Stephen Klein Home
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1846 by Stephen Klein. one of our first Comal County Commissioners; "fachwerk" construction. Purchased by Edward Naegelin, Sr. in 1868. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
It stands as tangible evidence of the German immigrants who transplanted Old World building traditions to the Texas Hill Country in the mid-nineteenth century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The mid-1840s were a turning point for Texas. The young Republic of Texas joined the United States at the end of 1845, and the country around the Comal and Guadalupe rivers was filling with new arrivals. Many of them came not from other American states but from across the Atlantic, from the German states of Central Europe.
New Braunfels was founded in 1845 by German immigrants who came under the sponsorship of a society of German nobles that organized settlement in Texas. The settlers faced disease, hardship, and an unfamiliar climate, but they quickly built a town of homes, shops, and churches that reflected where they came from.
Comal County itself was organized in 1846, the same year this house was built. Settlers were setting up their own local government even as they put up their first permanent homes.
People & events
Stephen Klein built this house in 1846, during the earliest days of New Braunfels. He was one of the first county commissioners of Comal County, part of the group of settlers who took on the practical work of governing a brand-new county. Building a solid home while helping to build a government says something about how much these early residents invested in staying.
Klein built in a style he and his neighbors would have known from home: fachwerk. It is a German method of half-timbering, in which a framework of heavy timbers is filled in with materials such as stone, brick, or plastered infill. The result is a sturdy wall with the frame often visible, giving these houses their distinctive look.
In 1868 the house was bought by Edward Naegelin, Sr., and so passed into a new chapter of family life in the growing town. More than a century after it was built, in 1967, the state recognized the house as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, an acknowledgment that it had survived as one of the community's early buildings.
Its place in the American story
America has always been shaped by immigrants who brought their own traditions with them, and the German settlement of the Texas Hill Country is one of the clearest examples. In the nineteenth century, waves of German immigrants came to the United States, and Texas became home to a large and lasting German community.
Houses like this one are physical proof of that story. Fachwerk construction, carried from Central Europe and adapted to local Texas materials, shows how newcomers blended Old World skills with New World conditions. It is the same kind of cultural mixing that played out across the country, from Pennsylvania to the Midwest.
The house also connects to the bigger story of how Americans built local government. Klein's role as an early county commissioner reminds us that immigrants did not stay on the sidelines; they helped create the civic institutions of their new home almost as soon as they arrived.
If you visit
When you visit, look closely at the walls. Fachwerk is the star here, and if the timber framing is visible you can trace how the heavy beams form a skeleton with the spaces filled in between. It's a great chance to show children how houses were built by hand long before modern lumber and nails were easy to come by.
New Braunfels still wears its German heritage proudly, and a walk through the older parts of town gives you a feel for the community Stephen Klein helped found. Other early buildings nearby help you picture what the town looked like in its first years.
The town is an easy stop between Austin and San Antonio, and the Comal and Guadalupe rivers make it a popular destination in their own right. Pair this marker with other German heritage sites in the Hill Country for a road trip that follows the immigrants who shaped this part of Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Stephen Klein
- · Edward Naegelin, Sr.
Themes & tags
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