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Boerne Chapter No. 200, Order of the Eastern Star (O.E.S.) - Marker in/near Boerne
Photo Credit: Janis and Ted Maxymof	Boerne Chapter No. 200, Order of the Eastern Star (O.E.S.) Marker #17334 - 2012 beside the Texas Historical Marker for Kendall Masonic Lodge #897; in front of the Masonic Lodge Hall, which is located at 897 E Blanco, Boerne, TX. Building is on the south side of the street, just

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Meyer Hotel Complex - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Dietert Historical Archives -
Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)

Marker #3356 - 1981   German native Frederich Christian Meyer (1828-89) came to Comfort in 1862. A wheelwright, Meyer also ran a stage stop and weight station at this site. He later purchased the property, which included a small log cabin he enlarged by adding a second story. In 1869 he constructed a two-story stone residence here for his wife Ernestine (Mueller) (d. 1910), a midwife. A separate wooden structure was built for her work, south of the original log cabin in 1872. The building housed maternity rooms for use by the women of the surrounding area ranches. In 1887, when rail lines were completed through the area, Comfort began showing promise as a resort community. That same year, the Meyers constructed a two-story frame building south of their residence to serve as a hotel. The upper floor of the structure was used for guests and the ground floor housed a large kitchen and a dining room. With the help of their 8 children, Ernestine continued to operate the hotel after her husband's death in 1889, despite a fire which damaged the family home. A second guest house was added east of the first hotel in 1920 by a daughter Julia (Meyer) Ellenberger, who operated the business until her death in 1956.

 Frederich Christian Meyer, a native of Germany, came to Comfort only three years after the founding of the town. He and his wife bought property along Cypress Creek and on the old road to San Antonio. They enlarged their home in 1869 and this became an obvious place for a stage stop. A second house was built for Mrs. Meyer to use as a maternity hospital as she was a midwife to her neighbors. Yet another building was added to house overnight travelers.

In 1887 the railroad came to Comfort. This increased the need for housing. That year the Meyer Hotel was built. This was a two-story frame building south of their residence. The upper floor of the structure was used for guests and the ground floor housed a large kitchen and a dining room.

Again in 1920 a second guest house was added east of the first hotel. The hotel was being oprated by Julia Meyer Ellenberger at that time. She operated the business until her death in 1956.

This hotel has been called "Das Gast House" in more recent times.

This building was designated as Texas Historical Landmark in 1981.

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Joseph Dienger Building - Marker in/near Boerne

Marker #2857 - 1981   This limestone commercial structure was built for Joseph Dienger (1859-1950) shortly after he purchased the site in 1884. The ground floor housed his grocery and the second floor provided living quarters for his family. A later addition was used for the dry goods store of Dienger`s sisters Lina and Louise. Owned by family members until 1967, the double galleried building features Victorian styling with German influences. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980

The plot of land north of the town plaza was purchased by Joe Dienger, oldest son of Karl Dienger, in 1882 for the purpose of building a general store to meet the needs of a growing community. He began by building the first floor, finishing it and stocking it completely before adding the second story. The second story, which was reached by an enclosed stairway on the west side of the building, was home for the Dienger family. Since it was much too spacious, Mr. Dienger turned half of the area into a meeting room. Most of the lodges and clubs held their meetings here and many times their annual feasts or celebrations or anniversary parties. 

The one story portion on the north side of the building was added later. That part was used to house a dry goods store that was operated by his sisters, Lina and Louise Dienger. These good ladies never married. They gave their entire life to the operation of the store and to taking care of their widowed mother who lived to be 93 years old. They resided at what is now the corner of Hosack and S. Main. See file: Dienger-Eckert House, 108 Hosack Street

In 1967 a group of Boerne business men purchased the building visualizing it as a restaurant/supper club. The Antler's Restaurant was born. They rented the north part of the building to a grocery store owned and operated by the Rodriguez family (the local family managers were Anna and Michael Schoch)

In 1982 the building was again sold, this time to Bill and Paige Ramsey-Palmer. They again renovated the building to suit their needs.

In 1991 the building became the home of the Boerne Public Library after extensive internal alterations. Alterations were done very carefully to maintain the outside the integrity of the building.

