Old Schmidt Home
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1850s of adobe, hand-hewn cedar, pine, oak. Has pitched roof, outside stair. Story and half. "Fachwerk" style. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark--1968
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in the 1850s by German settlers in New Braunfels, the Schmidt home used the Old World "Fachwerk" method — a timber frame of hand-hewn cedar, pine, and oak filled with adobe. Its story-and-a-half form, pitched roof, and outside stair reflect the building traditions the German immigrants carried to the Texas Hill Country.
Why it matters
The house is a tangible record of German immigration to Texas, where transplanted European craft reshaped the look of frontier towns like New Braunfels.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Braunfels Academy
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Promised schools by the society that sponsored their emigration, the German settlers of New Braunfels hired their first teacher in 1845, the year classes began. When the state retracted support for local school districts in 1856, the city persuaded the legislature to create the New Braunfels Academy in 1858, funding it through a local property tax and tuition—making it one of Texas's first tax-supported schools. It taught in both German and English until the state built a public system in 1871.
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German Catholic colonists who reached New Braunfels in 1845 were promised a church and school, and in 1847 Bishop John M. Odin received four lots atop a hill locals called "Lustiger Strumpf" (Happy Stocking) for its shape. A log cabin gave way to a walnut-wood chapel, and since 1871 a Gothic church of native limestone has crowned the hill; its storm-toppled steeple was rebuilt with a clock added in 1889. Franciscan, Benedictine, and Sisters of Divine Providence teachers took turns running the school.
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