Louis Hoerr was another brother.] Louis August Hoerr married Susan M. Hinchman in St. Louis in November 1904 and became president of the Western Railway Equipment Co. in 1905. He held many patents on such equipment.