Schoenthal School
Garden Ridge, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Incorporated into the present structure is the Schoenthal School, built in 1872. A late example of the German fachwerk style of architecture. (1972) Incise on base: Erected by Mr. and Mrs. W. N. Deason, Jr. and family.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1872, the Schoenthal School survives inside a later structure as a late example of German fachwerk, the timber-framed building style the region's German immigrants carried from the old country. Its exposed frame is a tangible link to the craftsmen who settled Comal County and built in the ways they knew.
Why it matters
The fachwerk schoolhouse preserves the building traditions of German immigrants who profoundly shaped the culture and landscape of central Texas.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Morgan's Inspiration Island9.5 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Morgan's Wonderland9.5 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Off-Road Adventure Ride9.6 mi away
- Amazing Air11.8 mi away · 7702 North Interstate Highway 35, San Antonio, TX
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mission Valley School
New Braunfels, TX
German settlers founded the Mission Valley community in the mid-1840s, naming it for an earlier Spanish mission, and at first taught their children at home. In 1870 two brothers donated land for the first community school, and in 1884 a sturdier limestone schoolhouse rose nearby. Long after the district was absorbed by New Braunfels in 1952, the site—with its frame and stone schoolhouses and stone cisterns—has served as a community center.
Homesite of Johann and Gertruda Walzem
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Johann Joseph and Anna Gertruda Walzem emigrated from Prussia around 1851, and in 1859 Texas formally granted them the 160 acres they had settled near New Braunfels. A stonemason, Johann and his sons quarried local stone to build their home and barn, dug four cisterns, and raised the nearby St. John Chapel. In the 1860s the stone house doubled as a school for local children.
Carl Heinrich Guenther
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Born in Prussia in 1821, Carl Heinrich Guenther immigrated to Texas in 1845 and became a pillar of New Braunfels — one of its first public school teachers and a leader of the German singing societies. In 1854 he presided over a statewide Saengerfest that adopted an anti-slavery platform, an unpopular stance in Texas; though he shared those leanings, he later joined the Confederacy as a captain. After his death his widow Margarethe carried on the family brewing business.
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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.