The New Braunfels Herald
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in the center of town, this site once housed the Zum Schwarzen Wallfisch Saloon (The Black Whale Saloon) in a small wood structure likely built by Comal Courthouse Contractor Ferdinand Simon, Sr. The New Braunfels Herald, established in 1892 by S.R. Whitley and his three sons, was housed here from 1896 to 1907 and from 1925 to 1944 in a new brick building by A.C. Moeller. The newspaper not only kept the area abreast of local, state and national events, but as the first English newspaper in New Braunfels, it attracted many businesses, residents and visitors to the area who learned of the prosperous and beautiful community. In 1944, the Herald moved to South Castell Street and continued its service to the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On this site in the heart of New Braunfels once stood the Zum Schwarzen Wallfisch — the Black Whale Saloon — before the block became home to the town's newspaper. Established in 1892 by S.R. Whitley and his sons, the New Braunfels Herald was the community's first English-language paper, published here on and off between 1896 and 1944. In a town founded by German immigrants, an English newspaper both chronicled local life and helped draw new businesses and residents to the growing Comal County seat.
Why it matters
The Herald marks the moment a German-founded Texas town began speaking to the wider English-speaking world, showing how the local press knit immigrant communities into the broader American mainstream.
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Related people
- · S.R. Whitley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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New Braunfels: County Seat of Comal County
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This land had long been home to Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, and Waco peoples when the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants sent thousands of colonists to Texas in the mid-1840s. Led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, several hundred founded New Braunfels on Good Friday, 1845, on land bought from the Garza family and parceled out by lottery. By 1850 it ranked among the largest cities in Texas, humming with craftsmen, mills, breweries, and kilns.
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Built in 1893 by noted local contractor Christian Herry, this Victorian storefront in New Braunfels grew out of the family tin shop next door. Its owner, Louis Henne, was part of the German craftsman-merchant tradition that shaped the town, and the enterprise he expanded onto this site has passed through three generations. The building's ornamented facade still advertises the confidence of a Gilded Age Main Street business.
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