Loeffler-Weber House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. There's a house sitting in Gillespie County that has been watching Fredericksburg come into the world since before Fredericksburg even knew it was a town. We're talking about the Loeffler-Weber House, and its story starts cold.

The winter of 1846 into 1847, the very first winter of Fredericksburg's existence, a German emigrant named Gerhard Rorig built himself a log room and a loft. That was his home. Not much, maybe, but it was shelter in a brand new place on the edge of everything, and he put it up with his own hands.

You can imagine what that first winter felt like, though I won't put words to it. The marker doesn't need me to. Then time moved, as time will do.

By 1867, a noted cabinetmaker by the name of Johann Martin Loeffler had come into the picture. A cabinetmaker, now. A man who knew wood and proportion and the weight of a well-made thing.

He added typical rock and half-timber rooms, and he put in a cooking fireplace. The house grew. It breathed a little deeper.

Years kept passing, and in 1905 Loeffler's son-in-law, a man named J. Charles Weber, came along and restored the southeast lean-to. Three generations of hands on the same structure, each one leaving something behind.

For the Loeffler-Weber family, this place served as either a home or a Sunday House for ninety years. Ninety years of Sunday mornings, ninety years of meals cooked at that fireplace Loeffler built. Then, in 1964, Mr. and Mrs.

George A. Hill the Third took up the cause and restored it, working alongside Albert Keidel, architectural designer and consultant. The marker that tells you all this was placed in 1971.

A log room and a loft, built in the first winter a town ever had. Some things, if you build them right and somebody cares enough to keep them, just refuse to disappear.

What the marker says

Log room and loft were built by German emigrant Gerhard Rorig as his home in first winter of Fredericksburg's existence, 1846-47. Noted cabinetmaker Johann Martin Loeffler added typical rock and half-timber rooms and cooking fireplace, 1867; his son-in-law, J. Charles Weber, in 1905 restored the southeast lean-to. For Loeffler-Weber family, this was home or Sunday House for 90 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971 Incise near base: Restored 1964 by Mr. and Mrs. george A. Hill, III Consultant: Albert Keidel, Architectural Designer