Baethge-Behrend Homestead

The Baethges built where German settlers blended old and new ways. Most German immigrants set aside their homeland's farmstead plans and took up Anglo forms such as the dog-run house, though often on a squarer plan, with stoves in place of open hearths, casement windows and cellars. Hill Country Germans used outside stairs more than any other group and filled unusually wide chinks between their logs with mortared stone. Fachwerk, or half-timbering, followed the first log years until about the Civil War, hewn stonemasonry appeared from about 1850, and some houses combine all three.

What the plaque says

Baethge-Behrend Homestead Johann Heinrich Baethge (1814-1888), his wife Sophie Konradine (Pape) (1824-1888), and their two children immigrated to Texas from Germany in 1854. They lived at several locations in the Central Texas area before settling here on about 120 acres in 1867. The Baethges' homestead consisted of a main house constructed of handmade clay and straw bricks and a number of outbuildings. The Baethges' sons, Ferdinand and Heinrich, Jr., inherited the farm upon their parents' deaths in 1888. The family of Ferdinand and Louise Baethge lived here until 1937 when the property was sold to the August F. Behrend family. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 3.9 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 4.2 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.
• Fort Martin Scott — 5.8 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Luckenbach — 13 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Philipp Hartmann Family Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• Wunderlich Houses — 3.0 mi
• Guenther's Live Oak Mill — 3.6 mi
• First Methodist Church of Fredericksburg — 3.6 mi