Stripling Drug / Old Town Well

The Stripling Drug Store was established in 1904 and operated by Mr. Stripling for almost 70 years.

Many of the store's furnishings and fixtures are original to the building.

The Old Town Well was dug to a depth of 27 feet by slave labor in 1860. At that time the outdoor well was lined with the circular brick commonly used.

Conveniently located on El Camino Real, the King’s Highway, it supplied citizens of this early Texas town with water for drinking, cooking and fighting fires.

In 1891, when San Augustine residents had their own wells, a saloon owner bought the land with the well and built a frame building over it for a new saloon. The well was near the saloon bar, and the bartender kept the beer cool by lowering it into the water in sacks.

When saloons were voted out in 1902, a bottling plant took over the building and used water from the well for making soft drinks.

In 1904, Mr. Stripling moved to San Augustine from Nacogdoches, opened a drug store across the street from the bottling plant, and acquired water from the well to use in his soda fountain.

In 1917 the First National Bank bought the property. The frame structure was torn down, the well filled in, surface bricks were removed, and a new bank building was erected on the site. When the bank moved a few years later, Stripling purchased the building and operated his drug store in that location for over 70 years.

The imaginative druggist decided to remodel the pharmacy in later years, taking advantage of the town’s growing interest in heritage tourism. He had a hole cut in the floor of the store over the old well site, and workmen began excavating the dirt inside the circular brick. After the well was restored, Mr. Stripling had new bricks brought in for the well top. He acquired the old sweetgum roller and hand wrought iron handle that was the well windlass of San Augustine's Rev. George L. Crocket, author of Two Centuries in East Texas. Mr. Stripling found the homemade oak bucket near Nacogdoches.

The Stripling Building featuring the Old Town Well was purchased by the San Augustine County Historical Foundation in 2003 and operates as a gift shop selling historical books and period gifts.

107 Columbia Street, two doors down from the Augus Theatre.