DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna let it breathe a little. This is Market Square in Fredericksburg, Gillespie County — and friend, this patch of ground has seen just about everything a Texas town can throw at a piece of real estate. When Fredericksburg was founded in 1846, this square — originally a two-block stretch that took in what folks now call the Courthouse Square — was sitting right at the heart of it all.
And I do mean heart. The area was still heavily forested when they built the Vereins Kirche smack in the center of Main Street in 1847. Now, that is a name worth savoring: the Vereins Kirche.
An octagonal building — eight-sided, standing in the middle of the main road — pulling double and triple duty as a church, a meeting place, a school, and when things got tense, a refuge from possible Indian attacks. One building doing the work of a whole civilization. By 1852 they'd added a county jail to the square.
By 1856 a public schoolhouse went up, and the school classes finally moved out of that hardworking octagonal chapel. Then in 1911, that same schoolhouse got converted into headquarters for the volunteer fire department. The square just kept reinventing itself.
Now, the Vereins Kirche itself — that grand little eight-sided survivor — was demolished in 1897. Gone. But not forgotten.
Between 1934 and 1935, it was reconstructed as a pioneer memorial. It opened as the county's first museum in 1936, and by 1939 it was also serving as a library. Some buildings refuse to stay buried.
And somewhere in all of this, as part of a centennial celebration, the State of Texas erected a monument right here on Market Square in honor of Baron Ottfried Hans Freiherr Von Meusebach — whose colonization efforts, the marker tells us, led to the founding of Fredericksburg itself. In 1987 the city purchased the property from the school district, and Market Square has kept right on doing what it has done since 1846 — serving as a gathering place, a focal point, the living center of this city. A two-block piece of Texas that has never once stopped showing up.
What the marker says
This Square, originally a two-block area which included what is now called the Courthouse Square, has been at the center of Fredericksburg since the city's founding in 1846. The area was still heavily forested when the town's Vereins Kirche was built in the center of Main street in 1847. The octagonal building served as a community church, meeting place, school, and refuge from possible Indian attacks. A county jail was built on the Square in 1852. In 1856 a public schoolhouse was constructed and the school classes moved out of the Vereins Kirche. In 1911 the schoolhouse was converted to serve as headquarters for the volunteer fire department. The Vereins Kirche, demolished in 1897, was reconstructed in 1934-35 as a pioneer memorial, serving as the county's first museum (1936) and library (1939). As part of its centennial celebration, the State of texas erected a monument on Market Square in honor of Baron Ottfried Hans Freiherr Von Meusebach, whose colonization efforts led to the founding of Fredericksburg. In 1987 the city purchased the property from the school district. The Market Square has served as a gathering place for special community activities and has remained a focal point of the city.