A piece of old downtown Buda has been lost.
The long brick building behind the old Garison Filling Station at 122 N. Main Street collapsed during the afternoon of Nov. 5. No one was injured; however the collapse spilled brick and other debris, forcing the closure of a portion of Main and Live Oak streets.
The building’s owner Sandra Grizzle had plans for the old structure, which was built in 1917, and had actually been talking with the State Historical Commission. In fact, she was expecting to hear from the organization any day.
“They did not want me to tear it down. They were going to do some research especially on the bricks,” she said. “They were going to help me decide what to do with it and were going to get back to me by the end of October or first of November — that didn’t happen soon enough.”
Grizzle married the grandson of Dave Garison, who had used the building as a blacksmith shop. “Throughout the years it had various things in it. Probably for the last 60 years it’s been used more or less for storage — a lot of people in town used to store things in it.”
Garison built the filling station in 1920 and it now houses boutique shops, Grizzle said.
“I really am a bit sad about it. I did want to save certain things in the building but of course that didn’t happen either. I have no idea what I’ll do with it,” she said.
The old filling station was featured in a YouTube video that was part of a “Buda Back in the Day” series produced by the city of Buda.
Grizzle was not sure when the building the collapsed had actually been in use.
