continued from p.6
people about land. They’re buy
ing it up and waiting for the
prices to go up.”
JJut antiques, not indus
try, are what interest the people
of Calvert for now. Lockhart
says antiques account for 75
percent of the town’s business.
Residents depend on the town’s
historic homes and Victorian
ambiance to get tourists to the
shops.
Some of the historic homes
have been restored and will be
featured on April 12-13 in the
Robertson County 14th Annual
Historical Pilgrimage, which
includes tours of the refur
bished, period-furnished Victo
rian homes.
Give or take a few paved-over
brick streets, a 12-block histori
cal district is being restored to
its original condition. The cast-
iron store fronts, made in St.
Louis in the 1870’s, are regain
ing their former glamour and
grace and the shops on the west
side of the street have new coats
of paint in Easter-egg colors.
No old men line the sides of the
the street now. Instead, tourists
with cameras stroll up one side
and down the other, browsing
and buying in the town’s 12 an
tique shops. n
Tannie Pickle, manager of
Gray’s Antiques, says tourists
come because Calvert is “The
Antique Capital of TexasA
“I guess we just started call
ing it that,” says the 12-year
resident in explanation of the ti
tle. “People started coming in
here and fixing things up and
people just started coming to
buy.”
Gray’s tight-packed rows of
bureaus, sideboards and dres
ser sets line the store from end-
to-end. All of the shop’s polish
seems to be on the furniture,
but the treasures the store con
tains, like a hundred-year-old
Victrola, make up for the lack
of decor.
Pickle says all the antiques
are bought by the owner, and
many come from as far away as
England. Most of the store’s
customers are passing through
from Waco, Houston or College
Station, he says.
i eople passing through Cal
vert do so on Highway 6, which
is to Calvert now what the rail
road was in the 1870s and
1880s, says Lockhart.
“At one time they were talk
ing about re-routing it,” she
says of the highway. “They
didn’t do it but you should have
heard the screaming about it.”
Sallie Tucker Anderson, a lo
cal merchant, agrees that the
highway is the lifeblood of the
town. But she says the historical
importance of the town has
been just as important in its
growth.
“It’s been called the Wil
liamsburg of Texas,” she says.
“And it’s one of the few authen-
continued onp.ll