Object Type: Folder
In Folder: AF Subjects
Photographs documenting John C. Ross Hardware Store located on Congress Avenue from the Austin Files collection
Photographs documenting Tips Hardware Store from the Austin Files collection. The Walter Tips Company was a hardware firm that operated in Austin, Texas, for 127 years. The company sold not only hardware, but also automobile accessories, mill supplies, and sporting goods. They covered a large trade area throughout Texas. Walter Tips was the youngest son of Johann Conrad Tips and Anna Caroline Brown Tips, born in Elberfield, Prussia in 1841. The Tips family emigrated to Indianola (Port Lavaca), Texas in 1849. Before the Civil War, Walter’s older brother Edward Tips moved to Austin and opened a hardware store on what is now Congress Avenue. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Walter went into the hardware business with William Clemens in New Braunfels, Texas. After Edward Tips died in 1872, Walter Tips and his partners, William Clemens and Joseph Faust, bought the hardware business in Austin, renaming it “Walter Tips & Company.” Tips bought out his two partners to become the sole owner of the Austin store in 1881. The Walter Tips Company building at 712 Congress Avenue was constructed on the site of Edward Tips’ previous store in 1876-1877. Designed by Austin architect Jasper N. Preston, it is now a registered Texas Historic Landmark. The Walter Tips Company remained at the location on Congress Avenue until 1927 and the building was later bought by Franklin Savings Association in 1978 and restored it for use as their home office. In 1927, the company moved into a newly constructed warehouse at 200 Colorado Street and moved to selling solely wholesale hardware and automotive parts. Walter Tips operated the company until his death in 1911. Soon after, in 1914, the company was incorporated and a Board of Directors elected. Adolf C. Goeth, son-in-law of Walter Tips, served as president of the company until his death in 1927. Successive presidents included George Groos, Frank W. Posey, Dan F. Searight, and Carl Johnson. In 1984, the company stakeholders approved the sale of downtown company property due to the rising land prices. After selling the properties, they ended up deciding to sell the company to two companies rather than buy more real estate elsewhere. The automobile division that was operating at 115 W. 2nd Street was sold to Mount Joy Auto Parts Company of Houston. The hardware division which operated at 200 Colorado was sold to Wyeth Hardware Company in St. Josephs, Missouri. At the time of its closing, the company had more than 130 stockholders.
