Church Hill School Building
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
St. Martin's Evangelical Lutheran pastors held day school in the church for years. In 1870 this schoolhouse was built. It served the Hortontown and Neighborsville farm communities, situated on either side of the Church Hill Road. After 1879, lay teachers were in charge, classes used both German and English. The public school system used this building after 1958; in 1975 it was given to New Braunfels Conservation Society for use as a school museum. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1870, this schoolhouse grew out of day classes once held inside St. Martin's Evangelical Lutheran Church, serving the farm families of the Hortontown and Neighborsville communities. For years lessons were taught in both German and English, a reflection of the region's strong German immigrant roots. After serving the public school system, the building was preserved in 1975 as a school museum.
Why it matters
It preserves the bilingual, church-rooted schooling of Texas's German settler communities, a reminder of how immigrant culture shaped frontier education.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hermann Seele
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Part of the wave of German immigrants who founded New Braunfels, Hermann Seele came from Hanover to Texas in 1843 and, in 1845, gathered fifteen children beneath elm trees to become the town's first schoolteacher. Over the following decades he helped organize its first Protestant church, its German-language newspaper, and its cultural clubs, while serving as district clerk, legislator, mayor, and postmaster and recording the daily life of the frontier settlement in his writings.
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul
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Promised schools by the society that sponsored their emigration, the German settlers of New Braunfels hired their first teacher in 1845, the year classes began. When the state retracted support for local school districts in 1856, the city persuaded the legislature to create the New Braunfels Academy in 1858, funding it through a local property tax and tuition—making it one of Texas's first tax-supported schools. It taught in both German and English until the state built a public system in 1871.
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