L. A. and Adelheid Machemehl House
Bellville, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A significant example of the Craftsman bungalow designed by prominent Houston architect Alfred C. Finn, this house is unusual for its one-and-one-half story form. The residence displays hallmark geometric ornamentation, broad porches, and a small second floor that rises above the first floor roofline in a form sometimes called "airplane bungalow". Built in 1920 for prominent rancher and civic leader Louis A. Machemehl (1881-1952), his wife Adelheid (d. 1949), and their five children, the house was a center of social activity. It remained in the Machemehl family until 1953. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1920 for rancher and civic leader Louis A. Machemehl and his family, this Craftsman bungalow was designed by the prominent Houston architect Alfred C. Finn. Its unusual one-and-a-half-story form, with a small second floor rising above the main roofline, is the style sometimes nicknamed an "airplane bungalow." Geometric ornamentation and broad porches mark it as a fine local example of the Craftsman movement.
Why it matters
The house shows how national architectural fashions and celebrated urban architects reached prosperous rural Texas communities in the early 20th century.
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Related people
- · Louis A. Machemehl
- · Adelheid Machemehl
- · Alfred C. Finn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
E. O. Finn Building
Bellville, TX
On land first granted by the Mexican government to Austin County pioneer John Nichols, this vernacular Italianate commercial building was raised in 1896 by E. Oscar Finn and John Thomas Colleton. Finn, a German-born master mechanic who came to America as a child, made buggies and wagons on the ground floor while his family lived above, drawing water from an indoor well and a rainwater cistern piped to an upstairs bath. Known as the Carriage House, it still shows its paired Italianate windows, cast-iron columns, and a hand-operated dumbwaiter from Philadelphia.
Harigel House, The
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The son of a Prussian immigrant, Emil H. Harigel opened a hardware, tinware, and stove store in Bellville in 1881 and soon built this home for his family. Its Mansard roof and Gothic Revival and Second Empire touches reflect the tastes of a prosperous small-town merchant, and Harigel descendants have kept the house in the family for more than a century.
Joachim H. Hintz
Bellville, TX
Born in Mecklenburg, Germany, J. H. Hintz immigrated in 1855 and settled near Millheim, joining the Cat Spring Agricultural Society and serving in Waul's Texas Legion during the Civil War, when he was captured and imprisoned until 1865. A farmer by livelihood, he won lasting fame as a Baumeister, or master builder, whose bridges, halls, and multi-sided dance pavilions—like the twelve-sided Bellville Turnverein Pavilion of 1897—still stand. Distinguished by precise joinery and soaring roof framing, his round halls remain gathering places for music and celebration.
Bellville
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Brothers Thomas and James Bell arrived with Austin's colony in 1822, and by 1846 Thomas's land offer won Bellville the county seat over old San Felipe. Settlers from England, Germany and across the eastern states poured in, and after the hard Reconstruction years the Santa Fe railroad's 1880 arrival doubled the population. Cotton, and later a 1915 oil strike, kept the town thriving through the twentieth century.