Augusta Hofheinz House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good house has a story behind it, and this one in Hays County starts not with the building itself, but with the man who never got to see it. Daniel Hofheinz was born in 1849, and he made his mark in San Marcos running a hotel he constructed there in the late 1870s.

Built that hotel himself. Man knew how to put something together. He passed in 1903, leaving behind his widow, Augusta, and a family that clearly inherited his sense of how a proper building ought to look.

Because five years later, in 1908, Augusta commissioned the Mead and Eastwood Lumber Company to construct her a house. And not just any house. Their son Walter, born in 1880, supervised the whole construction.

So this was a family affair from the start. What went up on that lot was a finely detailed example of classical revival architecture. We're talkin' symmetrical composition, giant order classical columns, and a deep entablature.

The kind of building that doesn't whisper at you, it speaks. Augusta moved in and made it her home, living there until her death in 1924. The house outlasted her, of course, the way the best ones do.

It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Some structures just earn their permanence. The Augusta Hofheinz House is one of them.

What the marker says

This house was constructed in 1908 by Mead & Eastwood Lumber Co. for Augusta Hofheinz, widow of Daniel Hofheinz (1849-1903), who owned and operated a hotel he constructed in San Marcos in the late 1870s. their son, Walter (1880-1943), supervised its construction. Augusta occupied the house until her death in 1924. the Augusta Hofheinz houses is a finely detailed example of classical revival architecture featuring symmetrical composition, giant order classical columns, and a deep entablature. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992