Kloth-Ludwig Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Out in Gillespie County stands a limestone building that has seen more chapters than most folks care to count. It went up around 1870, back when the property belonged to a man named John Adams Alberthal.

And whoever drew up the plans had a particular idea in mind. The front of the building would serve commerce, the back would rise two stories and keep a household. Business and home life, side by side under the same limestone roof.

That's a practical arrangement, and in the Hill Country, practical tends to last. In 1878, a man named Christian Kloth purchased the home, and from that point forward the place took on a new identity. Kloth held it until his death in 1904, and when he passed, the building didn't go to strangers.

It went to his daughters, Anna Marie, known after her marriage as Anna Marie Ludwig, and Caroline Kloth. Two women, one limestone legacy. Anna Marie carried the place until her death in 1930.

Caroline held on a decade longer, until 1940. And even after both sisters were gone, the building stayed in the Ludwig family. It kept on serving as a home for various shops, the way it always had, commerce up front, life in the back.

That arrangement held all the way until 1966. Nearly a century after John Adams Alberthal first had it built, the Kloth-Ludwig Home finally passed out of the family's hands. The limestone, though, is still standing right there in Gillespie County, patient as the Hill Country itself.

What the marker says

This limestone building was constructed about 1870 when the property was owned by John Adams Alberthal. It was designed with a commercial area on the front and a two-story residential section in the back. Christian Kloth purchased the home in 1878, and following his death in 1904, it was inherited by his daughters Anna Marie (Kloth) Ludwig (d. 1930) and Caroline Kloth (d. 1940). Used for various shops, it remained in the Ludwig family until 1966. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980