Stein-Girndt House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Stein-Girndt House in Colorado County. Now, some houses just sit there. This one has been earning its keep since 1897, and the story of the people inside it is half the reason it's still standing proud today.

Edward E. Stein, a prominent local merchant, and his wife Angalla, born a Heller before she became a Stein, built this place that year. They didn't hire just anybody, either.

They brought in Andrew Wirtz and sons, a family outfit that had already put up several homes right there in Columbus. When the Wirtz family touched a house, Columbus noticed. Then, in 1906, Edward died.

And that's where the story takes one of those quiet turns that don't make headlines but shape everything that follows. Angalla, now a widow, sold the property to her sister-in-law, Annie Stein Girndt, and Annie's husband, H.H. Girndt.

Same family, different branch, same address. Now H.H. Girndt was a particular kind of man.

He kept bees, and he didn't just keep them for the pleasure of it. He harvested that honey and sold it right out of his downtown store. He was also remembered, and that word remembered carries some weight here, for his work in folk medicine for animals.

What exactly that looked like, the marker leaves to your imagination, but folks recalled it well enough to pass it on. Annie, for her part, was no idle partner in any of this. She kept cows and chickens, and she ran a milk route through town.

Between the two of them, they had honey, milk, eggs, and remedies for ailing livestock. The Girndts held onto that house until the nineteen seventies. Decades of bees and cattle and Columbus mornings.

And the house itself? It still wears its original Queen Anne features like a Sunday suit it never took off. The spindlework, the fishscale shingling, the bargeboard detailing.

All of it still there. Some stories end with a boom. This one ends with a house that simply refused to forget who built it.

What the marker says

Prominent local merchant Edward E. Stein and his wife, Angalla (Heller) Stein, built this house in 1897. Andrew Wirtz and sons, who built several homes in Columbus, were the contractors. Following Edward's death in 1906, his widow sold the property to her sister-in-law, Annie Stein Girndt, and her husband, H.H. Girndt. H.H. kept bees, harvesting and selling the honey at his downtown store. He is also remembered for his work in folk medicine for animals. Annie kept cows and chickens, and maintained a milk route in town. The Girndts owned the home until the 1970s. Today, it retains its original Queen Anne features, including spindlework, fishscale shingling and bargeboard detailing.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2002