Faltin Homestead

Duane's take

Here's how the marker at the Faltin Homestead tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. It starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with somebody showing up from somewhere far away and deciding to build something that lasts. The year is 1854.

A German native by the name of Theodor Georg Ludwig Goldbeck puts up the original part of this home right here in the Texas Hill Country, and he does it the same year the town of Comfort itself is founded. Think about that for a moment. The town is brand new, the ink barely dry on the idea of the place, and Goldbeck is already raising walls.

He's also running a mercantile business out of the same patch of ground, so the man is not wasting any time. Two years pass. It's 1856 now, and Goldbeck makes a decision.

He sells the house and the mercantile business both, to a merchant named Friedrich August Faltin, who had recently migrated out of Prussia. Now, a lesser story might end there. Man builds house, man sells house, goodbye.

But here's where the tale gets its weight. Friedrich August Faltin didn't just buy a house. He added to it.

Those additions, completed during his ownership, carry the clear marks of German influences in pioneer building techniques, the kind of craftsmanship that doesn't apologize for itself and doesn't quit. And then the Faltin family simply stayed. For over a hundred and twenty-five years, this homestead has remained in the Faltin family.

Goldbeck framed the walls, Faltin made it a home, and somewhere across all those generations, it became something rarer than a landmark. It became proof that what you build with care has a way of outlasting just about everything else.

What the marker says

German native Theodor Georg Ludwig Goldbeck constructed the original part of this home in 1854, the same year the town of Comfort was founded. In 1856 he sold the house and his mercantile business to Friedrich August Faltin, a merchant who had recently migrated from Prussia. Additions to the residence, completed during his ownership, reflect German influences of pioneer building techniques. For over 125 years it has remained in the Faltin family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981