Theis House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Back in 1858, a man named Phillip Jacob Theis put his hands to work in Kendall County, and what he built is still standing today to prove it. That alone ought to get your attention.

Theis was a German immigrant, a blacksmith and a wheelwright by trade, born in 1809 and gone from this world in 1876. A man who worked with iron and wood for a living, and when it came time to build a home for himself, he brought that same craftsman's patience to every inch of it. Now, here is where the story gets interesting.

The original part of the Theis house is what's called a dogtrot plan, built in a style known as palisade construction. And if you're picturing something simple, slow down. Because what Theis did was take willow branches, flexible and stubborn all at once, and weave them around cedar support posts to form the walls.

Then he packed those walls with clay and rock. Then, on top of all that, he stuccoed the whole thing for protection. Layer upon layer upon layer, each one doing its part.

You think about the patience that takes. You think about the knowledge a man carries with him across an ocean and into the Texas Hill Country. That house absorbed it all.

What makes this place remarkable, beyond the craft and the history, is that it survived. Palisade construction of this kind is rare. Rare as in, you could go looking and come up mostly empty.

The Theis house is one of the few examples left standing. So when you pass through Kendall County and you hear tell of a house built from willow and cedar and clay, built by a blacksmith who knew how to make things last, well. He made it last.

What the marker says

This pioneer home was built in 1858 by German immigrant Phillip Jacob Theis (1809-1876), an early Kendall County blacksmith and wheelwright. The original part of the Theis house is a dogtrot plan of palisade construction. Willow branches were woven around cedar support posts to form the walls, which were then packed with clay and rock and finally stuccoed for protection. The Theis house is a rare surviving example of this construction type. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984