New Braunfels Woolen Mill

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends — and this one's got layers worth peelin' back. We're talkin' about a single building on the Comal River that spent nearly a century reinventing itself, and every chapter is wilder than the last. This is the story of the New Braunfels Woolen Mill.

It starts in 1864, when two German immigrants — August Tolle and Dr. Theodor Koester — purchased lots 271 and 272 and set to work. Now, they didn't just throw up some frame shack.

They built a two-story structure a hundred feet long and sixty feet wide, using hewn trunks of cedar. That's a serious building, and they built it with serious purpose: a brandy distillery, and a place to manufacture medicinals. Make of that pairing what you will.

Four years later, in 1868, the building changed hands. The New Braunfels Woolen Mill Manufacturing Company bought it, and now that cedar giant on the Comal had a new calling — textiles. They tapped the river for steam power, installing a boiler, a chimney, and a warning bell.

The company was successful. And here's where things get almost poetic in their unfairness. They never secured a trademark.

Other manufacturers started using the same name and produced inferior products, and that was that. A successful company, undone not by failure but by impostors. The mill closed.

The building sat, as buildings do when they're waiting for the next chapter. That chapter arrived in 1901, when German immigrants Franz and Anna Popp — Anna born a Mielke — bought the property and converted it into the Comal Steam Laundry. The first laundry in New Braunfels.

They were riding the turn-of-the-century desire for cleanliness, the growing sense that maybe citizens didn't have to spend their days bent over a washboard. It was practical. It was timely.

It worked. Franz retired in 1913, and after that, it was Anna running things — Anna and her children: Emma, Martha, Rosa, and Bruno. A family operation, holding the line.

Then the Depression came, and Emma held the line alone. She ran the laundry and worked as a cook at the Phoenix Café to support her children. Both jobs, same woman, same hard years.

In 1934, a kerosene stove fire tore through the building. The fire resulted in Anna's death. And with that, the laundry closed.

The building that had been a New Braunfels landmark through all those decades — brandy still, medicine maker, woolen mill, steam laundry — was razed in 1954. The Popp family still owned the property into the early twenty-first century. All that's left now is the old bell, the rock foundation, and part of the chimney.

That warning bell that once called out over the Comal River — it's still there. And somehow, that feels right. Because this whole story is the Comal River's story too, every reinvention of this building drawing on that same water, that same current.

The bell remains. The river remains. And the marker makes sure we don't forget what happened in between.

What the marker says

German immigrants August Tolle and Dr. Theodor Koester purchased lots 271 and 272 in 1864 and built a large two-story building 100 feet long and 60 feet wide using hewn trunks of cedar. The building was built as a brandy distillery and to manufacture medicinals. In 1868, the building was sold to the New Braunfels Woolen Mill Manufacturing Company. The factory utilized the Comal River water for steam power installing a boiler, chimney and warning bell. The company was successful, but lacking a trademark, closed because other manufacturers used the name and produced inferior products. In 1901, German immigrants Franz and Anna (Mielke) Popp bought the property and converted the building to the Comal Steam Laundry. It was the first laundry in New Braunfels and capitalized on the turn of the century desire for cleanliness and reducing the laborious task for citizens to wash their clothes. After Franz retired in 1913, the laundry was run by Anna and her children, Emma, Martha, Rosa and Bruno. During the great depression, Emma operated the laundry and also worked as a cook at the Phoenix Café to support her children. In 1934, the laundry closed due to a kerosene stove fire that resulted in Anna’s death. The building that had been a New Braunfels landmark for so many years was razed in 1954. The Popp family still owned the property in the early 21st century. Although all that remains of the building is the old bell, rock foundation and part of the chimney, it serves as a reminder of business ingenuity utilizing the Comal River.