1008 Main Street was built in 1880. The 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the business to be a Dry Goods Store, and for a number of years after, a Saloon and Billiards room. Matt Anderson and his succeeding generations owned and leased out the building for another 66 years. One lessee, Ernst Gustav "Gus" Guse, used the building for about 35 years as a saloon. Gus was a true Bastrop character. His team, consisting of ten men, won Bastrop's "Fat Man" contest with a total weight of 2,308 lbs. Over the years, the building was also home to C.A. Long's Western Auto Store and June and Allen Pape's stationers store.
