2020-3 Remembrances Special Edition1
City of Schertz
Remembrances Special Edition Article 2020-3
Presented by: Schertz Historical Preservation Committee
Cibolo Valley Community Museum Arrival: March 2020
Former Schertz Mayor Harold “Hal” Baldwin had a keen appreciation for the City of Schertz
history and great respect for the citizens who, through the decades, made significant
contributions to the City’s survival and growth. In late 2006, Mayor Baldwin suggested
establishing a historical preservation organization in Schertz to honor the men and women who
were so instrumental in passing along a legacy so important to the community’s success. On
December 19, 2006, the Mayor brought a resolution before City Council establishing the Schertz
Historical Preservation Committee, a 14-member volunteer committee charged with three
specific objectives. The first objective was to “create a City museum to contain pictures,
artifacts, and other historical items related to the City’s pasts.” The resolution unanimously
passed a City Council vote. Thereafter began the search for space within the City for an
historical museum. Collection of historic photos and artifacts began immediately in expectation
that museum space would be quickly found. The principal artifact donor up to that time was
Lula Mae Schertz, the City’s informal historian prior to the Committee’s arrival. Lula Mae and
husband Walter were charter members of the Schertz Historical Preservation Committee. Over
the next couple of years three separate solutions to the venue issue were considered. First,
was an offer by City Council to donate a space within the former Schertz Library (children’s
area). That offer was withdrawn once it was learned the City had accepted an offer from a
commercial entity (WellMed) to lease the space. Next was an offer to provide a home owned
by the City for use as a museum venue. That offer entailed having the home renovated to make
it suitable for museum use. Survey of the cost for such renovation amounted to nearly $90,000
dollars, far too costly for serious consideration. Lastly, the City placed the museum question on
a 2010 bond issue which failed to garner approval by the voters. Subsequently, the search for a
museum venue was replaced with a Committee decision to begin locating small business
venues and local government venues for placement of the historic photos. Schertz public
venues included the new Schertz Library, Schertz Senior Center, and the Schertz Visitor’s
Center. The business venue initiative proved successful as exhibits began to appear in real
estate offices, physician offices, and a hotel’s conference room. In 2019, Committee
expectations of having a dedicated history museum in Schertz awoke with the start of
restoration of Reidel’s Furniture and Appliance Store (1052 FM 78, Schertz, Texas). Guadalupe
County Commissioners Court contracted to restore Reidel’s for use as a county service center.
The County, under the leadership of County Commissioner Jim Wolverton, invited the “Cibolo
Valley Community Museum Association” (“the Association”), a non-profit historical
preservation association, to prepare historic photograph exhibits for placement in the planned
Guadalupe County Service Center. Commissioner Wolverton also invited the Association to
prepare exhibits for placement in the railroad caboose that sits aside the former furniture and
appliance store building.
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The Association began the work of fabricating photo exhibits and designing a plan for their
placement. The communities to be featured were to be those that comprise towns/cities that
are situated along the Cibolo Valley to include: Selma, Joint Base Randolph, Schertz, Cibolo,
Santa Clara, and Marion, Texas. Additionally, the Association began collecting artifacts and
photographs representative of the history of railroad development through the Cibolo Valley
area. These railroad artifacts would later be placed in the restored caboose. A group of
community volunteers joined Association officers in the work of gathering and selecting
appropriate historic photographs, enlarging photos, matting and framing photos, and, grouping
exhibits by subject and communities. In early March 2020, a group of volunteers began the
work of placing the finished photo exhibits on the walls of the Service Center. The completion
of exhibit placement ended just prior to the Coronavirus “social distancing” guidance having
been issued. The museum exhibits are currently ready for viewing at the Service Center.
Mayor Baldwin’s vision of creating a Schertz community history museum has now been realized
although not exactly how he might have imagined. The museum setting is ideally located for
maximum citizen viewership since most of Cibolo Valley’s population will, from time to time,
have need of services situated in the County Service Center Building. The added creation of a
mini-railroad caboose exhibit will serve as an important educational and cultural artifact
reminding citizens of the importance of the railroad’s first passage through the Cibolo Valley on
its way to becoming a part of the southern Transcontinental Railway. (see Remembrances
article 2020-2)
Examples of Historic Photo Exhibits Displayed at Guadalupe County Service Building