Company Updates
Trust is a big deal. Especially when it comes to entrusting someone with our prized collections, our priceless memorabilia, or the inventory of the dream company we’ve birthed. That’s why, if you’re going to store your belongings with anyone, you should entrust them to a local self storage company that puts customers first: Alamo Mini-Storage.
Alamo Mini-Storage: How it Started
Alamo Mini-Storage has operated in Texas for more than 40 years, and has been lovingly cared for by three generations of family members.
It all started in the 70s when Vernon Helmke, an architect, and two friends—Bubba, a general contractor and Gerry, a priest—were talking about an uncommon business cropping up in the valley: garage rental. People who were moving, downsizing or renovating their homes were in need of storage and were renting garage-type units to house their belongings.
Soon, the three friends entered into a partnership called U-Stow and Go in San Antonio. As some of the early pioneers in the storage business in south Texas, they helped create the demand for storage facilities. With each of their talents, the architect, general contractor and priest designed, built and operated their storage business.
As an architect, Vernon constantly had plans and designs for improvement running through his brain. In 1978, he decided to act on the ideas that were pestering him, and he opened the first Alamo Mini-Storage on Bandera Road in San Antonio in 1978.
Vernon’s daughter, Karen, was the manager of the first location—not only was this role entirely new to her, she was managing from a wheelchair! Karen had fallen and banged up her knee pretty badly. She had 45 stitches, and was required to tool around the storage facility in a manual wheelchair—up and down hills, in and out of doors, and all in the Texas heat.
In the beginning, it was slow going—two or three phone calls a day, one or two drop-ins. Then things began to pick up and eventually, a second location was opened on Eisenhauer Road in San ...
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August 6th, 2021
