HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Maier-Alberthal Building

Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Constructed about 1860, this building was acquired by German native Anton Maier (b. 1813) in 1866. A merchant who held several Gillespie County offices, Maier deeded the property to his son-in-law, August Alberthal. In 1900, the German vernacular stone commercial building has served as a grocery and general mercantile store, a soda water factory, an auto repair shop, and at one time was the site of worship services for a mission congregation. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built around 1860, this sturdy German vernacular stone building was acquired in 1866 by Anton Maier, a native German who became a Fredericksburg merchant and held several Gillespie County offices. He passed it to his son-in-law August Alberthal, and over the decades the building served as a grocery, a soda water factory, an auto repair shop, and even a mission congregation's place of worship. Its thick stone walls reflect the building traditions the town's German settlers brought with them.

Why it matters

The building is a tangible record of the German immigrant community that gave the Texas Hill Country its distinctive stone-built commercial towns.

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Related people

  • ยท Anton Maier
  • ยท August Alberthal

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

The Schandua Building

Fredericksburg, TX

Built in 1897 of hand-hewn limestone, this Fredericksburg building followed the German settlers' practical custom of home over shop: the Schandua family lived upstairs while John ran his hardware store below, and for a time the Masonic lodge met on the upper floor in trade for help with construction costs. After John's death his brother Henry married his widow, enlarged the building, and carried on the business. Hardware was sold here until 1972.

Old Central Drugstore

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Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker Alphons Walter raised this two-story building in the heart of Fredericksburg in 1905, then sold it in 1909 to civic leader Robert Striegler, who ran the Central Drugstore on the ground floor. A drugstore would occupy the site for more than 70 years, while the upper floor housed the town's telephone exchange, doctors' offices, and a photographer's studio.

Henry Cordes House

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Fredericksburg native Henry Cordes, born in 1861, had this limestone home built in 1893, beginning as a three-room dwelling accompanied by a smokehouse, tankhouse, and stone cistern. The stonework shows the fine craftsmanship of the German masons who gave the Hill Country its distinctive architecture. Cordes worked for years at the Reliance Roller Mill and the Stein Ice House and raised three children here with his wife Emma.