Gruene

My goodness, yesterday was what I like to call a 'full day'.

Here's how it went - travel to a dive in New Braunfels for what were called the best breakfast tacos in the area (they were amazing, breakfast cost 5.47 and the place was a DIVE), visit Gruene, head to San Marcos for the third biggest outlet mall in the world, back to San Antonio and a search for a new Smashburger restaurant for a late lunch, back to the hotel (after a fight with the GPS), rest, ead over to the conference centre for the conference opening and keynote address, set a group world record during said keynote, dinner at a food truck park, sleep.

See what I mean? A FULL day!

I'm going to focus on Gruene - a lovely, sleepy village on the banks of the Guadalupe River. I had briefly visited Gruene when I was last in San Antonio but my trip was marred a bit by a work crisis which had me spending a good 45 minutes with a hysterical colleague on the phone. Yesterday I was determined that work would NOT interfer.

Arriving in Texas in the mid 1840s, German farmers became the first settlers of what is now known as Gruene, Texas. Ernst Gruene, a German immigrant, and his bride Antoinette, had reached the newly established city of New Braunfels in 1845, but acreage was scarce. Thus, Ernst and his two sons purchased land just down river, and Ernst built the first home in Gruene in early fachwerk style. His second son, Henry D. Gruene, built his home (now Gruene Mansion Inn) and planted his surrounding land with cotton. Having become the number one cash crop, the cotton business soon brought 20 to 30 families to Henry D.'s lands.

Henry D. built houses in various styles -- a Victorian cottage (now Lone Star), a large brick home, and a frame house (now Gruene Haus) for the foreman of his farm. The first mercantile store (now Gruene General Store) was built in 1878 and a cotton gin (now Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar) powered by the Guadalupe River was added soon after. Further construction during this profitable time included a dance hall and saloon (Gruene Hall), which became the center of the community's social life.

As the town continued to prosper, a new mercantile building (now Gruene Antique Company) sprang up in 1904. However, the death of Henry D. in 1920 marked the downfall of Gruene's development and good fortune. In 1922, the original cotton gin burned and was replaced by a modern electric model down the road (now Adobe Verde). Yet, the economic disasters of the boll weevil and the Depression were too much for the family businesses and they went under, except for Gruene Hall, which never closed.

Today, Gruene is once again a thriving community, but for decades it was little more than a ghost town. This changed the day that Pat Molak, frustrated with big-city life, wandered into town and began to breathe life back into this piece of Texas history.

Molak purchased Gruene Hall in 1975. A few unavoidable repairs were made to the Hall, but little else was necessary. Left uncorrupted, the 6,000 square-foot, open-air dance hall became a virtual magnet, a starting point for many of Texas' up-and-coming performers, and once again, the heart of Gruene.

With the help of his friend Mary Jane Nalley, he worked to preserve the authentic, turn-of-the-century look and feel of Gruene by purchasing and repairing several of the town's most notable structures and transforming them into thriving businesses. These developments seemed to rekindle the spark of Gruene, and soon the town's familiar charm began to shine again.

Gruene itself has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the buildings that were rescued by Molak and Nalley have been awarded a Texas medallion from the Texas Historical Commission. It has also been recognized by the Texas travel industry as a premiere attraction for visitors, which is no surprise to its merchants and guests.

Comments

[Kayte]

Thanks for the tour and talk about Gruene...I enjoyed every moment of it. I love it when you do historical things and then report back. Only thing missing was a photo of those breakfast tacos! :-)

[JDeQ]

You would have enjoyed those breakfast tacos Kayte! :-)