Visitors who step inside D&W Underground in Abilene are instantly transported to another era. Fifteen-foot ceilings adorned with meticulously restored Art Deco stenciling draw the eyes upward. Colorful neon signs illuminate the walls, and a 1938 Ford, vintage motorcycle, and other antiques add to the ambience.
The building, which housed a Buick dealership in the 1920s, a drive-through gas station in the 1930s, and a furniture store in the 1950s, has been transformed into a dazzling time capsule and one-of-a-kind event venue.
In 2020, local businessman Robert Hoemke happened to drive by a furniture store on South First Street just as a “For Sale” sign was being placed. Intrigued, he mentioned to his wife, Holly, the idea of restoring an old downtown building. She immediately urged him to buy it.
Over the next three years, Hoemke discovered hidden gems beneath layers of paint and drop ceilings, painstakingly bringing them back to life.
“It was like an onion,” Hoemke said. “The more layers you peeled back, the sweeter it got.”
The top edge of the building’s exterior had been overlaid with metal. “I started pulling it off and began uncovering arches and cast stone and glass windows,” Hoemke recalled. “The more I pulled off, the more I discovered.”
Removing the drop ceilings he found “a little patch of red, a little patch of black, and then we found a little corner piece that was showing artwork,” he said. “And we began putting it all together.” He hired a stencil company to create 4-foot strips replicating the original design, and his painter meticulously hand-sponged the pattern back on.
The restoration process has been a labor of love, often requiring creative problem-solving. For the building’s ceiling fans, Hoemke had an Amish foundry recreate missing parts based on a single fan found in the attic.
The 1920s hexagonal tile floor, bearing the scars of its automotive past, extends throughout the space. Hoemke chose not to replace the floor but to grind off decades of grunge and clearcoat the top. Visitors can still see areas where gas pumps were installed and tires and oil were changed.
But it’s the brightly lit signs that steal the show. Hoemke has amassed an impressive collection, each piece with its own history. From the 24- by 14-foot Coca-Cola icon that graces the building’s exterior to rare pieces from long-gone businesses, the signs create a glowing tapestry of vintage Americana.
“I started collecting neon signs probably 30 years ago, and I was lucky back then when it was affordable to pick up a lot of the local history,” Hoemke said.
Some of his acquisitions predate neon, including an early Buick sign, complete with original melt glass lettering, cloth wiring and ceramic light bulb housings. “To be able to even find one of these, much less one that’s so original in such good condition, was really rare,” he said.
His signs have come from auction sites, warehouses, swap meets, barns, basements, garages and museums. He spotted a Reddy Kilowatt sign holding up a mailbox in Eastland and knocked on the door to ask about it. “The lady didn’t want to sell it,” Hoemke said, “but when I showed her what we were doing with the signs, she changed her mind.”
They are the perfect accoutrement for a building so rich in history. Constructed in 1927 by S.B. Shelton, the D&W building opened as Shelton Motors Buick dealership in 1928. However, the Great Depression struck in 1929, and by the early 1930s Buick had moved out.
In 1931, Jesse “T-Bone” Winters purchased the building, transforming it into a tire store and drive-through gas station – a revolutionary concept at the time. The “W” in the name stood for Winters and the “D” stood for his son and business partner, Dan.
Winters, a former baseball pitcher for the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies and later mayor of Abilene, operated his gas station from 1932-51. The business evolved into D&W Furniture in the 1950s before Tom Rose of Thomas Everett Furniture purchased it in 2001 and sold it to the Hoemkes in 2020.
Today, D&W Underground is more than a museum. It’s a functioning event space, seamlessly blending the past with the present. The 80-foot bar, designed to follow the original floor plan of the Buick offices, offers a unique backdrop for gatherings of up to 300 guests.
Hoemke’s passion for the project is evident in every detail. “I wanted to take my time and enjoy doing it,” he said. And for visitors to D&W Underground, that enjoyment is contagious, offering a glimpse into a bygone era that continues to captivate the imagination.
