Starting at the Boerne Visitors Center at 1407 S. Main in the Historic Kingsbury House (in front of Wal-Mart) this tour of historic homes will take you back in time to early Boerne. Cost is $10 per person. Tickets are available at the Boerne Visitors Center in the Historic Kingsbury House (near Wal-Mart)
Homes included on the tour are:
LEESCH - HARZ HOUSE BUILT IN 1907
712 N. MAIN ST.
This 1-1/2 story Victorian style home was built by Henry Clemens for Louis & Wilhelmina Leesch. Louis was a descendant of early German Settlers. Udo Harz bought the home in 1941. Udo’s grandfather, Ferdinand, migrated from Germany in 1852, worked as a Wagon Master during the Civil War and served the Confederacy as a Ranger on the frontier. His son, Adolph, and father of Udo, was a wheelright. Udo was a City Marshall and served as Fire Chief for 35 years. His wife, Lorene, served as County & District Clerk for 35 years. Their only child, Carolyn Harz Goodall, inherited the house, which has been in the Harz family for 66 years. The home is 100 years this year! You will recognize the lovely house by its large metal, hipped roof painted bright red, with central dormers and projecting gables, and its large wrap around porch with pressed tin and unusual gingerbread including Maltese Crosses. Note the stained glass insert in front window.
Carolyn, and contractor Pat Haley, have worked since 2003 to restore the home with original and duplicated old building materials- inside and out- to keep it truly authentic architecturally. A very interesting historical home inside, with many memories and stories.
KOCH-TYNE-PRATT HOUSE BUILT CIRCA 1863
512 E. BLANCO ST.
This German Pioneer style home, originally 13' x 25', was built by Louis DeLeon.
In the 1920s, the Tyne family purchased the house and added a kitchen, bedrooms, a bath and another large room. A fireplace and two small windows were added to the original part along with a bungalow style front porch.
The home went through numerous owners over the years. In 2002, Dee Dee and Robert Caraway sold the home to Beth and Mike Coyle who were looking for a place to build their office, Coyle Engineering. After several weeks of renovation, they realized what a huge job they had ahead of them. The house had been vacant for 8 years and little animals were living there, a ceiling was falling down and the walls were covered with mildewed plaster. The Coyles removed the plaster and exposed the 15" thick limestone walls. The kitchen ceiling was pulled down and hundreds of molded packing boxes tumbled down, filling 2 huge dumpsters.
They added 1800 sq.ft.; hardwood floors were placed, stained and polished. Beaded board wainscoting was used to frame new electrical conduits and boxes in the walls. Every detail was carefully planned to balance the old with the new, down to the Texas front door, lighting fixtures and antiques.
A new metal roof and rock courtyard finish the great job!
KUHLMANN-KING HISTORICAL HOUSE CIRCA 1886
AND PIONEER KITCHEN
402 E. BLANCO - BEHIND CITY HALL
This imposing two story native rock house was built for William H. Kuhlmann, a German immigrant who was a pharmacist. Salina Long King from England purchased the home in 1908. Her sons operated the local King & King Lumber Co.
From 1920-1951, the owner, the Boerne Independent School District, used the house as a rental and noted artist Harry Anthony DeYoung lived here. It was also used as a student lunch room and classroom for the old school next to it.
In 1951, the City of Boerne, became the owner and in 1971 leased the building to the Boerne Historical Society to be operated by them. The Society has furnished the house with furniture by master craftsmen, such as A.S.Toepperwein (Ringtail Rino) which can be seen as well as period clothes and items depicting life in the early 1900s. The upstairs bed-room and children’s room are full of interesting relics & toys. The Old Pioneer Kitchen, separate from the house, was used for cooking, preserving, eating, ironing, sewing and bathing
until water and electricity were added to the main house in the 1920s. It’s a wonderful, one of a kind, old room to browse through. So many interesting things to see!
The house became a Texas Historical Landmark in 1983 and is visited by many groups as well as Third Grade students for a first hand glimpse of the history of Boerne settlers.
HENRY J. GRAHAM BUILDING BUILT IN 1891
402. E. BLANCO - BEHIND CITY HALL
This two-room building has been moved several times and has been used as a bank by Mr. Graham, a beauty shop, Curly’s barber shop.. where there were a few good card games as well...offices and storage. In 1984, Mr. & Mrs. Tom Frost donated the building to the Historical Society and had it moved to this spot from Sisterdale, where it was used as an antique shop. It was awarded a Texas Historical Subject Marker in 1987 after renovation by the Society, and was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Ilse Herff Frost, who had donated the beautiful rock wall in front of this building from limestone rocks on her family ranch. The Society’s Historical Archives were housed here before they outgrew the space and were moved to the new Boerne Library in 1991.
It is now used for HISTORICAL DISPLAYS of Boerne’s early
days and features the original Boerne Telephone Operator’s Board along with displays of memorabilia such as the Boerne White Sox, Boerne Shooting Club, an early working Victrola, old photographs and commemorative plates, the desk of Sheriff John F. Stendebach, old Boerne school relics, old autograph books with lovely German script handwriting, old maps and artwork. Students and “old timers” love to roam through the displays which will vary and are rotated .