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The Honorable Samuel Boyd Patton - Marker in/near Kendalia

Photo Credit: Sue Scruggs

Marker #5353 - 1996   Born in South Carolina in 1787, Samuel Boyd Patton moved to Tennessee as a youth. After serving in the war of 1812, he moved to Alabama, where he held public office and served in the state legislature. In 1837 Patton moved to Texas. He was appointed to the Board of Land Commissioners and was a member of Congress of the Republic of Texas. He helped organize Blanco County and served as the first chief justice (county judge) from 1858-60. He was the second chief justice in Kendall County in 1865. He died in 1869 and is buried across the field nearby. (1996) (FM 3351, 2.8 miles west of Kendalia)

One marker was placed at the gravesite of Samuel Boyd Patton. Another sign was placed to mark the road on FM 3351 in 1996.
Samuel Boyd Patton was born in 1787 in South Carolina. He died in 1869 and was buried in Kendall County on the land he pioneered, fought and settled. His grave site is on his old homestead beneath a huge, oak tree. Patton served in the War of 1812. He moved to Alabama where he held public office and served in the state legislature. In 1837 he moved to Texas where he was appointed to the Board of Land Commissioners and was a member of Congress of the Republic of Texas. He helped organize Blanco County and served as the first County Judge in that county from 1858-1860. He later (1865) served as County Judge in Kendall County.

Ludwig Hein Home - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Bryden Moon

Marker #3145 - 1987   Ludwig Hein (1855-1933) came to Texas from Germany in 1877. He married Rosa Treiber of Waring and built this home for his family before 1900. Hein operated a blacksmith shop next door until the family moved to San Antonio in 1914. The home was known as the "nerve center" of Comfort when the local telephone switchboard was housed here from 1923 to 1955. Features of the Victorian house include its front bay window and bracketed porch supports.

Ludwig Hein was born in Steinhoefel Kreise Friedeberg, Berlin on October 9, 1955. In 1877, at age 22 he immigrated to the United States via the Port of New Orleans, and crossed country until he reached Waring, Texas.
Ludwig, from a family of 11 children, was joined in this country five years later by the passage of his parents, Henry and Ottilie Hein to Waring, Texas. In Waring, Ludwig met and married Rosa Treiber. Rosa was born August 19, 1867 in Burgenland, Austria. She, too, had immigrated to this country. On January 8, 1890, Ludwig Hein purchased Lot 93 in the township of Comfort from Achese Auguste for the sum of $150.
The Hein house, built before 1900, served as the home for the Hein's when Ludwig had a blacksmith shop next door. Six children were born to Ludwig and Rosa.
Son, Frederick, remembers how hard his father, Ludwig, worked in the tin blacksmith shop which adjoined their home directly on the southside. There were many horses to shoe as well as difficult wheel rims to mend.
In 1914, Ludwig moved his family to San Antonio so that his younger children might attend school there.
On April 19, 1923, Southwestern Bell moved the local switchboard from the Koblin Building to 727 High Street. Miss Augusta Allerkamp was in charge with 340 local and rural lines coming into the Comfort switchboard.
In 1925 Mrs. Grace Martin assumed management of the switchboard. The main switchboard was located in the front room while the remainder of the home served as Mrs. Martin's living quarters. The dining room of the home also served as one of the first lending libraries of the town, when in January, 1941, Mrs. Martin begin keeping the library books.

In 1947 Zahn Green purchased the Comfort and Center Point Exchanges which operated as Hill Country Telephone Company. With the advent of the dial system, Green sold out in 1955 to Hill Country Telephone, ending a 32 year era of Comfort's History.

The simple frame home was typical of those built in Comfort at the Turn of the Century as indicated by the porch columns, brackets and exposed rafter. The back portion of the house was added to the original structure before 1936.
The house was given a Historic Marker in 1987.

More info and Map Link

Karger Building - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Bryden Moon

Marker #15936 - 2009   Ernst Karger (1861-1922), who owned and operated a saloon on the adjoining property, had this building constructed in 1913. Fritz Anderwald’s pool hall was first to occupy the building, and several other businesses have been located here over the years. Fred Koerlin operated a cabinetry business here after 1951, removing the original storefront and installing garage doors; the façade was later restored. The frame building features a recessed storefront with large pane windows. George L. Mesker & Co. of Evansville, Indiana manufactured the building’s decorative pressed metal façade, pediment and siding. (725 High Street)

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Henry J. Graham Building - Marker in/near Boerne

Marker #2449 - 1986   Constructed on Main Street in the late nineteenth century, this building first served as an office for the real estate, insurance, and private banking interests of Henry J. Graham (1854-1936). Born in Brazil, Graham came to Boerne in the 1870s. He was an active community leader and served as both tax assessor and deputy sheriff for Kendall County. His original office building later housed a variety of business establishments and was moved once before being relocated here in 1984. (on W side of city hall)

The Henry J. Graham Building was first built and located on part of original Lot #27, as shown on the Boerne plat map done by John James in 1852. The lot is in Kendall County and is part of Survey #180 in the name of M.I. Leal which encompasses most of Boerne, Texas. There have been various conjectures as to when the building was built, but the official tax rolls from the Kendall County Tax Office indicate the building was built in 1891. This date also corresponds to the growth of South Main Street at that time.

