Historic Downtown Shiner
In 1887, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad cut right through land owned by Henry Shiner, making way for a new wave of German and Czech settlers. A town sprung up around the railroad station, named for Mr. Shiner in 1890. In 1884, Mr. Shiner sold a home and land to Charles Welhausen, a native of Germany who’d become a prominent rancher and banker in Fayette and Lavaca counties. Today, the land is still in the Welhausen family, and Shiner’s Welhausen Park and Bandstand is the site for picnics, cattle roundups, baseball games, and other town events.
Other notable points of interest downtown include the 1891 Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church, comprised largely of German and Czech members; the Edwin Wolters Memorial Museum; the historic Shiner Opera House; and Kaspar Companies, one of the country’s oldest continually operating companies that began in 1898 making wire baskets.