Once the International and Great Northern Railway made its intentions known, the dusty little town of Kyle became a destination. Building the first permanent structure in town, merchants David Alexander Young and his wife Fannie Elizabeth opened their new store on this corner in 1881. Through the years the D.A. Young Building has been home to many enterprises, notably the Kyle Creamery Company in the first decade of the past century. (Courtesy of Kyle City Hall)
by BRENDA STEWART
Kyle Creamery Company – the words have a nice cadence. And an old rock structure on Miller Street in downtown has that same feel. Basic, straightforward and unassuming. For years, the two have been wedded together in Kyle history as one and the same. The reality, though, has them both steeped in Kyle lore, but serving totally different purposes in completely separate locations.
The Kyle Creamery was actually housed in the D.A. Young Building, the first permanent structure in Kyle, which still sits on the southwest corner of the town square. David Alexander Young and his wife Fannie Elizabeth moved their mercantile business from Mountain City to Kyle when the International and Great Northern Railway came to town in 1881.
In the first part of the next century, that same pale yellow building became the Kyle Creamery Company. According to the Cold Storage and Ice Trade Journal of 1909, R.J. Sledge, Chas. Thiele and J.W. Tompkins incorporated the creamery company with a capital stock of $3,000 in September 1909. The north end of the creamery building was extended farther than the existing structure, and had Kyle Creamery painted in large letters on the wall facing the town square.
The little rock building to its west, however, never had the distinction of being a creamery, although various sources have dubbed it so and even named a cat in its honor. Hays Street (the street south of the square and now named Miller) was home to various liveries back in the day, and M.C. Michaelis, a well-known local rancher, once owned the unpretentious stone building and used it to house buggy parts, equipment and storage.
One night in 1936, Michaelis’ barn, said to have been the largest in the state, caught fire and burned to the ground. Although the ranch was seven miles west of the city, newspaper accounts state the fire was so immense, the glow could be seen from downtown. Michaelis, in gratitude for keeping the flames from his home, deeded the D.A. Young Building to the “fire boys” to house the Kyle fire station.
Since then, the building at 108 S. Burleson St. has worn many hats ranging from the Kyle police station to its current incarnation as headquarters of the Texas Game Warden Association. For 130 years, the first structure in Kyle has anchored its corner of the square, sitting next to the unpretentious stone building with the wooden shutters to its right. The only thing the two structures have in common is the stretch of block their foundations rest on – and, probably, the “Creamery Cat” still seen scouting out the old building.
