Emil Weber House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men propose with a ring. Some with flowers.

Emil Weber, stonemason, proposed with a house. Not a promise of a house, not a sketch on a napkin. A house.

Hand-hewn limestone, Texas yellow pine, ceilings that stretched a full twelve inches up. Built in 1902, with the help of local craftsmen, and designed from the ground up as a wedding gift for his future bride, Matilda Pauling Cehler. Think about that for a second.

The man cut and stacked stone for a living, and when the time came to say something that mattered, he said it in limestone. Now, Emil Weber was apparently the kind of man who wrote things down. His account book survived, and the numbers are right there in it.

One thousand, three hundred, and thirty-eight dollars. That's what it cost to build a late Victorian residence in Gillespie County in 1902. Every nail, every beam of yellow pine, every carefully hewn block of stone.

Thirteen hundred and thirty-eight dollars, and Matilda got a home with twelve-inch ceilings. The Weber family didn't treat that gift lightly, either. They stayed.

Generation after generation, members of the Weber family continued to reside in that house all the way until 1961. Nearly six decades of life lived under the roof one stonemason raised for the woman he intended to marry. That is how you leave a mark on a place.

Not with words. With limestone.

What the marker says

Stonemason Emil Weber built this late Victorian residence in 1902 with the help of local craftsmen. Constructed of hand-hewn limestone and Texas yellow pine, and featuring 12-inch ceilings, it was designed as a wedding gift for his future bride Matilda Pauling Cehler. Notes in Weber's account book show that the house cost $1,338 to build. Members of the Weber family continued to reside here until 1961. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982