Old Cornelson-Fehr House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Old Cornelson-Fehr House in Bastrop County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers, the way the best old buildings do. It started out simple enough.

The year was 1850, and a man named John Cornelson put up a frame cabin. Just a frame cabin. Nothing fancy, nothing grand.

But here's the thing about a good foundation, whether it's a story or a structure: what gets started on it has a way of growing. After 1854, a fellow named Joe Fehr came along and enlarged the place. And he didn't just tack on whatever was handy.

He used brick from Lottmans' kiln, east of town. Someone had fired those bricks right there in the area, and Joe Fehr put them to work. The cabin became something more.

Something that could hold up. Something worth keeping. And Bastrop County, it seems, agreed.

The Texas Legislature looked at that building and the ground it stood on, and in 1954, they designated the whole thing an historic shrine of Texas. Not just a curiosity, not just an old house. A shrine.

The building went on to become the Bastrop County Museum, which means all those layers, John Cornelson's 1850 frame cabin, Joe Fehr's brick-laid enlargement, Lottmans' fired clay, they're still there, holding stories the way good walls hold heat. Some places just refuse to stop mattering.

What the marker says

Originated 1850 as frame cabin of John Cornelson. Enlarged after 1854 by Joe Fehr, who used brick from Lottmans' kiln, east of town. Texas Legislature in 1954 designated building and area an historic shrine of Texas. Now Bastrop County Museum. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967