Klingelhoeffer House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight out of Gillespie County. Johann Jost Klingelhoeffer left Europe in 1846. Now, that's a big move, friend.

He wasn't runnin' from something so much as runnin' toward something: freedom, and the kind of economic opportunity that a man could actually get his hands around. He sailed to the port of Indianola, then made his way to New Braunfels, and then kept on going until he landed in Fredericksburg. A lot of folks stopped short.

Klingelhoeffer didn't. Around 1854, he built himself a home, and the way he built it tells you everything about who he was and where he came from. The style is called Fachwerk.

Half-timbered, if you want the plain English of it. The timbers are oak, solid and patient as the Hill Country itself, and the spaces between them are filled in with handmade bricks. Not factory bricks.

Handmade. You think about what that took. At ground level, the house had two rooms separated by a Durchgang, which some folks around here would call a dogtrot, that open breezeway running right through the middle of a house, letting the Texas air do the work a window never quite manages.

Then the Civil War came and went. Just after it passed, two more rooms were added to the rear of that house, and when they went up, they closed off the Durchgang for good. The house kept growin'.

In 1955, two more rooms came along, a bathroom and an art studio, which tells you something about how a home that started with one man's dream can keep absorbing the lives of the people who come after. The marker calls it an early Texas German style of building unique to the Hill Country. Unique.

Not common, not widespread. Unique. Johann Jost Klingelhoeffer came a long way looking for something, and what he left behind turned out to be one of a kind.

What the marker says

KLINGELHOEFFER HOUSE JOHANN JOST KLINGELHOEFFER LEFT EUROPE IN 1846 SEEKING FREEDOM AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES. THE FAMILY SAILED TO THE PORT OF INDIANOLA THEN TRAVELED TO NEW BRAUNFELS BEFORE ARRIVING IN FREDERICKSBURG. IT IS BELIEVED THAT KLINGELHOEFFER BUILT HIS HOME AROUND 1854 IN THE FACHWERK OR HALF-TIMBERED STYLE. THE TIMBERS ARE OAK WITH AN INFILL OF HANDMADE BRICKS AND THE TWO ROOMS AT GROUND LEVEL WERE SEPARATED BY A DURCHGANG OR DOGTROT. JUST AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, TWO ROOMS WERE ADDED TO THE REAR WHICH CLOSED OFF THE DURCHGANG. IN 1955, TWO MORE ROOMS WERE ADDED, A BATHROOM AND ART STUDIO. THE HOME REPRESENTS AN EARLY TEXAS GERMAN STYLE OF BUILDING THAT WAS UNIQUE TO THE HILL COUNTRY.