P. O. Elzner House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. There's a house in Bastrop County that has watched the Colorado River go about its business for well over a century, and the story behind it starts with a man who crossed an ocean to get here. P.

O. Elzner was a native of Germany who came to Bastrop in 1858. He built a life, built a store, and then in 1878 he purchased a piece of property that sat right where he needed it most.

You see, the site overlooked the Colorado River docks, the very docks where merchandise for Elzner's store was delivered. That is not a coincidence, that is a businessman thinking clearly. So he erected a Victorian house on that ground, built from Bastrop pine, which if you know anything about Bastrop, you know that wood has a story all its own.

He gave the curved porch Eastlake detailing, which is a particular kind of ornamental style that tells you Elzner was not just practical, he had taste. P. O.

Elzner was born in 1848 and passed in 1918, but the house did not stop with him. His son, Bruno A. Elzner, born in 1879 and gone in 1957, took the property and enlarged it.

The house grew, the family stayed, and that pattern held for three full generations under the Elzner name. Three generations in one house, watching those river docks from the same windows. Then, in 1968, the property was deeded to Mr. and Mrs.

H. E. DuBois.

A man sailed from Germany to Bastrop, set his store beside a river, and built something in Bastrop pine that outlasted him by decades and is still standing there today. That, right there, is how you leave a mark.

What the marker says

A native of Germany who came to Bastrop in 1858, P. O. Elzner (1848-1918) erected this Victorian house after purchasing the property in 1878. The site overlooked the Colorado River docks where merchandise for Elzner's store was delivered. The residence, of Bastrop pine with Eastlake detailing on the curved porch, was enlarged by Elzner's son, Bruno A. Elzner (1879-1957). Occupied by the Elzner family for three generations, it was deeded in 1968 to Mr. and Mrs. H. E. DuBois. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976