Louis Haller House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. A seventeen-year-old boy steps off a boat onto Texas soil in 1845, fresh from France, his father at his side. That boy is Louis Haller, and Texas, it turns out, has a few things in store for him.

Now, seventeen is young to be sizing up a new country, but Louis didn't waste much time getting acquainted. Before long he was riding as a scout for the Texas Rangers, which is about as Texas a résumé line as a Frenchman could hope for. Then came the Civil War, and Louis served again, this time as a wagoner.

The man knew how to make himself useful. By 1871 he had found something else worth his attention. He married Leonie Naegelin, and the two of them set about building a life together in Medina County.

Their family grew, and by about 1877 they put up the house that still stands today. Limestone, the way pioneer builders in Castroville liked to work, solid and plain and meant to last. But here is the detail that stops you cold when you hear it: the fireplace sits in the corner of the house, which is already unusual, and then the chimney angles, actually angles through the wall, and rides up to the peak of the roof right over a window.

Somebody solved a geometry problem there that most builders would have walked away from. Louis Haller lived until 1920. Leonie passed in 1918.

The house they built for their growing family, with that stubborn angled chimney rising over the window, is still standing in Medina County, doing exactly what good limestone was always meant to do.

What the marker says

A native of France, 17-year-old Louis Haller (d. 1920) came to Texas with his father in 1845. He was a scout for the Texas Rangers and a wagoner during the Civil War. In 1871 he married Leonie Naegelin (d. 1918). They built this house about 1877 for their growing family. The limestone structure is similar in style to many pioneer homes in Castroville. The chimney of the unusual corner fireplace angles through the wall and sits at the peak of the roof over a window. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1978.