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A Powerful Information Database & Gateway Service for the Texas Hill Country

KERRVILLE, Texas

"Lose Your Heart To The Hills"

REFERENCES

Youth summer camps, Guadalupe River, RV parks, and Home of HEB Grocery Stores; James Avery Jewelry, and Shreiner University

HILL COUNTRY MUSEUM: 830-896-8633. Downtown Kerrville, 226 Earl Garrett Street Kerrville, TX 78028. Experience the thrilling story of Captain Schreiner and the Texas Hill Country! www.kerrdowntown.com/hillcountrymuseum

MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART: 830-896-2553; 1550 Bandera Highway, Kerrville, TX 78029-4300. The Cowboys, the Native Americans, the Settlers, the Mountain Men and others who tamed the West share their adventure through the rotating exhibits on display at the Museum of Western Art where the legend of the American West lives on. Formerly "Cowboy Artists of America Museum". www.museumofwesternart.com

KATHLEEN C. CAILLOUX THEATER: 830-792-7469; Symphony of the Hills. www.symphonyofthehills.org; www.caillouxtheater.com

HILL COUNTRY YOUTH ORCHESTRAS: 830-257-0809; www.hillcountryyouthorchestras.org

KERR ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER: 830-895-2911; 228 Earl Garrett (Old Post Office), Downtown Kerrville. www.kacckerrville.com

PLAYHOUSE 2000: 830-896-9393; 910 Main Street, Kerrville. Bringing professional quality amateur theater to Kerr County.

RIVERSIDE NATURE CENTER: 830-257-4837; 150 Francisco Lemos St. Kerrville, TX. On Town Creek, 3 beautiful gardens, pavilion, explorer's lab for children, and an historical general store. www.riversidenaturecenter.org

NEARBY & HILL COUNTRY-WIDE ATTRACTIONS: See Attractions.

Some of the very nearby attractions include: Stonehenge II (Hunt/Ingram)

PARKS: There are many State parks in the greater area as profiled on the Parks page.

Local parks include:

CARVER PARK: N part of Kerrville, on Paschal

KERRVILLE CITY PARK: TX 27 and 5343, SW part of Kerrville

KERRVILLE-SCHREINER PARK: 830-257-5392; located 5 mi S of town on TX 173 along Guadalupe River. City owned and operated. Swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, picnicking, wildlife, playground and courts. Deer and antelope are prevalent. Wide variety of wildlife. Camping, RV spaces.

SCHULZ PARK: W part of Kerrville, on Glenn Rd

KERRVILLE STATE PARK: TX 27 and 173, SW part of Kerrville

LOUISE HAYS PARK: downtown Kerrville, on TX 16 at the bridge

EVENT CALENDAR: For full details on each event see Chamber web site and
Festivals & Events

May: Kerrville Folk Festival

May: Texas Arts and Crafts Fair (Memorial Day Weekend, Sat & Sun); 888-335-1455; River Start Arts & Events Park, 4000 Riverside Drive E, Kerrville, TX. Fine arts & crafts, culinary arts, art demonstrations, hands-on education, live entertainment, children's activity area, specialty art exhibits, talent contest, great food. Web: www.kerrvilletexascvb.com, and The Art of Texas: www.theartoftexas.com

On-Going Events: See full details at: Hill Country Market Days, Trade Days, Farmers Markets

Kerr County Market Days: 830-792-4655; A non-profit organization of growers, artists, craftspeople, and food producers operating a pet-friendly and child-friendly open air market on the grounds of the beautiful Kerr County Courthouse Square in Kerrville. 9am to 4pm rain or shine, wind or hail. Located at the intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 27 in Kerrville. www.kerrmarketdays.org

WEATHER: Weather Underground

MEDIA COVERAGE:

On-Line Latest News: Topix

Newspapers: KERRVILLE DAILY TIMES: 830-896-7000; www.dailytimes.com
MOUNTAIN SUN NEWS: 830-257-3300; 301 McFarland Dr. Kerrville, TX

MAPS: Google, GeoHack

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS: health care, tourism, hospitality, jewelry, aircraft production, retirement, building trades, ranching, camps and retreats, hunting, services and retail.

