The Thurmond Building
C.L. Thurmond built this brick building in 1898. At the time, the area was the heart of Victoria’s riverfront business district. The business district was prosperous from river traffic until rail lines and roads caused businesses to move north and east of this area. Rumor has it that the building was patterned after a New Orleans bordello. It is similar to other buildings built in the area prior to 1900. The Thurmond Building has been used as a grocery store/residence, a general mercantile store, and a farmer’s cooperative. Step inside to see the original counter and photographs of the mercantile store and the building standing alone in a field! The building features a three-story central section that used to store supplies and a grain mill when it was the Farmers’ Cooperative. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1980. Today it houses The Victoria Art League, which in addition to offering classes, houses a member gallery with revolving exhibits and a gift gallery. The Art League Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 1:00-5:00 p.m. There is no admission charge and entering the building is not required to find the cache. The cache is accessible 24 hours, but be aware that a building caretaker lives on the premises and the property owners would appreciate visits during daylight hours only. If you do view the gallery, please note that the geocache brought you here on the visitor log inside.
The 2 quart cache will be in an easy-to-find, unusual, but distinctive container. Opening it may be a little tricky. There is plenty of room for SWAG and Travel Bugs. If you take something, leave something of equal or greater value and close the container and cache securely. If the neighborhood kids are out playing or if an event is scheduled, please be stealthy.
Placed with permission by Victoria Art League President (at the time of placement) Jim Feig.
FTF gets an original wooden Chaos Coin. Congratulations goes to AJoker - first to find it on the day it went live.
*** UPDATE*** Due to repeated thefts of the cache log container (with log, SWAG, and even TBs) I am attempting to "hide" the log inside the cache container itself. Once you have it open, feel around on the upper left side of the opening for a velcroed "envelope" made from duct tape - it contains the log. When you replace it, make sure it is out of side to a casual observer who opens the container. We'll see how this works. Let me know.