Liedertafel

The Liedertafel belongs to a building type found only in Texas, the round or many-sided dance hall. Austin County carpenter Joachim Hintz first worked out the design in 1897 for the Bellville Turnverein's pavilion, probably drawing on octagonal barn plans then promoted in the farm press. Eighteen such halls are known, built over about forty years in German and Czech farm communities, most of them along Texas 36 and the Santa Fe line. Typical ones had wood frames, hinged siding flaps for windows, a cupola to vent hot air, and maple or oak floors under elaborate truss roofs.

What the plaque says

Liedertafel Sealy's German immigrants were famous for their love of music. A group of men, some of them Sealy's pioneer settlers, had formed a singing society, called Liedertafel, by 1899. They met primarily in the home of Ferdinand Lux. Lux and Fritz Kinkler, Jr., gave land for the establishment of a permanent building in 1912-1914. One of a number of round frame dance halls built in German communities in Texas, this structure was erected beginning in 1914. The eight-sided hall was built from materials purchased from the F. W. Hackbarth Lumber Company. There were about 19 singing society members in 1914, and they hosted many concerts, festivals and dances for the community. The Liedertafel Hall was a popular gathering place for special events for many years. Other organizations, lodges and churches used the grounds and hall for their own celebrations, as well. In 1934 the Sealy Volunteer Fire Department began holding its annual "Firemen's Frolic" fundraiser at the hall. By 1944 the building was in need of repair and the singing society members were aging. Stockholders voted to sell the hall and land to the fire department, which raised funds to purchase and renovate the structure. It became known as the Firemen's Hall. In June 1945 the new "Fireman's Park" opened with a celebration. The following year, The Houston Post reported 5,000 attendees at the "Firemen's Frolic." The firemen donated the hall to a local historical society in 1995. Renovations began that year. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site — 4.7 mi
  Stephen F. Austin's colonial capital on a Brazos bluff, the town of the Consultation and the first Texas newspapers, burned by its own garrison in the Runaway Scrape of 1836.
• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 10 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Stafford Opera House — 23 mi
  A cattleman's bank and theater of 1886 on the Columbus square, in a river town Sam Houston burned in 1836 and a county marked by a long feud and a 1935 lynching.

More markers nearby

• Sealy Cemetery — 0.2 mi
• Haynes Mattress Factory — 0.6 mi
• Sealy — 0.6 mi
• Trinity Lutheran Church — 0.7 mi