Old Cherry Spring School (Das Alte Schulhaus)
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Cherry Spring community was founded by German immigrants about 1850. Classes for schoolchildren originally were held in private homes. In 1859 German nobleman Wilhelm Marschall Von Bieberstein deeded ten acres of land to L. Schneider, H. Bradhering, W. Kothe, C. Ahrens, C. Kothe, and F. Doering for construction of a schoolhouse. Classes were held in the original part of this building from 1860 through 1878. the schoolhouse later was used for church services and was the site of the formal organization of Christ Lutheran Church in 1905.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrants founded the Cherry Spring community around 1850, teaching their children in private homes until nobleman Wilhelm Marschall von Bieberstein deeded ten acres in 1859 to a group of settlers so they could build a proper schoolhouse. Classes filled the original part of this building from 1860 to 1878, after which it served the community as a place of worship — and in 1905 became the birthplace of Christ Lutheran Church. One modest stone building held the settlement's schooling and its faith.
Why it matters
It captures how German immigrant communities in the Texas Hill Country built their own institutions of learning and worship in a single humble structure.
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Related people
- · Wilhelm Marschall von Bieberstein
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cherry Spring Schoolhouse
Fredericksburg, TX
The German families of the Cherry Spring community taught their children in private homes until 1885, when a sturdy limestone schoolhouse was finally completed on land donated by H. Bratherich — an occasion so joyful that on dedication day the students paraded together to their new building. The little stone school served the surrounding countryside for nearly eighty years, until it consolidated with Fredericksburg in 1962. It remains a landmark of early education in Gillespie County.
Durst House
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Site of Prairie Mountain School
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German immigrants and pioneer settlers built the community once called Starks in the mid-1800s, and in 1906 a nearby school was relocated here and renamed Prairie Mountain School. The one-room schoolhouse doubled as a place of worship, a pattern common in thinly settled country, and a larger building followed in 1924. The school served until district consolidation in 1948, and the building lived on as a community center for decades more.
Crabapple School
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