Birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Typical early Fredericksburg home built 1866 by Carl Basse. Property of the Henke family since 1873. Heinrich Henke, early settler, Confederate freighter, had butcher counter on front porch; meat processing was done in back yard; there the horses that pulled meat vending cart were stabled. Shop later built on foundation of stone walls surrounding lot. He and his wife Dorothea (nee Weirich) added the long dining room and kitchen with sloped roof to accommodate their twelve children. Many of their furnishings are preserved by Udo Henke, a descendant. In small room to rear of front bedroom, on Feb. 24, 1885, their daughter, Anna Henke Nimitz, gave birth to Chester William Nimitz, destined to command the greatest naval armada in history. A 1905 honor graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, Nimitz was chief of staff to commander, Atlantic Submarine Fleet, W.W.I. Installed first Naval ROTC unit in U.S. Navy, 1926; selected Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet after attack on Pearl Harbor; appointed Fleet Admiral, U. S. Navy, 1944. As representative of the U. S. he signed Japanese surrender documents on his flagship, USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay. Admiral Nimitz died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carl Basse built this typical early Fredericksburg house in 1866, and the Henke family—who ran a butcher business from its front porch and back yard—expanded it for their twelve children. In a small back room on February 24, 1885, Anna Henke Nimitz gave birth to Chester W. Nimitz. He rose from the U.S. Naval Academy to command the Pacific Fleet after Pearl Harbor, was made Fleet Admiral in 1944, and signed the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945.
Why it matters
This modest German-Texan home was the birthplace of the admiral who directed America's victory in the Pacific, tying a Hill Country immigrant community to the outcome of World War II.
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Related people
- · Chester W. Nimitz
- · Anna Henke Nimitz
- · Heinrich Henke
- · Carl Basse
Related events
- · Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri, 1945
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nimitz Hotel
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Charles Henry Nimitz bought this property in 1855 and by 1860 was running a hotel that fed and housed frontier travelers while sheltering his own large family. An 1870s expansion gave it a whimsical steamboat-shaped facade, and it became a hub of community life. In 1964 the building became a museum honoring the founder's grandson, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and those who served with him in the Pacific during World War II.
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