The Adler Building

In 1911, Henry Oscar Adler built the Adler Building at 236 S. Main Street. The family lived upstairs, and Adler operated a general store on the first floor, “A Store of a Million Articles”. This was a huge project, with one of the only full basements in Boerne. Adler was an active volunteer in the community and was awarded the coveted Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts.

In 1930, the Adler family added wrought iron to the porches and black glass around the lower windows. Ruby and Edgar Bergmann bought the Adler Building in 1956 and began the Bergmann Lumber company the following year with the help of Santiago Lopez.

One of the earliest memories Ruby and Edgars son Randy Bergmann has of his family-owned hardware store is when he was 7-years-old and played with his friends in the 20 yards of sand his family used to keep in front of their building to sell to customers.

When he was young, neither H-E-B nor Walmart existed and the stores on Main Street were “individual” stores which sold clothes, drugs, and gifts. “Everybody knew everyone,” Randy said. “If I ran up the street to the five-and-dime store my mother had five people call her and say, “‘Did you know Randy was up the street?’ ” He also said that Boerne residents were in less of a rush when he was a child. They would only go to town once a week and relied on his parents’ and others’ stores to meet their needs.