Simple Sunday Houses

Feb 19/2019  Weather  sunny, 67 cool at night 39.  Our RV park is all about location, location, location.  We are only 2 miles out of  the little town of Fredericksburg.   Driving in town you find the most unique properties called Sunday Houses. These charming houses date back to the mid- 1800’s, They were built by Fredericksburg’s first settlers; 125 German immigrants who arrived there in 1846 with deeds to ten acres of farm land and one in town house lot.

Once in Fredericksburg the settler’s first priority was to start farms. Their farm land parcels were located twenty miles out, rutted roads made it difficult for them to get into town. The solution; they pitched tents on their in town lots, staying there on weekends so they could shop, visit with friends, and attend church.

As time went on many farmers built small houses on these lots with one main room downstairs and an outside staircase leading to a sleeping loft. All had gingerbread lace trimmed front porches for sitting and visiting with friends. After Sunday dinner they returned to their farms. Hence the name Sunday Houses.    Sunday houses were also used when a member of the family needed to stay in town to conduct business or receive medical attention. Some Sunday houses became the residences of retired ranchers when their land was turned over to their sons.  Although in Texas Sunday houses were almost exclusively confined to Germans in Hill County, particularly Gillespie County, the phenomenon was not unique to Texas. Similar houses were used in the 1660s in Middlebury, Connecticut, and a counterpart to the Sunday house exists in the Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Now in  2019 these 100 + year old homes sell and rent out for extremely high prices.  There are approximately 100 of these historic homes in the immediate downtown area of Fredericksburg.  

The historic marker reads:  "Built of native stone in 1871, soon after Knopp and his wife Katherina (Stein) came to America. From Germany they traveled six weeks by clipper ship to Indianola and by oxcart to Fredericksburg. They bought this homesite for $70 in gold. Knopp was a stonemason; family farm, a mile from this home, was worked by the wife and children. (Of the 15 children born to the Knopps, nine reached adulthood.) House, restored in 1939, was extensively remodeled in 1968. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971."  There is a second marker just below the first that says, "In 1939, Fredericksburg's historical preservation era was opened when architect Albert Keidel restored this house.  Later (1968) remodeling was done by Mrs. Marschall D. Altgelt, a member of the family of the city's founder, John O. Meusebach."

 The historical marker reads, "Log room and loft were built by German emigrant Gerhard Rorig as his home in first winter of Fredericksburg's existence, 1846-47. Noted cabinetmaker Johann Martin Loeffler added typical rock and half-timber rooms and cooking fireplace, 1867; his son-in-law, J. Charles Weber, in 1905 restored the southeast lean-to. For Loeffler-Weber family, this was home or Sunday house for 90 years.  Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971." On a plate added near the base: "Restored 1964 by Mr. and Mrs. George A. Hill, III - Consultant: Albert Keidel, Architectural Designer."