DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, New Braunfels has got itself some old bones — and I mean that in the best possible way. This is a town that remembers.
And tucked into it is a little cottage with walls that have been standin' since before most of the country had finished arguin' about itself. August Dietz came to Texas in 1849. German immigrant, new country, new state — New Braunfels was the kind of place where a man like that could put down roots, and that's exactly what he did.
He settled in, found his footing, and then on September the first, 1866, he bought the lot where this story really gets its shape. He built the cottage soon after. Two rooms — that's what you started with.
Just two rooms and four walls of mortared rock, twenty inches thick. Twenty inches. You knock on that wall and the wall doesn't notice.
The frontier wasn't playin' around, and neither was August Dietz. Now here's the part that gets your attention: he sold the place on December the second, 1867. Bought it in September of sixty-six, built on it, and let it go just over a year later.
Whatever his reasons were, the marker doesn't say — but the cottage stayed. Stayed and grew. Somebody enlarged it somewhere along the way, added on to those original two rooms, and still those mortared rock walls held.
And here's what really earns this place its keep: the beaded ceiling — still original. The plain board ceiling — still original. The window glass, the casements, the front door — all of it, original.
In a world that tears things down and calls it progress, that front door has been openin' and closin' since August Dietz walked away from the deed. In 1973, William J. Kolodize restored the house and its additions — brought it back, honored what was there, let those twenty-inch walls keep doin' what they were built to do.
August Dietz spent just over a year as the owner of this place. But that cottage has been speakin' his name ever since.
What the marker says
August Dietz came to Texas in 1849 as a German immigrant, and settled in New Braunfels. On Sept. 1, 1866, he bought this lot, soon built this cottage, and sold it on Dec. 2, 1867. At first a two room structure, the building was later enlarged. Its mortared rock walls are 20 inches thick. The beaded ceiling, the plain board ceiling, the window glass and casements, and front door are all original. House and additions were restored in 1973 by William J. Kolodize.** Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974***