Wahrmund-Priess House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Wahrmund-Priess House in Gillespie County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a long way. We're talkin' about a stone house that has stood along Bear Creek longer than most families can even trace their roots.

It all starts with Johann Christian Wahrmund, who brought his family to Texas in 1846. That's the era when German immigrants were staking their claims in this part of the Hill Country, carving something out of limestone and creek-bottom land and sheer stubbornness. By 1851, the Wahrmunds were living right here, on this very tract along Bear Creek.

And then, sometime between 1852 and 1866, they built the original portion of that stone house. A stone house. Not a cabin you throw up over a weekend.

Something meant to last. Something meant to say: we're here, and we intend to stay. Now, here's where the story turns.

In 1866, a Prussian immigrant by the name of Johann Priess bought the house from the Wahrmunds. One Johann passing the keys, so to speak, to another Johann. Priess and his family didn't just move in and leave well enough alone.

Through the 1870s and into the 1880s, they enlarged it, added to what the Wahrmunds had built, layered their own chapter right into the walls. And those walls held. The house remained under Priess ownership all the way until 1931.

That is a long stretch of one family's name on one piece of land. Two families, two sets of hands, one enduring house on Bear Creek. Some things are just built to outlast the people who build them.

What the marker says

The larger of the two houses on this property is original to the site and dates to the period of settlement by German immigrants in this part of Texas. Johann Christian Wahrmund brought his family to Texas in 1846 and by 1851 they were living on this tract of land along Bear Creek. The original portion of the stone house was built between 1852 and 1866. Prussian immigrant Johann Priess bought the house from the Wahrmunds in 1866, and his family enlarged it during the 1870s and 1880s. The house remained under Priess ownership until 1931. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001