August Faltin Building

Duane's take

The official marker's the source, and here's how I tell it. Settle in, because this one stretches from the cobblestones of old Prussia all the way to the Texas Hill Country, and it never really left either place behind. Friedrich August Faltin was born in 1830, a Prussian native whose father ran a general store in Danzig, Prussia, the city the world now calls Gdansk, Poland.

That store had been established about 1818, so by the time young Friedrich was old enough to reach the counter, commerce was already in his blood. He learned the trade the hard way and the right way, right there in his father's shop. Then, in 1856, he pointed himself toward Comfort, Texas, and he didn't look back.

Once he arrived, Faltin purchased the general merchandise business of one Theodor Goldbeck, right here at this very site. A Prussian with a head for figures, standing behind a counter in the Texas Hill Country. The land was raw, the customers were real, and Faltin set to work becoming exactly what the marker calls him: a leading merchant of the Texas Hill Country.

Now, a smart merchant knows when to reach further than his own shelves. In 1869, Faltin entered into a partnership with a man by the name of Capt. Charles Schreiner of Kerrville.

The marker tells us that partnership became the nucleus of the vast Schreiner enterprises. The nucleus. Not a footnote, not a footnote.

The seed of something enormous. By the late 1870s, Faltin's business had grown to take in banking and post office services, and here is where the building you're looking at enters the story. The original structure at this site had simply run out of room.

So Faltin did what a man of his standing did. He hired architect Alfred Giles of San Antonio to design something worthy of what the business had become. And to build it, he brought in the noted builder J.

H. Kampmann. What they completed in 1879 was a Victorian Italian edifice, right here in Comfort, Texas.

That phrase deserves a moment. Victorian Italian. In the Hill Country.

Friedrich August Faltin was not thinking small. After Faltin died in 1905, his sons Richard and August S. carried the business forward. Then in 1907, they sold it to their brother-in-law Dan Holekamp and his sons Otto and Edgar.

That same year, an addition to the building was completed. Alfred Giles designed that addition too, and it included second floor space for meetings of fraternal and civic groups. The building kept growing, kept serving.

Then in 1968, the property was sold back to the Faltin family. From Danzig to Comfort, from a general merchandise counter to banking and the post office and a partnership that built an empire, and in the end the building came home. The August Faltin Building, the marker says, remains as a symbol of the area's early commercial growth.

Some symbols earn that title. This one was built to last.

What the marker says

Prussian native Friedrich August Faltin (1830-1905) moved to Comfort in 1856 and purchased the general merchandise business of Theodor Goldbeck, located at this site. Trained in his father's store, which had been established about 1818 in Danzig, Prussia, now Gdansk, Poland, Faltin became a leading merchant of the Texas Hill Country. In addition, his 1869 partnership with Capt. Charles Schreiner of Kerrville became the nucleus of the vast Schreiner enterprises. By the late 1870s Faltin's business, which included banking and post office services, had outgrown the structure at this site and he had architect Alfred Giles of San Antonio design a new building. Constructed by the noted builder J. H. Kampmann, the Victorian Italian edifice was completed in 1879. Later run by Faltin's sons Richard and August S., the business was sold in 1907 to their brother-in-law Dan Holekamp and his sons Otto and Edgar. That same year an addition to the building was completed. Also designed by Giles, it included second floor space for meetings of fraternal and civic groups. In 1968 the property was sold back to the Faltin family. The August Faltin Building remains as a symbol of the area's early commercial growth. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982