Congressman Pfluger Moves District Office into Historic Building

Pfluger’s predecessor Congressman Mike Conaway operated the offices at the federal office building since at least the early 2000s and the third floor suite became a tradition. However, the building also serves as a federal courthouse and the congressman’s office was behind arduous screening and armed security.

“It’s not about just words about having transparent government. We have a problem with transparency in Washington D.C.,” Pfluger said. “But with this community, we wanted to show that transparency starts with an open door.”

Pfluger moved to a historic downtown building to get closer to constituents. The majority of his staff’s contact with citizens involves asking Pfluger’s office to help mediate a citizen’s issue with a federal bureaucracy such a retired military veteran needing to obtain his deserved government benefits or helping a citizen with a tax problem with the IRS. The new location allows the congressman’s staff to accept walk-in appointments.

In February 2015, Conoly and Heidi Brooks of San Angelo bought the building and successfully renovated it. On opening day, January 1, 2017, the building was thriving. Its five suites were leased 100 percent to law firms and small businesses, including an additional space where a flower shop called The Stemmed Design is still located.

Called “The Mercantile” the redesign of the building harkens back to the original architecture of the Sears and Roebuck days, to include restoring its original wood floors.

The newly renovated office building at 135 W. Twohig where Pfluger’s new office is has an interesting past. Construction began in 1929 to be the original Sears and Roebuck building. Sears opened in 1931. Sears outgrew the location and moved out three years later and the building became a car dealership called the Wood Motor Company, a Ford dealership. In 1942, the building again changed businesses when the car dealership moved out and the Western Wool and Mohair Company took over the building.

Meanwhile, a much larger purpose for the building was on the horizon. A grocer named Harry Polunsky moved to San Angelo in 1931 after he closed his wholesale grocer business in Menard to open the San Angelo Grocer Company in San Angelo. He and his cousin, Harry Shklar, purchased the Piggly Wiggly store at 245 S. Chadbourne St from Howard E. Butt. They found success and purchased a second store at 1310 W. Beauregard Ave. Along with Butt, the cousins formed a lifelong business relationship and the San Angelo Grocer Company was the primary supplier of the Butt Kerrville Store, the genesis of what would eventually become the H-E-B grocery chain.

During World War II, both Piggly Wiggly locations hit hard times and many locations across Texas were closed. In San Angelo, one of the two Piggly Wiggly stores moved to the 135 W. Twohig Ave. location and the other was closed. After the war, in 1946, the Piggly Wiggly was renamed to become Harry’s Food Store. It operated at the location until 1993.

The building sat vacant from 1993 until 2002 when Christians in Actions opened their thrift store there. When CIA moved out in 2012, the building was vacant again. Two partners purchased the old building shortly thereafter, planning to renovate the building. Sadly, the partnership’s plan never got off the ground and Downtown San Angelo, Inc. purchased the building in 2013.