DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. There's a little adobe building sitting in Guadalupe County that has outlasted just about everything the last two centuries could throw at it — and the story of how it survived is almost as remarkable as the story of how it began. Way back in 1849, this one-room adobe structure was built for a German immigrant by the name of Justus Gombert.
One room. Adobe. That's it.
But the place had a stubborn streak from the very start. Joseph Zorn owned it from 1849 to 1859 — a full decade — and somewhere along the way it got stuccoed and enlarged, like it was quietly deciding to stick around a while longer. Then came the Civil War, and after the smoke cleared, the property found a new kind of purpose: it was used as a campground for members of the Freemen's Bureau.
That's not a footnote — that's the ground itself holding a piece of Reconstruction history. Ben McCulloch stepped into the ownership picture briefly in 1870, though briefly is the operative word there. Now here's where the story gets its real twist.
By 1952, somebody decided this old adobe had run its course and ought to come down. And that might've been the end of it — except the Seguin Conservation Society had just gotten started, and this building became their very first project. Their first act of preservation was saving it from demolition.
Think about that kind of debut. The structure is known today as Los Nogales — that's Spanish for walnuts — and it was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962. One room, built in 1849, and it's still standing because somebody decided it mattered.
Sometimes that's all a thing needs.
What the marker says
This structure was built in 1849 for German immigrant Justus Gombert. The one-room adobe structure, later stuccoed and enlarged, was owned from 1849 to 1859 by Joseph Zorn. After the Civil War, the property was used as a campground for members of the Freemen's Bureau. Ben McCulloch owned the property briefly in 1870. Demolition of the house was prevented as the first project of the Seguin Conservation Society in 1952. Los Nogales (Spanish for walnuts), as it is now known, was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962. (1989)