Old Wurzbach Place

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Out here in Medina County, there's a place that carries the weight of its years in every column and banister. The Old Wurzbach Place.

And the story starts in 1906, when a man named H.F. Wurzbach set out to build something worth remembering. Now, Wurzbach was a rancher, the kind of man who had his hands in the land and his eye on the horizon.

He was also, come 1915 and 1916, a Medina County Commissioner. So when this man decided to build a house, he didn't just nail boards together and call it done. He planned it.

Deliberately, thoughtfully planned it, right down to the Colonial columns and the banisters. That's intention. That's a man leaving his mark on the earth.

But here's where it gets interesting. A rancher and county commissioner, sure, but Wurzbach was also thinking about his neighbors. In 1915, the same year he was stepping into that commissioner's role, he built a commissary on the property.

A commissary that served the folks living nearby and the stageline passing through. Think about that for a moment. People traveling through Medina County, dusty and road-worn, could pull up to the Wurzbach Place and find what they needed.

The ranch kept on in the Wurzbach name for decades, those columns standing quiet and steady through it all, until 1960, when the E.M. Stevens family bought the place. A new chapter for old walls.

Whatever the years had weathered into those Colonial columns and careful banisters, the Stevens family inherited all of it. Some places just insist on being remembered.

What the marker says

Built 1906 by H.F. Wurzbach, a rancher and Medina County Commissioner, 1915-1916. He planned house, featuring Colonial columns, banisters. His commissary, built 1915, served neighbors and passing stageline. Ranch was bought by E.M. Stevens family, 1960. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967.