HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Hahn House

Columbus, Colorado County, Texas

Marker Inscription

On this site a small cottage was built about 1868 by W. H. Crebbs, who sold place in 1885 to Peter Hahn (1852-1940) and his wife Catherine Leyendecker. In 1890, Hahn moved cottage to the rear, scouted East Texas for fine woods, hired contractors Jacob and Louis Wirtz, and built two-story, galleried Victorian main house adjoining cottage. Peter and Catherine's son Albert and wife Elizabeth Burford, and their children have preserved the home. RTHL - 1973

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

This Columbus home began as a modest cottage built about 1868 and sold in 1885 to Peter Hahn and his wife, Catherine Leyendecker. In 1890 Hahn moved the old cottage to the rear, searched East Texas for fine hardwoods, and hired contractors to raise an elegant two-story galleried Victorian house around it. Generations of the Hahn family have preserved the home ever since.

Why it matters

The Hahn House reflects the prosperity and craftsmanship of German-Texan families who shaped the towns of the Colorado River valley in the late nineteenth century.

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Related people

  • · Peter Hahn
  • · Catherine Leyendecker Hahn

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Brunson Building

Columbus, TX

Charles Brunson left Westphalia, Germany, in 1845 as part of the great mid-century German migration to Texas, and by about 1867 had settled in Columbus, where his saloon prospered. In 1891 he erected this Victorian commercial building, adding an adjoining store in 1896; it poured drinks until around 1919 and then took on other uses. Aside from a lowered canopy and altered windows, it still wears its original Victorian dress.

Maigne-Walther House

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This raised cottage with a parapeted balustrade was built in 1869 by Charles Mainge in Columbus, a heavily German-settled corner of Colorado County. Its pine siding and floors, cypress interior walls, handmade-brick foundations, and square-nail construction reflect the craftsmanship of its era. After several owners it was bought in 1910 by bookkeeper and county tax-office clerk R.H. Walther, whose daughters later preserved the home.

Bartels-Wirtz House

Columbus, TX

This ornate Victorian cottage rose in the 1880s in Columbus, Texas, one of the state's oldest German-influenced river towns. Anton Bartels, an immigrant from northern Germany who arrived in 1869, built the home about 1886 and served the town as an alderman. Its gable star tracery, carpenter's lace, and stained-glass entrance doors show the decorative confidence of a settled Gilded Age community.

Hebrew Benevolence Society Cemetery

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This one-acre burial ground opened in 1879 with the interment of M. A. Levy and became a resting place for members of Columbus's Jewish community, including the merchant Louis Rosenstein and two infants who died in the 1880s. Despite its name, no formal benevolent society was ever tied to it. After decades of neglect, it was restored in 1988 by a Houston Boy Scout troop from Congregation Beth Israel.