Half a century ago, Mount Vernon locals stopped in at the corner of Houston and Main for a cut and a bit of conversation. Nowadays they still stop in for the conversation — but it’s a cup of coffee, instead of a haircut, that accompanies it.
Watermelon Mills Coffeehouse opened in fall 2016 in the former barbershop on Mount Vernon’s historic courthouse square, part of a downtown renaissance in this Main Street city along the Bankhead Highway. “It’s our historic buildings that create a sense of place and tell the story of our past,” explains Main Street manager Carolyn Teague. “Whether you’re sitting in a barber chair that cradled thousands of small boys for their first haircut, sharing a beer and pizza in a building that was reportedly the site of the first Cesarean birth in Texas, visiting a hundred-year-old depot with a working blacksmith shop or having brunch where there used to be a hardware store, all of the destinations make for a rich heritage tourism experience.”
ORIGINAL BEAN COUNTER William Cullen Mills (born July 28, 1910) served in the U.S. Army, then came home to farm, work the oilfields and serve as a security guard before opening Watermelon’s Hair Corner at age 50.
Watermelon Mills founder Shannon Ostertag and her husband, retired NBA player Greg Ostertag, understand how a place’s distinctive history creates that kind of rich experience. When they first reached out to the previous owners about purchasing the building, they were oblivious to its past. “We had no idea that it used to be a barbershop,” Shannon says. “It was called the Watermelon Building, and we just thought to ourselves, ‘Well that’s a silly name!’”
Turns out the appellation was that of barber and Mount Vernon native William Cullen “Watermelon” Mills, whose nickname resulted from a youthful escapade involving a theft from a farmer’s field — and the sheriff. The grown-up Mills, Shannon notes, was as fond of coffee as he was of casual chat, and she recognized the building would be the perfect place for people to gather and connect once again.
THEIR CUP OF TEA Watermelon Mills Coffeeshop attracts visitors from near and far to Mount Vernon’s charming courthouse square.
Watermelon Mills Coffeehouse is one of several destinations in Mount Vernon’s picturesque Plaza District where residents and visitors can enjoy a bit of refreshment. The ML Edwards & Co hardware store reopened on Valentine’s Day 2017 as a retail space focusing on home goods, antiques and locally sourced food,
wine and craft beer, with a private event space upstairs and a Bistro 1916 cafe named for the building’s year of creation, which coincided with the birth of the Bankhead Highway.
Steve-O’s Pizza and Pub at 114 Main St. serves up lunch and dinner in a historic building, and, according to Carolyn Teague, the Chophouse on Bankhead will open this fall in the historic Hill Building.
Those who drive the Bankhead join a steady stream of travelers eager for the authentic Texas experience — and a little caffeine. “We’ve seen everything,” says Shannon Ostertag, “from a couple from the Netherlands with a craving for pour-over–style coffee to the women in their adorable fixed-up trailers to the car club with historic vehicles traveling cross-county. Watermelon’s mutual love for coffee, community and conversation made him the embodiment of what a coffee shop is all about.”
