Hess-Kollatschny Farm House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out in Austin County, in the old German settlement of Cat Spring, there stands a cottage that has outlasted nearly every hand that ever touched it. And the hands that built it, well, they knew what they were doing.

Henry Hess was Austrian-born, came into this world in 1851, and he and his wife Fransiska, she was a Schlapota before she married, born in 1854, they put up this cottage in 1876 and 1877. Now that's not just building a house. That is staking a claim on a new country with nothing but timber, skill, and the kind of stubbornness that crosses an ocean.

They chose cypress for the siding, and friend, cypress does not apologize to time. Inside, somebody took a brush and stenciled those walls, decorated them, made a simple frontier cottage into something that said: people of refinement live here. That detail alone will stop you cold if you go looking.

Then comes 1904. Charles Kollatschny, born in 1875, and his wife Fannie, born in 1879, they purchased the home and brought it into a new chapter. Around 1915 the place was enlarged, grown into something bigger, and the Kollatschny family held onto it for over fifty years.

Fifty years is a long time to trust a house, and this one earned it. Now the cottage sits northwest of where it originally stood, moved from its first spot on the earth, but it carried its soul with it. The original cypress siding is still there.

The interior stenciling is still there. The fine German craftsmanship, as the marker puts it, is a tribute to Austin County's early settlers, and I'll tell you, when something built in 1876 is still standing and still wearing its original skin, that tribute is not just words. That is proof.

What the marker says

Austrian-born Henry Hess (1851-1914) and his wife Fransiska (Schlapota) (b. 1854) built this cottage in 1876-77 in the German settlement of Cat Spring. Purchased by Charles (b. 1875) and Fannie (b. 1879) Kollatschny in 1904, the home was enlarged about 1915 and remained in that family over 50 years. Now located northwest of its original location, it features the original cypress siding and interior stenciling. The fine German craftsmanship is a tribute to Austin County's early settlers. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982