San Antonio businessman Albert Praeger (1864-1930) moved to Beeville in the 1890s to open a hardware store and tin shop. He built this Romanesque Revival structure in 1906 to house his business, which included buggies and wagons as well as barbed wire and tools. In 1925 when Sam Mitchell became store manager, the second floor storage space was converted into apartments. Since the turn of the century, this has been a landmark on the courthouse square.