DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. August Scholz came over from Germany — born in 1825 — and whatever brought him to Austin, by 1866 he had opened Scholz's Hall right here on this very site. Now, you have to picture that: a German immigrant, fresh enough to the New World that the ink on the post-war years was barely dry, planting a gathering place in the Texas capital.
That takes a particular kind of confidence. Or maybe just a particular kind of thirst for good company. Around the turn of the century, the original hall gave way to the building that replaced it — the one that would carry the story forward.
Then, in 1908, a German social club called the Austin Saengerrunde purchased the property and added the adjacent hall alongside it. So now you've got layers — a man's dream, a new building on old ground, and a whole club's worth of Texans deciding this place was worth keeping. August Scholz himself passed in 1891, so he didn't live to see all of what his little hall would become.
But the place kept right on. It kept on so well that in 1966 — a full hundred years after those doors first opened — the Texas Legislature took a moment to honor Scholz Garten in formal resolution. And the Legislature, which is not generally known for poetry, called it, and I'm quoting directly here, "a gathering place for Texans of discernment, taste, culture and erudition, epitomizing the finest traditions of magnificent German heritage in our state." A German immigrant opened a hall in 1866.
The Texas Legislature was still talking about it a century later. August Scholz, I think, would have been pleased.
What the marker says
German immigrant August Scholz (1825-1891) opened Scholz's Hall at this site in 1866. About the turn of the century, this building replaced the original hall. A German social club, the Austin Saengerrunde, purchased the property in 1908 and added the adjacent hall. The Texas Legislature honored Scholz Garten in 1966 as "a gathering place for Texans of discernment, taste, culture and erudition, epitomizing the finest traditions of magnificent German heritage in our state." Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967