Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Oldest Grocery in San Antonio



Yesterday I was able to pop in and check out Maggot's Grocery, the city's first grocery store, established in 1883 by Theo and Pauline Magott. I met Larry Maggot (pictured) their grandson, who told me that not much has changed over the years. The size of the place is basically the same, there are old, old wooden floors and a low ceiling. The meat section was moved from one side of the back wall to another when they needed to put in drinks coolers in the 60's. I was able to find strawberry wafer cookies that I couldn't find recently elsewhere. The store is in the shadow of the Tower of the Americas, if you're standing across from it looking south. Even though the location has always been the same, the address number changed from #814 to #1314 Commerce after Hemisfair buildings were built in 1968. Larry told me that The Institute of Texan Cultures has a display featuring his grandparents, including information about how Theo contributed to the Polish language newspaper of his day.

3 comments:

  1. We enjoyed our visit to Magotts, and meeting Larry, who was really friendly. It WAS like going back in time. We're in town again next week, so we're going to stop by again.

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  2. Oh my god they are closed down, I was trying to buy the turkey tips

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  3. Where can I get the turkey tips for Thanksgiving

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