Schneider-Klingelhoefer House
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built about 1870 for watchmaker and stonemason Ludwig Schneider, this home features German fachwerk construction. Owned by builder Louis Preiss from 1883 to 1890, it was acquired in 1924 by banker Arthur Klingehoefer, who lived here from 1925 until his death. Prominent features of the home, which remained in the Klingelhoefer family until 1976, include an unusual porch roof parapet, gable-end chimneys, and a decorative wood balustrade. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German craftsmen gave the Texas Hill Country its distinctive look, and this Fredericksburg home carries that heritage in its fachwerk construction—a timber frame with masonry infill brought from the old country. Built around 1870 for a watchmaker and stonemason, it later belonged to a builder and, from the 1920s, to a banker whose family kept it for more than fifty years.
Why it matters
It preserves the German-immigrant building traditions that still define Fredericksburg's streetscape and cultural identity.
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Related people
- · Ludwig Schneider
- · Louis Preiss
- · Arthur Klingelhoefer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Stonemason Emil Weber built this small limestone outbuilding over a cellar in 1903 in the German town of Fredericksburg, using it to store vegetables, bacon, sausage, and wine. His son Werner, a woodcarver, later turned it into his workshop, where he designed altars and religious pieces for area churches and carved a lectern now displayed in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Kuenemann House
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Henry Basse House
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Descended from a Lutheran pastor sent by the Adelsverein to serve German settlers, Henry Basse and his brother Hugo ran a cement works whose 'Basse block' became a favored building material in the Hill Country. Between 1918 and 1920 Henry built this house as a showcase of that product and his success. Its Prairie School lines and two-story columned porch make it a fine local example of the style.
Meckel-Hanus Building
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