The William Rausch House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Gillespie County, the land has a way of holdin' onto its stories, and the William Rausch House is one worth holdin' onto. William Rausch was born right here in this county in 1884, a native son through and through.

In 1894, he and his wife Olga bought this very property. Now, there was already a house standing on the land when they arrived, and for a while that was good enough. They made do, settled in, put down roots.

But William Rausch was not a man content to simply occupy a space. He was a stonemason. A carpenter.

A man who understood, in his hands and his bones, what it meant to build something that would last. So in 1906, they built this home. And when the marker says Rausch probably did much of the construction himself, well, you look at this structure and that word probably feels modest.

Limestone, cut and fitted in the German vernacular tradition that Gillespie County settlers brought with them and made their own in this Hill Country soil. And then there is that central gable, dressed up with jig-cut decorative trim, a quiet flourish that says this man knew the difference between a house and a home. William Rausch passed in 1939.

Olga followed in 1943. And in that same year of 1943, the home finally passed out of the Rausch family. Nearly half a century it held them.

William built it to last, and it did.

What the marker says

Gillespie County native William Rausch (1884-1939) and his wife, Olga (d. 1943), bought this property in 1894. They lived in an existing house until 1906, when they built this home. A stonemason and carpenter by trade, Rausch probably did much of the construction himself. The German vernacular limestone structure features a central gable with jig-cut decorative trim. the home remained in the Rausch family until 1943. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985