A little over a year ago I posted the following photo of the old Red Barn Cafe, which sat right where the weekly Farmer's Market is located. You can see the big concrete block in the foreground.
Apparently, this mysterious structure caused a stir back in early 1957 when the old meat market & produce shop was demolished. After the building was razed everyone wondered what the block was all about. Well, we have the answer in this short article from the Imperial Crown published in January 1957.
I'd heard this story but applied to a different building, the Ellis Plantation Home that sat next to the Char House. I'd heard that W. T. Eldridge, Sr. had a slab poured under the floor beneath the cupboard where he stored his alcoholic refreshments. Maybe old Sugar Land's imbibers were a determined bunch, and all storage locations need this kind of protection.
