Lehne-Itz House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Gillespie County, a limestone house has been standin since 1882, and the story it holds is the kind that takes generations to tell right. Henry Lehne built that house, and he didn't improvise.

He followed the form of traditional German farmhouses, cutting limestone and stacking it into something that would outlast nearly everyone who ever knew his name. Henry was born in 1858, and by the time he raised those walls he was a young man with plans and acreage. Thirty acres, to be specific, right there adjoining the house.

He farmed it, ranched it, worked it. But Henry had another calling too. As a teamster, he hauled produce all the way to San Antonio and came back loaded down with goods for local merchants.

Beer, flour, the things a community runs on. That wagon route was no afternoon drive. He made the trip, made it again, kept going.

Now, life handed Henry Lehne some heavy things alongside the good ones. He outlived two wives. Anna Barth, and then Marie Spaeth.

And through all of it, he stayed. Stayed in that limestone house, stayed on those thirty acres, and raised nine children right there under that same roof. Nine.

You think about what that house held. The grief, the noise, the meals, the years. Henry died in 1931, and the house was still a Lehne house.

Then his daughter Sophie and her husband Ernest Itz added a frame addition on the rear in 1933, growing the place one more time, the way families do when they intend to stay. And they did stay. The Lehne family held onto that house for one hundred and nine years.

It wasn't until 1991 that Sophie's heirs finally sold it. One hundred and nine years of one family. That limestone Henry cut in 1882 has seen everything.

And it's still standing.

What the marker says

Henry Lehne (1858-1931) followed the form of traditional German farmhouses in building this limestone structure in 1882. He farmed and ranched an adjoining 30 acres. As a teamster he hauled produce to San Antonio and returned with products such as beer and flour for local merchants. He outlived two wives (Anna Barth and Marie Spaeth) and remained here to rear his nine children. His daughter Sophie and her husband Ernest Itz built a frame addition on the rear of the house in 1933. The house, which remained in the Lehne family for 109 years, was sold by Sophie's heirs in 1991. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993