HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Old Carl W. Groos Home

New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Built about 1870 of adobe brick with cypress floor, doors. Has original rolled glass window, ruby glass in front door. It has been home to Carl W. Gross; Judge Adolf Giesesck; merchant Fritz Scholl; and H. Dittlinger, flour miller. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built around 1870 of adobe brick with cypress floors and doors, this New Braunfels home still keeps its original rolled-glass windows and a pane of ruby glass in the front door. Over the years it sheltered a succession of German-Texan families, including merchant Fritz Scholl, Judge Adolf Giesecke, and flour miller H. Dittlinger. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.

Why it matters

The house reflects the distinctive German immigrant culture that shaped New Braunfels and the Texas Hill Country, blending Old World craftsmanship with frontier materials.

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Related people

  • · Carl W. Groos
  • · Adolf Giesecke
  • · Fritz Scholl
  • · H. Dittlinger

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Old Krause Building

New Braunfels, TX

Master carpenter Friedrich Krause raised this building about 1860 in the German settlement of New Braunfels, using hand-cut native cedar, cypress, limestone, and adobe brick. Over the years it served as the Weber & Deutsch store, the Hoffmann Opera House, and a drill hall for the local Clement's Rifles militia. Renovated in 1966, it remains a landmark of the town's early commercial and civic life.

First Protestant Church

New Braunfels, TX

When German immigrants founded New Braunfels in the 1840s, they quickly organized a congregation, and the Republic of Texas chartered the German Protestant Church here in 1845. Commemorated by a mid-twentieth-century historical medallion placed by heritage societies, the site marks one of the earliest Protestant fellowships among Texas's German settlers.

Stephen Klein Home

New Braunfels, TX

Built in 1846 by Stephen Klein, one of Comal County's first commissioners, this house used the German fachwerk method of timber framing filled with masonry—a signature of the immigrants who settled New Braunfels. In 1868 it passed to Edward Naegelin, Sr. The state recognized it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967.

Hinmann House

New Braunfels, TX

Heinrich Hinmann bought this New Braunfels property in 1855 and, with his wife Therese, raised ten children in the limestone house built around 1868. Its load-bearing masonry, hand-tooled stone courses, heavy lintels, and gallery porch reflect the German building traditions that shaped so many of the town's early structures. The home stayed in the family for more than a century, even serving as Dr. A.J. Hinmann's medical office in the 1920s.