HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Gohmert-Summers House

Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Typical of prospering 19th century city, this late Victorian house has fine details: imported leaded glass windows, metal "lace" trim, turned columns, Italian tile. Architect was A. O. Watson, Austin; Contractor, C. A. Fuess of Cuero. Built 1895 for Louis Gohmert (1859-1931) and wife Martha (Binder). Gohmert, who came as a boy from Germany, was secretary-treasurer of Breeden-Runge Wholesale Firm. House has been preserved since 1952 by Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Summers, Jr. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1895 for Louis Gohmert and his wife Martha, this late Victorian home shows the confidence of a prospering Texas town, with imported leaded-glass windows, metal "lace" trim, and Italian tile. Gohmert had come from Germany as a boy and rose to become secretary-treasurer of a wholesale firm. Designed by Austin architect A. O. Watson, the house has been carefully preserved since 1952.

Why it matters

The home reflects the German immigrant story woven through Central Texas, where newcomers built commercial fortunes and expressed them in elegant Victorian architecture.

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Related people

  • · Louis Gohmert
  • · Martha Binder Gohmert

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

The Edward Mugge House

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Edward Mugge, a German immigrant who landed at the now-vanished port of Indianola in 1854, rose through hard work to a partnership in the pioneer banking firm of H. Runge and Company and helped make Cuero a commercial hub of late-19th-century South Texas. The home he began in the 1870s grew from seven rooms — three of them milled in St. Louis and assembled on site — into a fifteen-room showplace, expanded room by room as gifts to his wife and six children. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1971.

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