Jim Duncan, a retired city planner, has written more than 600 short histories of Austin businesses. We introduced him and this series, \u201cJim Duncan\u2019s Austin,\u201d on July 6. This week, we adapt four of his histories of local businesses that are \u201cgone, but still kicking.\u201d \u2014 Michael Barnes<\/p>\n
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1910: Austex Chili<\/p>\n
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Austin had very little manufacturing during the early and mid-20th century. One exception was the Austex Chili plant on West Third Street near Republic Square Park. Along with a spinach-packing plant, it was the center of an agribusiness node in a part of downtown known as “Mexico” because of its Hispanic residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin History Center ND 48a05707<\/p>\n
When buying canned chili, the only decision Austinites once had to make was \u201cwith or without beans,\u201d because the brand was almost always \u201cAustex<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While Thomas Bailey Walker is usually given credit for creating Austex Chili, kudos should also go to banker Frederick William Catterall. Walker founded Walker Manufacturing and quickly became one of the nation\u2019s largest packers and dealers of canned Mexican foods \u2014 chili, tamales and beans \u2014 but he had to declare bankruptcy in 1914 with debts of more than $1 million.\u00a0Catterall rescued the business and continued to operate it under the Walker brand.\u00a0<\/p>\n He added\u00a0Austex\u00a0to the name in 1931.<\/p>\n Walker died in 1922 at the age of 46.\u00a0Austex offices were at 310 San Antonio St. near Republic Square, now a state garage, and its plant was at 500 West Fifth St., now the federal courthouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time, the neighborhood was largely populated by Mexican Americans, and Austex employed 15 percent of Austin\u2019s entire Mexican American population.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 1961, Austex merged with Frito-Lay, which started a series of mergers with\u00a0Riviana Foods, Castleberry Foods and Bumble Bee Foods. In 2007, the brand ran into problems when eight cases of botulism were attributed to the chili produced in a Georgia plant. \u00a0<\/p>\n 1912: Steck Publishing<\/p>\n Hart Graphics took over the Steck Publishing\u00a0plant on Shoal Creek\u00a0Boulevard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian K. Diggs\/American-Statesman File<\/p>\n Steck Publishing’s story is one of innovation, growth, acquisitions, mergers and spinoffs. \u00a0It was once the largest commercial printer in Texas. It printed TV Guide, catalogs, publications and software manuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 1912: Edgar Louis\u00a0Steck founded Steck at 110 E. Ninth St.<\/p>\n 1928:\u00a0Steck moved to new offices at 205 W. Ninth St.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1937:\u00a0Steck produced the first four-color process on newsprint in the U.S.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 1957: Steck moved to a new campus at 8000 Shoal Creek Blvd.<\/p>\n 1962: Steck was acquired by Vaughn Building and became Steck-Vaughn\u00a0<\/p>\n 1966: Steck-Vaughn acquired Warlick Press; it became Steck-Warlick\u00a0<\/p>\n 1968: Steck-Warlick was acquired by Intext Educational Publishers\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 1971: Steck-Warlick spun off Steck Data Processing\u00a0<\/p>\n 1972: Steck-Warlick spun off Shoal Creek Publishers\u00a0<\/p>\n 1973: Steck-Warlick sold the Austin office to Hart Graphics\u00a0<\/p>\n 1989: Hart Graphics spun off Hart Label (employee purchase)\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 2001: Hart Graphics closed shop\u00a0<\/p>\n Hart\u00a0Intercave, Hart Label and Shearer Publishing still operate \u00a0<\/p>\n 1922: Adams Extract<\/p>\n Neal Douglass took some shots meant for advertising campaigns. This one for homegrown Adams Extract in 1956, among other things, indicates how much food preparation, such as baking, was done at home back then.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neal Douglass\/Austin History Center ND 56153B0<\/p>\n Although born in Beeville and now based in Gonzales, no food manufacturer owes more of its growth and success to Austin than Adams Extract.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n After moving his family from Michigan to South Texas in 1905, John Anderson Adams concocted the popular vanilla flavoring product. At night, by the light of kerosene lamps, his family printed labels and bottled the product. \u00a0During the day, they sold it door to door with a full money-back guarantee. \u00a0<\/p>\n After receiving the University of Texas’ first business degree in 1917 and purchasing the firm from his father, Frederick Ward Adams moved the company to Austin in 1922 and into a two-story production structure at 2216 San Gabriel St.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adams’ son, John\u00a0Gandy Adams, a World War II Flying Tigers veteran and UT chemistry graduate, took over the firm in the late 1940s and diversified its product line. \u00a0<\/p>\n In 1947, he designed and built the first assorted food color four-pack line that is still sold today.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 1955, John Gandy Adams built a new 22-acre headquarters and production facility on what is now South Interstate 35, designed in the Prairie Industrial style by the architecture firm\u00a0Lundgren & Maurer<\/a>. The plant enabled the expansion of products to include a full spice and seasoning line in 1959.<\/p>\n John\u00a0Gandy Jr. succeeded his father as president. After 80 years in Austin, Adams Extract & Spice was purchased by Central Texas Ingredients and moved to Gonzales in 2002, where it now resides.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Adams died in 1938, Fred Adams in 1980 and John\u00a0Gandy Adams in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1956: Glastron Boats<\/p>\n Fidel Rodriguez, supervisor of final details, applies some finishing touches on the assembly line at Glastron Boat Co.<\/p>\n John Davenport\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n Glastron was one of the nation’s first manufacturers of fiberglass boats and one of the largest employers in Austin during the 1960s.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The company was born in 1956 when four Austin entrepreneurs joined to design and produce a lighter, faster, sexier sports boat. The partners were Robert Ray Hammond, a boat builder; William Dickerson\u00a0Gaston, a boat dealer; Robert Alan\u00a0Shoop, a casket dealer; and Guy William Woodward, an adhesives salesman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Glastron boats were known for their fiberglass composition and innovative hull design. Two Glastron boats became movie stars: the Batboat in the 1966 movie \u201cBatman<\/a>,\u201d which premiered in Austin, and the GT150 model that made a record-breaking 120-foot jump in the 1973 Bond film “Live and Let Die.”<\/p>\n After a first-year output of 24 boats, business boomed. Production increased from 4,000 boats in 1958 to 20,000 in 1974. The plant was expanded from 40,000 square feet to more than\u00a0half a million.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the 1990s, Glastron was purchased by Genmar Holdings and moved to Minnesota. In 2009, Genmar declared bankruptcy, and Glastron was acquired by Rec Boat Holdings, a subsidiary of Groupe Beneteau, an international boating and housing conglomerate. The boats are now manufactured in Michigan. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Shoop died in 2004,\u00a0Woodward in 2014, Hammond in 2017 and Gaston in 2019.<\/p>\n Three more from this series<\/p>\n From Spanish Village to Rosie\u2019s, the stories behind Austin\u2019s Tex-Mex staples<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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