Spettel Riverside House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it its due. Somewhere beneath the still surface of Medina Lake, if you could drain it all away, you'd find the ghost of a road. And on that road, about a mile south of a place called Mitchell's Crossing on the Medina River, there once stood a house worth stoppin for.

The Spettel Riverside House. Let me tell you about it. John B.

Spettel, Jr., born in 1853, was the kind of man who knew that no cattleman ever got far workin alone. He built his success through partnerships, real ones, with Jacob Koenig, with his brother Joseph Spettel, and with his brother-in-law Louis Schorp. Between those four men, he carved out a name for himself as a successful area cattleman.

And by 1881, he had something else too. A bride. Theresa Leibold, born in 1854, moved into that home on the Medina River with him, and whatever that house started as, it didn't stay modest.

The Spettel Riverside House was known for its elaborate ornamentation. That's the marker's word. Elaborate.

On the road between Castroville and Bandera, travelers learned to look for it, and more than a few of them stopped. It became a popular stop, the marker says, and you can imagine why. A well-built, well-ornamented home on a river road has a way of drawing people in.

John B. Spettel, Jr. died in 1909. Theresa lived on, all the way to 1941.

But before either of those years came to pass, something changed the whole lay of the land out here. The Medina Dam was completed in 1912, and the waters rose. That mile south of Mitchell's Crossing, that stretch of river road, the original ground the house stood on, all of it went under.

But the house itself didn't. Somebody moved it. Moved it to this very site, right here where the marker stands today.

The road it once welcomed travelers on is gone. The river crossing it sat near is submerged. But the Spettel Riverside House made it out, and it's still here to tell the story.

What the marker says

John B. Spettel, Jr. (1853-1909), through partnerships with Jacob Koenig, his brother Joseph Spettel and his brother-in-law Louis Schorp, became a successful area cattleman. By 1881 he and his bride Theresa Leibold (1854-1941) were living in this home a mile south of Mitchell's Crossing on the Medina River, now under the waters of Medina Lake. Featuring elaborate ornamentation, the Spettel Riverside House became a popular stop for travelers on the road between Castroville and Bandera. Following completion of the Medina Dam in 1912, it was moved to this site. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981