Emmie Seele Faust Memorial Library

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Let me tell you about a building on the corner of Coll Street and Magazine Avenue in New Braunfels, and the woman whose name it carries. Because behind every good library, there's usually someone who refused to let the idea die.

In this case, that someone was Emmie Seele Faust. Born in 1867, she was the daughter of Hermann Seele, the first teacher in New Braunfels. And whether that upbringing shaped her love of learning, well, the marker doesn't say.

But her actions speak clearly enough. It was 1928 when the New Braunfels Library Association came together with a purpose: the community was growing, and it needed better education to grow with it. For ten years, the association kept a public library running, moving it from place to place around the downtown area.

Ten years of that. No permanent home, no roots. Just books and determination, bouncing around a young city.

Then came 1937. Emmie Seele Faust, by then well into her years, decided enough was enough. She spearheaded a combined effort, bringing together the city of New Braunfels, the Sophienburg Museum, and the New Braunfels Library Association, all pointed at the same goal: give this library a home it could keep.

Architect Jeremiah Schmidt, known to his friends as Jimmie, drew up the plans. Edwin Hanz built the thing. What they put up was a rectangular native rock building, sixty-five by thirty feet, sitting on a bell-shaped foundation of rock and concrete.

And when those doors opened in 1938, two hundred and fifty people walked through them. Two hundred and fifty visitors on opening day. For a library in a Texas town in 1938, that is not nothing.

The front door and the wrought-iron window grates you see there today, those are original. The building served as the New Braunfels Public Library for the next three decades, right up until 1969. The shift came when the Dittlinger Memorial Library was built in 1967, right on the back of the same property.

With a new library standing behind it, the Emmie Seele Faust building stepped back, taking on a quieter role as archive and artifact storage for the Sophienburg Museum. Years passed. The Dittlinger Memorial Library building became part of the Sophienburg itself in 1999.

And then in 2010, the Emmie Seele Faust Library was restored and repurposed as a meeting hall and classroom. Which means the building is doing, right now, exactly what Emmie Seele Faust and the library association had in mind from the very beginning. Education.

Community. A permanent place for both. Emmie Seele Faust died in 1957, and she never saw the restoration.

But she saw the doors open in 1938, and maybe that was enough. Her name is on the building. Her intention is still inside it.

What the marker says

Located on the corner of Coll Street and Magazine Avenue, the Emmie Seele Faust Memorial Library served as the New Braunfels Public Library from 1938 to 1969. The New Braunfels Library Association formed in 1928 to meet the need for better education in the growing community. For ten years, the association operated a public library at various locations around the downtown area. In 1937, Emmie Seele Faust (1867-1957), daughter of first New Braunfels teacher, Hermann Seele, spearheaded a combined effort between the city of New Braunfels, the Sophienburg Museum and the New Braunfels Library Association to give the Public Library a permanent home. The native rock building was designed by architect Jeremiah (Jimmie) Schmidt and opened in 1938 with 250 visitors. Built by Edwin Hanz, the rectangular, 65x30-foot building sits on a bell-shaped foundation made of rock and concrete. The front door and wrought-iron window grates are original. When the Dittlinger Memorial Library was built in 1967 on the back of the property, the Emmie Seele Faust Library building ceased to be the public library, taking on a new use as an archive and artifact collection storage space for the Sophienburg Museum and archives. The Dittlinger Memorial Library building became part of the Sophienburg in 1999. In 2010, the Emmie Seele Faust Library was restored and repurposed as a meeting hall and classroom, preserving the original intention of the library association and Emmie Seele Faust. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2017