William Wahrmund House
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Gillespie County Judge in 1852-62, 1864, and 1876-90, William Wahrmund (1824-90) hired local stonemasons H. Hennersdorf and Louis Schmidt to build this residence near his own home and store in 1875. Over a period of years, the house was occupied by three of Wahrmund's sons, William L., Otto, and Henry, and by several grandchildren. Victorian porch detailing decorates the native limestone structure, restored in 1976 by Hill Country Savings and Loan Association. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Wahrmund served repeatedly as Gillespie County Judge between 1852 and 1890, and in 1875 he hired local German stonemasons to build this limestone residence near his own home and store. Three of his sons and several grandchildren later lived in it, and its Victorian porch detailing dresses up the sturdy Hill Country stonework. Restored in 1976, it embodies the blend of German craftsmanship and civic leadership that defined Fredericksburg's founding families.
Why it matters
It ties together the political leadership and skilled stonemasonry of the German immigrants who built the Texas Hill Country's enduring towns.
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Related people
- · William Wahrmund
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Little Rock House
Fredericksburg, TX
Raised on a town-lot grant from the German Emigration Company just after the Civil War, this small house passed in 1868 to Heinrich Ochs, one of the community's pioneer schoolteachers, whose family held it for sixty-one years. Serving over time as both home and store, its floor plan has stayed virtually unchanged since it was built. The little limestone house is a study in frontier continuity.
The August Hennersdorf House
Fredericksburg, TX
August and Johanne Hennersdorf left Prussia for Fredericksburg in 1855 and, in the early 1900s, built this frame-and-limestone home for their family. Local tradition holds that the floor joists beneath the frame section are the octagonal wooden columns salvaged from the town's original Vereins Kirche, dismantled in 1896. If so, the house quietly carries a piece of the community's founding meeting-house within its bones.
Heinrich Bierschwale House
Fredericksburg, TX
German immigrant Heinrich Bierschwale built this two-story stone house in 1872–73 while teaching in the rural schools of Gillespie and Mason counties; he later served as county and district clerk. The home's vernacular stonework, bracketed porch columns, and six-over-six windows reflect the craftsmanship German settlers brought to the Texas Hill Country. Bierschwale and his wife Margarete raised nine children here, and the house has stayed in the family for well over a century.
The Patton Home
Fredericksburg, TX
Business leader Albert Lee Patton and his wife Emma built the first four rooms of this limestone home in the mid-1870s, soon after buying the property in the German-settled town of Fredericksburg. Later additions, including a three-window front bay, expanded the house as the family and the town prospered. It remained in Patton hands for more than a century, passing to a daughter before leaving the family in 1978.