Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel
a.k.a. Spring Cafe;Wunsche Bros. Cafe & Saloon
103 Midway St., Spring, TXThe Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel is now one of the oldest extant commercial structures in the Spring community. It survives on its original site. Erected by one of Spring's most distinguished pioneering families, the Wunsches, the building has been a central gathering place since 1902. Its simple architectural elements, once common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, now portray the pioneering spirit that helped develop the state. The current owner has renovated the structure for use as a restaurant and bar, and the saloon has become a focal point once again for this small community, which is some 25 miles north of Houston.
Carl Wunsche and his family immigrated to Texas from the Kingdom of Saxony ca. 1846 and settled in Spring where there were already a number of other Germans. et Wunsche is listed in the 1950 U.S. Census as a "farmer." With the growth of the town and area, the family began a gin and gristmill operation and eventually opened a sawmill. The population of Spring grew with the construction of Houston and the Great Northern Railroad (later named the I. and G.N., or International and Great Northern) from Houston to Spring in 1971. By 1902, with the addition of the Fort Worth and Brazos Valley line, Spring had become a major switchyard facility with 14 track yards and a roundhouse.
In 1902, Wunsche's family members erected the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel to meet the increased need for accommodations for railroad employees. The Saloon, according to oral interviews with William (Willie) Wunsche, Jr., son of one of the builders, was erected in two months and utilized heart pine lumber from a local mill. The sign, which has been carefully replicated by the current owner, is said to have been painted by an artist with a traveling circus for $25.
By 1910 the population of Spring had swollen to 1,200, and an opera house and a number of hotels and saloons catered to railroad employees. In 1923, however, the railroad (now the Missouri Pacific) moved the roundhouse from Spring to Houston, and the decline of Spring as a bustling railroad terminus began.
Over the years the Wunsche family contributed enormously to the development of Spring. In the 1850s and 1860s, Charles Wunsche amassed over 3,000 acres of local land. The site of the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel was obtained by Charles Wunsche in 1862 as part of a 91-acre tract purchased for $80 from the assignee of Wiley Smith. Mr. Smith had acquired a patent for this land from the State of Texas in 1861.
As major landowners, the Wunsches engaged in farming, the timber business, and other commercial endeavors. The first automobile dealership in the area was started by William and Earl Wunsche, the sons of Charles Wunsche, Jr. In the 1930s, the Wunsche family donated 11 acres of land for a school, where the Wunsche Middle School now stands. In all, seven generations of the Wunsche family have contributed to the development of Spring.
Although the saloon remained in the ownership of the same family until 1982, from around 1916 on it was leased to various proprietors. The saloon closed during prohibition, and in the 1930s was leased as the Spring Cafe. It served hot meals and had boarding-house accommodations.
In 1950, a new proprietor, Viola Burke, leased the Spring Cafe, which became famous over the next three decades for its hamburgers and other fare. In 1982, Mrs. Burke's daughter closed the cafe when the building was sold by the Wunsche family, after 121 years of ownership, to G. Scott Mitchell. The building had fallen into substantial disrepair, but careful rehabilitation has made it a focal point of the community again.
The roundhouse and other railroad buildings have been demolished or moved, leaving only the saloon as a structure with close ties to the railroading past. Other commercial buildings similar in style to the saloon have disappeared. Although several old-style buildings have been moved to Spring recently, the Wunsche Bros. Saloon and Hotel is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Spring that reflects the true history of the community.
Bibliography
Cande, Robert E. "History of the Missouri Pacific Lines, Gulf Coast Lines, and Subsidiaries, International-Great Northern." Unpublished manuscript, Texas Room, Houston Public Library.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.