Kuhlmann-King 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 town of Boerne, there's a house that's been a lot of things to a lot of people, and the story of it stretches from the late 1880s all the way to the present day. Pull up a chair.

This one earns its keep. The structure was built in the late 1880s as a residence for William Kuhlmann, a German native born in 1856. The man was a successful pharmacist and landholder, which in that era meant he had standing, he had roots, and he had the wherewithal to put up a proper home.

He held onto it for a good while, too, but in 1908 he sold the place to a woman named Selina Long King, born way back in 1831. Now Selina's sons were running the local King and King Lumber Co., so this was a family that knew something about building things, about commerce, about Boerne. Selina passed in 1910, just two years after taking ownership, and the house moved on again.

By 1920, the Boerne Independent School District had acquired it, and the district held it for three decades, right up to 1951, using it for rental property as well as for school-related purposes. Practical people, school boards. But here's the detail that tends to make folks pause.

Somewhere in those years, the Hill Country artist Harry Anthony DeYoung, born in 1893 and gone by 1956, leased the house for two years while he was teaching art in San Antonio. An artist, living out in the Hill Country, commuting to teach, and this old pharmacist's house was his home base. You couldn't write that character if you tried.

Then in 1951, the city of Boerne itself took ownership, and the city has held the Kuhlmann-King House ever since. Built for a pharmacist. Sold to a lumber family.

Borrowed by a school district. Leased by an artist. And now kept by a whole town.

Some houses just refuse to be ordinary.

What the marker says

This structure was built in the late 1880s as a residence for German native William Kuhlmann (1856-1918), a successful pharmacist and landholder. He sold the home in 1908 to Selina Long King (1831-1910), whose sons operated the local King & King Lumber Co. The Boerne Independent School District owned the house from 1920 to 1951, using it for rental property as well as for school-related purposes. Hill Country artist Harry Anthony DeYoung (1893-1956) leased the house for two years while teaching art in San Antonio. The Kuhlmann-King house has been owned by the city of Boerne since 1951. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982