CROSSROADS REPORT
By Kent Brunette
From The Pages Of The June 7, 2006
Hearne Democrat Newspaper
When the furnishings of the Calvert Hotel were recently auctioned, Dale Werlinger
purchased an eight foot long by nine foot tall open-fronted cabinet which sits on a four-door,
three-drawer base. At the time of his purchase, Werlinger was told the massive unit was from the
City Café in Hearne.
In the days since Sonic Drive-In Dale donated this item to the Hearne Chamber of
Commerce, Cliff Hopcus has painstakingly stripped it to reveal fine seasoned oak under several
layers of paint of varying colors. This cabinet will soon be stained a dark mahogany to match
other items in the chamber’s main reception room.
Last week, I went to the Palmos, Russ, McCullough, & Russ law firm to get Bill Palmos
and bring him to the chamber to look at this latest acquisition. Over the past three years, I have
made numerous pilgrimages to Palmos’ law firm to ask him various questions about Hearne
history. Palmos could obviously sense my excitement at the chamber’s latest attempt to preserve
yet another piece of Hearne history.
Upon arrival at the chamber, Mr. Palmos walked up to the cabinet, inspected it briefly,
looked me in the eye and said, “This was never in the City Café.”
There you have it. Need I say more? For once in my life, I was speechless.
The two-block trip back to the law firm was far more somber than the journey over to the
chamber. As we were getting out of the car, Mr. Palmos said he was sorry that the information he
conveyed was not what I wanted to hear. As I turned to get back in my car, I remembered
another question I had for him.
“Do you know where I might be able to find one of the old residential street lights from a
Hearne neighborhood? I think they were green porcelain on top and white porcelain underneath.”
“Nunzio Randazzo has one lying on the ground in his backyard,” Palmos promptly replied
as he turned and headed back into his office.
Angelina Randazzo, Nunzio’s wife, was in the kitchen when I knocked on the back door
of the family’s home. After I explained who I was and why I’d come calling, she led me around
the sprinkler in the yard to the back of Nunzio J. Randazzo’s electronics repair shop.
The gray metal gooseneck support pole from one of the old residential street lamps was
the first thing that came into view. A decorative piece of old wrought iron which was curled at
both ends was attached to it.
As I reached for the support pole, I noticed something else. An active hornet’s nest was
hanging from it. Ever-mindful of the hornets, Mrs. Randazzo and I moved things around a bit. As
we did, the other parts of the old street light became visible.
There was the green and white porcelain covered metal lamp shade. Rather than being
flat, it was fluted or ribbed all around. It actually had a fancy look to it. I had imagined it as being
of simpler design.
I was also surprised to see a rather large dark brown porcelain piece. This shiny part,
which looked like an Englishman’s top hat and hung upside down above the metal shade,
contained the internal workings of the electric light fixture.
About this time, Nunzio returned from his brief trip to Brookshire Brothers to buy carrots.
He parked the family car while I made a trip to the same store to buy a can of hornet and wasp
spray. After the spray had been applied and the coast was clear, we removed the street lamp
and all of its parts from their resting place. Mr. Randazzo was particularly proud of the plug-in
bulb on the old light fixture.
Nunzio J. Randazzo graciously agreed to loan the old light fixture (which still works) to
the chamber for display (provided his family can get it back at any time if they so desire). This
piece of Hearne memorabilia now hangs proudly from a weathered wooden light pole Cliff
Hopcus attached to a brick wall in my office.
I mentioned the chamber’s mystery cabinet to Mr. Randazzo and asked if he would come
down to the chamber to see if he recognized it. After swinging by Crane Plumbing to look at
some exterior light fixtures that are similar to (but much smaller than) the Hearne residential
lights, we headed to the chamber.
The massive cabinet was sitting on the floor in two parts. The base was up against the
wall and the top portion was in front of the base. Upon eyeing the cabinet, Mr. Randazzo said, “I
know exactly what this is. But, you’ve only got half of it. This (pointing to the top part) sat on a
base with two sets of doors on both sides and three drawers in the middle.”
As we walked around the cabinet, I pushed the top part away from the base so Mr.
Randazzo could look at it. The piece of furniture sitting there was exactly as he had just
described.
It turns out that the chamber’s mystery cabinet came from the Misses Smith Millinery &
Ready To Wear Shop which used to be in the Batley Building (now occupied by the Smith-Welch
Memorial Library). There is a photo of the interior of this store on page 286 of “A History Of
Robertson County” by J. W. Baker. Dark stained wooden cabinets are clearly visible on two walls
in this photo.
Why did Nunzio J. Randazzo know these cabinets so well? For several years, K.
Woolens occupied the Batley Building. Many years ago, Randazzo helped Mack Holt (owner of
the Hearne K. Woolens) move these cabinets when the store relocated a block down Fourth
Street. A call to Gene Holt, Bill Holt’s and Kathy Holt (Mrs. James Paul) Baker’s mother,
confirmed Randazzo’s recollection.
Whatever happened to the large sliding glass doors with carved wooden frames which
formerly graced the top part of this cabinet remains a mystery. The tracks for the sliding doors
are still there in the cabinet but the doors themselves are long since gone. If anyone knows
where these wooden and glass doors may be or if anyone has a photo showing these cabinets
with their doors, please contact the Hearne Chamber of Commerce at 979.279.2351.
Crossroads Report appears weekly in the Hearne Democrat. Reports are archived at
www.hearnetexas.info. Click on the “Crossroads Report” link to view past reports.
Send comments or suggestions to chamber@hearnetexas.info or 304 S. Market Street.
The views expressed in this report are those of the author & do not necessarily reflect the views
of Hearne’s 4A & 4B Sales Tax Boards, Hearne Chamber of Commerce, or the Robertson County
Democratic Party.