HISTORY: Handbook of Texas Online: "Geography has always been the dominant quality of the Kerrville area-from prehistoric times, with archeological evidence suggesting human habitation as early as 10,000 years ago, to the present, when the town has achieved a national and international reputation for its karst landscapes, scenic roadways, river and streams, lakes, caves, biological diversity, ranches, architecture, and popular culture. The original settlement, named for James Kerr and situated on a bluff north of the Guadalupe River in the eastern half of the county, grew from a successful shinglemakers' camp into a mercantile and shipment center for the middle and upper Hill Country,qv and eventually into a medical, recreational, professional, cultural, and, to some extent, educational hub for parts of a five-to-seven county area. One of the earliest shinglemakers was Joshua D. Brown, a member of Green DeWitt's colony at Gonzales and a veteran of the battle of San Jacinto, who, with his family and related families explored about a hundred miles of the Guadalupe valley from Curry Creek to near the headwaters in the 1840s. These pioneers built permanent homes at what they called Brownsborough in the early 1850s. From this settlement, Kerrsville, later Kerrville, was platted after Kerr County was organized in 1856. It was voted county seat by a narrow margin, and its claim was tenuous until 1862, when rival Comfort was placed in newly formed Kendall County. Kerrville's importance dates from a conjunction of events starting in 1857, when German master miller Christian Dietert and millwright Balthasar Lich started a large grist and saw mill on the bluff. This mill, with a permanent source of power and protection from floods, became the most extensive operation of its kind in the Hill Country west of New Braunfels and San Antonio. Related mercantile and freighting enterprises led to the foundation of the Charles A. Schreiner family empire of retail, wholesale, banking, ranching, marketing, and brokering operations-which during the next five decades became the catalyst of Kerrville's and the area's early prosperity and growth.

The Civil War slowed this development and split Kerrville, as it divided the rest of the Hill Country. With the start of Reconstruction, however, Kerrville's economic boom and ethnic diversification continued anew as demand in San Antonio for lumber, produce, and craftsmen combined with the cessation of Indian raids and the expansion of cattle, sheep, and goat ranching into the upper Hill Country and Edwards Plateau. Cattle drives punctuated the boom years of the late 1880s and the 1890s. In 1887 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached Kerrville, and in 1889 the town incorporated, with an aldermanic form of city government. The Kerrville Water Works Company began to provide water for town dwellers in 1894, telephone service was introduced in 1896, and the city began to pave streets in 1912. Kerrville adopted a commission form of city government in 1917, then changed to the city-manager form in 1928. In 1942 the town adopted a home rule charter, while continuing with a city manager. Kerrville has displayed steady population growth throughout the twentieth century, increasing from 1,423 residents in 1900 to 2,353 in 1920, 5,572 in 1940, 8,901 in 1960, and 15,276 in 1980. Its economic base has diversified and broadened through business, agriculture, light manufacturing, health care, transportation, services, education, the arts, and tourism. By the mid-1990s the Wall Street Journal described Kerrville as one of the wealthiest small towns in America. By 1995 the city's official population was still under 18,000, with another 20,000 people in relatively affluent residential areas south of the river and in the rest of the county. In 2000 the population reached 20,425. Much of the growth in population included retirees and young professionals and semiprofessionals; for many years Kerrville also experienced significant outmigration of young adults raised in the area.

Kerrville enjoys not only a favorable and pleasant setting that has long attracted an affluent and international population, but also a diversity in culture, business, and institutions. In the 1990s the ethnic mix of the town included Anglo Americans from all parts of the United States, as well as Germans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Scots. It also included smaller elements of Central European, Baltic, and Asian extraction. Partner-city agreements and other exchanges linked Kerrville with other municipalities in North America and Europe. There were more than fifty churches. Public and private schools, a college, several university extension programs, and an unusually large public library served Kerrville and the larger Hill Country area. Two museums preserved cowboy art and the history of the Schreiner family. The Kerrville music festivals, sports competitions, arts and crafts fairs, working ranches, wildlife, and exotic game preserves have been widely known in the state since the early 1900s and in the nation since the 1980s. Businesses in the early 1990s ranged from clinics, sanatoria, summer camps, convention centers, hotels, restaurants, and three hospitals, to an aircraft-manufacturing facility, a major silversmith, a regional bus company, an airport, various banks, radio and television stations, newspapers, retail stores, and services. The city also had a large number of artisans, painters, writers, and musicians. Tourism brought well over half a million visitors to the town annually in the 1980s and 1990s. The primary trade area included nearly 70,000 people by 1995. Economic development and environmental and cultural preservation were the main concerns of the town during these decades. Predominantly Republican, the town in the 1990s had a council-manager form of city government with six council members. An armory of the Texas National Guard was also located inside the city limits."

OTHER PROFILES: Wikipedia; ePodunk; City Data

PRIOR NAMES: Kerrsville

CEMETERIES: Brown (SW, S of hospital), Garden of Memories (NE of town, N of I-10, on TX 16 ), Guadalupe (N part of town, Town Creek Rd), Tivy Mountain (W sde, at 1341 & 534), Wharton (SW, S of airport); Cemetery (on TX 27 at Harper Hwy); Cemetery (N of town, N of intersection of TX 16 and I-10)

NOTES:

(We welcome submission of updates, additions, corrections & digital photos, without compensation.)

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