VOGT - CLEGG LOG CABINS BUILT IN 1860
221 S. PLANT ST.
German immigrants Wilhelm and Ernestine Vogt built the house as a one-room log structure. As their family of nine children grew, they built two additional pioneer log cabins connected by open “dog trots.”
The smokehouse was built for curing meats, which was an important part of feeding a large family. The cabin next to the smokehouse was the kitchen and the other two cabins used as sleeping areas. In 1870, the Vogts moved to the larger home next to the log cabins. In 1919, Luther and Laura Clegg purchased the property and it remained in their family until 1984. Agnes Clegg lovingly retained the cabins in their original state. One cabin is where Walt Disney reportedly stayed while working on “Old Yeller” and patterned the cabin in the movie after these. Under the next owner, Kathryn Sawtelle, the log cabins became a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark in 1994. When bought by Dr. James and Cindy Atkins in 2003, the cabins had fallen into disrepair and they have restored and preserved them beautifully. The log cabins have not been lived in full time since the bigger Vogt house was built, but have been used as guest cabins and are loved by children who have bedded down here for many generations. The log cabins are very significant as one of the few examples of a “dog trot” house left in the area that have not had the breeze ways filled in.
HAAG - CALDER HOUSE BUILT CIRCA 1868
101 LANDA ST.
The house was built by Adolph Haag in the early 1860s; probably started before the Civil War and completed after by the weathered look of rafters, long exposed to the elements.
It stayed in the Haag family until 1943 and then changed hands many times as a rental property. Felix & Anita Herbst owned it from 1957 to 1967, later the Reissigs sold it to Howard Calder in 1982, who used it as a rental. Sue Martin bought the house in 2001 and has painstakingly renovated it inside and out and added a new South wing.
The original German Pioneer brick house was a two room, one story, metal roof ,and limestone rock foundation. In the 1920s a pier & beam addition was added with a kitchen, water and electricity. Calder removed stucco from the out side brick and changed the porch back from Bungalow to Victorian. Sue found the house to be unstable and put in a new cement foundation (massive project) under the whole brick house. The wood floors were turned over, sanded and polished.
The outside brick walls were repaired, the 1920s addition stripped down to the studs and new electrical and plumbing added, plus the new wing, finally blending a home with three eras of time (1800,1900,2000), creating a nostalgic home in historic Boerne. Besides her dogs, ask Sue about her friendly spirits who are also enjoying their new home.
KEMPER MOORE HOUSE BUILT IN 1906
206 E. ROOSEVELT
This house is unique in its structure, as it is not of the typical German cut-limestone style common to Boerne; but a white clapboard Craftsman Victorian, rumored to have been ordered from Sears catalogue and delivered in crates to the lot where it was constructed on site.
Kemper Moore was a member of the McFarland family, who owned the house until it was purchased by the Corrigan family in 1969, who sold it in 2002 to Brenda and Alex Yount, who have done extensive renovations.
It is believed that the center of the home is the original structure and the “wings” were added in the 1930s, as pre-World War II newspapers from 1938 were discovered insulating the pipes when the plumbing was up-dated in 1998 by the Corrigans, who also remodeled and enclosed the screened porch.
The interior of the home is finished largely in bead board with original longleaf pine floors throughout. There is a large entry hall which houses a gracious wood staircase. Six inch oak baseboards, French doors, beautiful molding around doors and windows and original “wavy glass” panes are evidence of the Craftsman style. A large limestone fireplace and antique chandeliers are focal points in the living room.
The home sits on over an acre of land, with granddaddy oak trees thought to be 250 to 300 years old.
WILL HERFF HOUSE BUILT IN 1890
35 OLD SAN ANTONIO ROAD
Dr. Ferdinand Herff, an early German immigrant, is one of the most famous names in the history of Boerne. He did the first cataract surgery in the U.S. on an Indian Chief, which saved the lives of he and his family. He amassed a ranch that went from Sisterdale to Camp Bullis amd gave each of his 6 sons 60 acres of land on the Cibolo Creek to build their homes.
One such son was Will Herff, who built his home in 1890. The lovely 2 story limestone rock house with double tier porches, surrounded by huge old oak trees, stayed in the Herff family until 1952 when it sold to artist, Kapitola Kirschke. Used as a rental, her only changes were adding an upstairs bathroom and a heating system. It came back into the Herff family in 2002 when Dr. Fraser Graham, g-g-grandson of Dr. Herff, and his wife, Lisa, bought the property that had fallen into great disrepair and set about restoring it inside and out by them- selves and with John LaRoche, Fraser’s brother. All the electrical wires, plumbing and windows were replaced and a thick mortar chiseled and scraped off all the limestone walls. Woodwork was artfully redone. Layers of linoleum were removed to reach wooden floors that they polished. Some inside walls were removed and new rooms built. The result is beautiful. Also involved is their “friendly ghost” who has given Lisa and workers some hairy moments. Ask about it!