La Botanica Green & White

The story

Look at the weathered sign on the corner of East 7th and Waller Street and you’d think you’re pulling up to a mid-century corner store. That was the cover story starting in 1936, when founder Norverto Lopez built the shop out of recycled lumber from a downtown yard to sell butcher meats, Mexican import staples, and holiday tamales. The 'Grocery' lettering stayed on the building even after third-generation owner John Cazares Jr. officially converted the inventory on January 1, 1996, swapping pantry goods for spiritual supplies to outmaneuver the supermarket chains taking over the neighborhood.

Walk past the front counter today and you're standing among rows of Santa Muerte statues, orishas, cleansing herbs, and votive candles spanning curanderismo, Santería, Ifá, and folk magic. Yet the original store's hardware never retired: Cazares Jr. still calculates totals on a manual 1950s adding machine—cranking the heavy side handle to clank out numbers before opening the family's vintage mechanical cash register. While rapid development rewrote much of East Austin, this room earned City Historic Landmark status in 2024 as part of the East Austin Barrio Landmarks Project, keeping its roots locked firmly on 7th Street.