The Schreiner Mansion stands downtown as a reminder that the Hill Country had its own version of Gilded Age wealth. Built in 1879 in the Second Empire Victorian style — a mansard roof, decorative ironwork, and a scale that looks completely improbable in a frontier ranching town — it was commissioned by Capt. Charles Schreiner, the merchant and rancher who dominated Kerrville's economy for half a century. It is now a Texas Historical Landmark.
The exterior is the main draw, and you can view it easily from the street. The building's unlikely grandeur, set against the limestone storefronts of the Hill Country commercial district, says something true about the ambitions and contradictions of late-19th-century Texas. Interior access varies depending on current use.