Tolberts Breathe New Life into Smithville's Historic 110 Main

By Kristen Meriwether, Publisher

When Rachael and Brian Tolbert purchased 110 Main St. in downtown Smithville earlier this year, they knew they weren’t just purchasing four walls and a roof. They understood they were stepping into a piece of Smithville’s history that had been an anchor in the community for generations.

The building, which sits on the corner next to Olde World Bakery and Cafe, was built in 1903. According to the historical reference book “Smithville Then and Now,” it started as a grocery store before Edward and Marie Polansky took it over in 1909 and made it a bakery.

But after the Polanskys died, their sons took it over, and in 1923 the business shifted to a meat market and selling barbecue. Ownership changed to the Ebners in 1946, and for much of the rest of the 1900s, the scent of barbecue smoke billowing from the pit is what 110 Main St. was associated with in Smithville.

Families enjoyed milestones at Charlie’s. Little League teams celebrated their victories there. It was a place where locals caught up with neighbors over heaping plates of barbecue or at a dominoes game in the back.

“Every time we go anywhere, we meet someone who says, ‘Oh, you're the person who's working on that building. I remember when I played dominoes in the backyard with my grandpa.’ There are so many memories,” Rachael said in an interview earlier this month. “I just can't wait to invite people back in and hear those stories.”

Serendipitous Find 

Tolbert's path to owning 110 Main St. was anything but straightforward. After being laid off from a tech job in Austin, she moved to Smithville with her now-husband, who was born and raised in Bastrop. On a walk downtown, her eye caught a for-sale sign in the window. 

When she called the realtor, she learned the sign was old and the building wasn’t actually on the market. But months later, the sign still hadn’t come down. She called again and asked to speak directly with the owner. The owner insisted she wasn’t ready to sell, but Rachael refused to give up. 

“The more she said, ‘no, I don't think I'm ready to sell it yet,’ the more I said, ‘you need to sell it to someone like me, because I really want to turn it into something. I'm not a developer from outside of town. I'm local. I want to start a store here,’” Rachael recalled during our interview. “I want to help with the revitalization of downtown Smithville.”

The owner finally relented and in February of this year the Tolberts closed on the property. But that’s when the real work began.

Major Restoration Needed 

110 Main St. was in rough shape when the Tolberts purchased it. They saw the roof damage. They knew about the feral cat colony that had taken over the brick structure in the back. And they knew the floor would be a major issue.

“We had as thorough an inspection as we could get on surface level, and we knew it was bad,” Rachael said. “There was no denying that this needed major restoration before it was even safe.”

They spoke with multiple engineering firms and construction professionals to begin tackling the project—but no one wanted to touch it. Rachael said one firm actually recommended tearing the building down and starting over.

But that was never an option for the Tolberts. So they struck up a conversation with local builder Scott Botz and his company, Turquoise Moon, about taking on the project. His attitude was a complete 180 from the engineers the Tolberts had been working with.

“I don't think there's any project that can't be taken care of,” Botz told us in a phone interview last week. “If there's a will, there's a way to make it happen.”

And make it happen, he has.

The biggest issue with the building was the floor. Anyone who had seen a play when 110 Main was the Playhouse in recent years would recall how the floor sloped in the middle. While the Tolberts wanted to keep as much of the original building as possible, there was no saving the original floor.

They had to take the entire floor out, all the way to dirt, which hadn’t seen the light of day since the turn of the last century. Rachael said she got a metal detector to look for any hidden treasure, but they didn’t find any before the new floor was poured.

They have since redone the roof in the back, fixed the foundation, peeled away plaster from the original red bricks inside and removed the old smoker and vents from the barbecue days. Up next is redoing all the electrical wiring, putting in an HVAC system and restrooms before building out the store.

Downtown Revival 

Rachael expects the renovations to be done later this year and anticipates opening Faire La Nouba (pronounced fair lah NOO-bah) early next year.

It will be a celebration store, a place where you can pick up wine, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, party supplies, kitchenware, barware, gifts, greeting cards and home and holiday décor to elevate your celebration and make hosting or attending your events even more special.

Faire La Nouba will have seating to enjoy drinks on-site, and snacks, charcuterie and treats will also be available.

The Tolberts are hoping the effort they put into renovating the building will encourage others to take the same leap and continue the revitalization of downtown Smithville.

“I'm hoping it'll be a spark for other people to come into Smithville too,” Brian, who grew up in Bastrop and came to Smithville as a kid, said. “I know what the potential of Smithville is.”

He said he hopes leadership will bring more people into town and entice current vacant building owners to get people into the buildings.

“Start bringing some more people into town, and stop letting people hold on to these buildings and not do anything,” Brian said. “You're going to crush this town, and it might be gone in my lifetime, which would be sad.”

In a walk down Main Street on Friday, Smithville Texas News found eight vacant buildings in the two blocks between Loop 230 and First Street. Fees for vacant buildings have been informally discussed at city council and on social media this year; however, no ordinances have been introduced.

Municipalities in Texas can charge fees to owners of vacant commercial buildings to encourage maintenance and reduce blight, but they cannot function as taxes.

Nearby Rockdale, charges an annual $500 registration fee plus $0.01 per square foot for inspections (minimum $50). Winnsboro requires an initial $500 annual fee plus $250 quarterly, doubling in the second year. Pilot Point has escalating annual fees starting at $500 and increasing by $500 each year, with inspection costs. Larger cities like Corpus Christi (new $250 fee as of September 2025), Dallas ($500 annual in CBD plus inspection fees) and Wichita Falls ($150 registration plus $100 inspection) also use similar measures, often in historic or downtown areas.

Vacancy fees could also help bring down the prices of the buildings to entice a sale. Brian noted that the asking price for many of the buildings they looked at downtown reflected real estate prices Smithville may see in five to 10 years—but not the reality on the ground now.

“I don't think there was a realistic expectation on how much a small business can spend on rent or the purchase of a building, plus an [unknown] bill on restoration. A small business can't take those sorts of risks very easily,” Rachael said. “The average person who wants to have a family-owned business just simply cannot afford that. I don't know if I can. It's pretty scary.”

Brian added he hopes the four businesses that will now fill that block—The Front Room, Golden Girls Boutique, Old World Bakery and soon-to-be Faire La Nouba—can help usher in a revival downtown.

And at least one local contractor will have the skill and heart to make it happen.

“I've been in Smithville for 25 years, and I just want to see it grow and be prosperous like it used to be back in the day. There's no reason why it can't be that way,” Botz, the contractor, said. “A lot of these old buildings are just sitting there, and they're rotting away. If somebody puts a little tender loving care into them, we could bring it back to life, and we could get some really good businesses down there.”