Heinrich Bierschwale House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, in the Hill Country of Gillespie County, there stands a two-story stone house that has seen more than a century of the same family come and go through its front door. And the story of how it got there starts with a man named Heinrich Bierschwale.

Heinrich came over from Germany, settled into the rhythms of the Texas Hill Country, and took up one of the most quietly essential trades a frontier community could ask for: teaching. He worked the rural schools of Gillespie and Mason counties, shaping young minds out in those limestone hills. Then he stepped into public service, taking on the role of county and district clerk right there in Gillespie County.

The man was not sitting still. And somewhere in between all of that, in 1872 and 1873, he built himself a house. Not a shack, not a lean-to.

A two-story stone vernacular house, solid as the ground it sits on, with a one-story full facade front porch held up by bracketed columns, and six-over-six windows looking out over the world. You can picture it. Heinrich and his wife Margarete raised nine children inside those walls.

Nine. That porch must have told some stories all on its own. What makes this place something worth pulling over for, though, is what happened after Heinrich was gone.

The home stayed in the family. More than a century later, it still had. Some houses get built and forgotten.

This one got built and kept. That's the Heinrich Bierschwale house, standing in Gillespie County, and it is still standing.

What the marker says

This home was built in 1872-73 by German immigrant Heinrich Bierschwale, a teacher in the rural schools of Gillespie and Mason counties. He later served as county and district clerk in Gillespie County. The two-story stone vernacular house features a one-story full facade front porch with bracketed columns and six-over-six windows. Bierschwale and his wife Margarete had nine children. The home has remained in the family for over a century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987