Gorsline Fashion and Livery Stable

     Edgar Byron Gorsline moved from Indiana to Wichita Falls around 1889. He established the Gorsline Fashion and Livery Stable in 1892 and in 1917 sold his business to Judge A. H. Carrigan. It is known at the Archives that Gorsline grew up around horses, knew about them, and loved them. He lived on a pasture where the Kemp Center of the Arts now stands (formerly Kemp Public Library) where he traded horses. At the stable, he insisted that the horses be treated well. 

     Gorsline was a charter member of the local Elks Lodge and devoted to the Knights of the Pythias. What a great guy. 

     The Gorsline Fashion and Livery Stable was razed in 1908. In its place, a couple of buildings popped up, one of them built for the Lepold Clothing Company, located in the building with the finials and spheres, shown in the photo above by Lester Jones. 

      But was 711 Indiana the location where the original marker stood? I studied two photographs in the file. Both photographs showed the same marker, but the backgrounds were different. One showed the marker standing in front of a sign; the other, the marker stood in front of the parking garage next to the Museum. A little more reading gave me some information about the history behind the marker itself.

    Before restoration, the building was abandoned and the safety of the marker was in question. Also in question was the desire of the previous owners to place the marker in front of their property, history not-withstanding. Both reasons gave pause to the Commission about where to place the marker.

      I felt a tad confused for a while as I looked through the thick file of correspondence, documents, and articles about the marker. There were photos of Bill McGregor, Gorsline's grandson, at the unveiling of the marker; and then there were photos of the same marker with a different background being unveiled at a later date by Mayor Bill Altman. In the meantime, I saw it, with my own eyes, standing in front of the stylish building with the finials and spheres on the top. 

     I showed Lita a photograph of the marker where it stood when Mayor Bill Altman attended the unveiling. 

      "But I thought it was in front of Walgreens," she said. Then I showed her the other photo where I had glimpsed behind the marker letters that indicated part of the name Walgreens. 

     As it turns out, the original marker, installed in 1979, was installed at 720 Indiana, and then lost when the Walgreens was torn down to build a more modern building. 

     After buying a second marker and placing it on the same location, which is across the street from the original address of the stable, the new owners of the building requested to move it to the proper site, 711 Indiana, where it is today.

     The marker reads: Gorsline Fashion and Livery Stable   In 1889 Edgar B. Gorsline (1859 - 1933)

and his wife came to Wichita Falls from Indiana. For two years Gorsline operated a grocery and bakery. He opened the fashion livery stable at this site in 1892. Horses and rigs were rented and horses boarded. Carriages were sent to meet all trains and transportation for funerals was provided. Before the automobile era, the fashion livery stable furnished vital services for residents and visitors to Wichita Falls. Gorsline sold the stable in 1907 and the structure at this site was razed in 1908. (1979)