Mr. Graham (1854-1936) was born in Brazil, South America and came to Texas as a small boy with his parents. He came to Boerne during the 1870s. He was active in settling Kendall Cunty and served as County tax assessor from 1878 to 1904. Mr. Graham was also a deputy sheriff.

In the early days, he acquired and sold much of the land in the county. He was known for his business activities because he held many of the notes for real estate, insujrance and banking and had a large safe, the only one in Boerne. He did some banking for paople who dealt in gold money. Henry Fabra, a long time resident born in Boerne at the turn of the century, well remembers finding a gold coin on the floor as a small boy visiting the office.

Although not much information is available on Henry J. Graham, he is remembered by those who knew him as a shrewd businessman who profited from his dealings in real estate and banking. He is also remembered for erecting a monument as a memorial to those who died in war as members of the Armed Services. The monument was placed near the center of Military Plaza on South Main Street and was dedicated on February 15, 1923.

Mr. Graham died in 1936 and is buried in the Boerne Cemetery. In 1938, the land, with the building , was sold to his grandson, also named Henry J. Graham. The building remained vacant during most of the 1930s but there are reports that there was a telephone exchange there at some time.

Rose Kemp had her "Rose Marie Beauty Parlor" there from 1941 to 1945. A Mr. Volbrecht sold peanuts and popcorn from the building during 1946. In December of 1946, Mr. Graham sold the land and building to Adolph and Cresentia Pechacek and opened "Curley's Barber Shop" in the Graham Building. It is said that there were many good poker games there in the back room.

The Graham Building was located at the edge of the sidewalk to the front of Lot #27. In 1949, during Boerne's Centennial Celebration, there was a drive to spruce up Main Street and Curley (Adolph Pechacek) moved the Graham Building to the back of Lot #27 in order to construct a new barber shop on the old location.
After the building was moved to the back of the lot, it was used as an office for Alex Bremer and in the 1960s it was rented by Epperson Motors, next door, as a storage building. In 1978, Curley (Adolph Pechacek) sold the Graham Building to the Boerne State Bank as they were buying all portions of Lot#27 for the bank expansion.

Mr. Pechacek retired in 1977, died in 1981 and is buried in the Boerne Cemetery.

In 1980, the Graham Building was sold to Gloria Musto who moved it out of Boerne, about 3 miles on the Sisterdale Road, where it was used as an antique shop named "The Hand & Heart".

In 1983, the Henry J. Graham Building was purchased from Mrs. Musto by Mr. and Mrs. Tom Frost when they bought her land located on the Sisterdale Road.

On June 15, 1984 the Graham Building was donated as a charitable gift to the Boerne Area Historical Preservation Society. On October 16, 1984 the building was moved back to Boerne to Lot #9 at 402 E. Blanco Street. The building now sits high on a hill, next to the Kuhlmann-King House, where it is used to house the Society's office and Archives.

More info and Map Link

Theis House - Marker in/near Boerne

Photo Credit: Dietert Historical Archives -
Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)

Marker #5460 - 1984   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. (on Newton Alley behind 242 Main Street, Boerne)

One story, four room. The structure is supported by hand hewn beams and poles that are held together with wooden pegs.

Built in 1858 by Phillip Jacob Theis, a blacksmith and wheelwright who immigrated from Germany in 1855, the Theis House was one of the ten residential structures existing in Boerne in 1958. Newton Street, adjoining the south boundary of the Theis property, was initially surveyed in 1852 as a public access alley to the Cibolo Creek. It was left open for the use of bucket brigades and later fire hoses when there was a fire in town. 

The Theis property line ran from Main Street to the creek and Mr. Theis operated his blacksmith shop under a mulberry tree in his front yard where the Adler Bakery Building later stood. Jacob Theis and his wife, Margaretha, raised seven children at the old Theis homesite. One son, August Theis, later took over his father's blacksmith shop and he and his wife, Agnes, continued living in the same house where they also raised seven children. Mrs. Edgar (Ruby) Bergmann refurbished the house and filled it with appropriate furniture of the early period. She opened it to the public on special occasions to showcase the life style of the early settlers.

More info and Map Link

Boerne Chapter No. 200, Order of the Eastern Star (O.E.S.)