Hirshfeld Cottage
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
German native Henry Hirshfeld (1834-1911) migrated to the United States at the age of fifteen. After working with his two uncles in Mobile, Alabama, he moved to Georgetown (28 mi. N), where he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Following his service in the Civil War, Hirshfeld moved to Austin and entered the mercantile business. By 1868, when he married Jennin Melasky, he owned a clothing store and was becoming a prominent businessman of the city. Three years later Governor E. J. Davis appointed him as the first vice president of the newly created State Board of Trade. Active in civic development, Hirshfeld was also as early leader of Austin's Jewish community. He was a founder and the first president of congregation Beth Israel, established in 1876 on the second floor of his Congress Avenue building. Hirshfeld had this one-story stone cottage built for his family in 1873. Construction by Ed Christian, Ferdinand Dohme,and S. Loomis. It features a widow's walk on the roof and jigsaw detailing on the porch. After the family moved to their new residence on the adjacent east lot in 1888, the cottage was maintained as rental property. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Henry Hirshfeld left Germany at fifteen, worked for uncles in Mobile, and served in the Confederate Army before settling in Austin to enter the mercantile trade. By 1873, a rising businessman, he built this one-story stone cottage with its distinctive widow's walk and jigsaw porch detailing. A founder and first president of Congregation Beth Israel and an early appointee to the State Board of Trade, Hirshfeld moved his growing family to a larger house next door in 1888 and kept the cottage as rental property.
Why it matters
The cottage marks the beginnings of a leading immigrant merchant family and of organized Jewish congregational life in Austin.
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Related people
- · Henry Hirshfeld
- · Jennie Melasky Hirshfeld
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hirshfeld House
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In the boom years after the Civil War, Austin was reinventing itself as a state capital and commercial hub, and German-born merchant Henry Hirshfeld rode that prosperity from a modest limestone cottage to this grand two-story brick and cut-stone home in 1885. Designed by architect John Andrewartha in exuberant Victorian and Eastlake taste, its double gallery, bay, and intricate stonework announced a family that had arrived. A leader in Austin's Jewish community and a founder of the Austin National Bank, Hirshfeld saw his descendants live here into the 1970s.
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