Historic sounds that inspire

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Time is elusive. It moves slowly but passes quickly. It is also easy to lose track of time. As a child growing up in New Braunfels, only a few markers of time stood out to me: the twelve-noon siren from Central Fire Station; the streetlights coming on; and the TV […]

Arriving Germans found native tribes in area they settled

By Myra Lee Adams Goff — Prince Carl in the diary of his sojourn to Texas writes about sleeping on the ground, using a pistol case as a pillow. Even before the emigrants arrived, he feared an Indian attack. He recalled a patriotic drinking song called “Deutschland Hoch.” Rewriting his own words to this song, […]

Sophienburg History Award 2023

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Now in our 90th year of existence, the Sophienburg Museum and Archives has maintained artifacts and archival documents to keep the history of New Braunfels alive. Part of our mission is to not only preserve the history, but to share the stories with the generations that follow. I am beyond […]

New Braunfels treasure celebrates 90 years

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — A 90th birthday is an event well worth celebrating. My beautiful friend was born in 1933, the same year as Willie Nelson and Carol Burnett. It was the worst year of the Great Depression, when twenty-five percent of the labor force was unemployed, the U.S. bank system failed, and the […]

History mystery: South Seguin Avenue, Part II

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Part I of the history of 650 and 666 South Seguin Avenue properties was a story of immigrants who worked hard and expanded their family holdings. Now, on to Part II. Ysmael Zamora Isasi and Otila Martinez, fled the atrocities of the Mexican Revolution with their children to become permanent […]

Recollections of early New Braunfels

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — German immigrants crossed the Guadalupe River on March 21, 1845, setting foot in the next long-term waystation. When spring rolls through Central Texas, it is easy to see why the founding families sought to stay here, in New Braunfels, rather than move further along to the promised land of the […]

History mystery: South Seguin Avenue, Part I

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Having lived in New Braunfels for most of my life, it feels oddly disturbing to see long-standing buildings damaged or torn down. It also piques my interest. Questions about what happened there or where the buildings went start spinning in my head. I wanted to know what happened to the […]

A good smoke was a hometown cigar

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — So, I’m still in “cigar-mode.” Once begun, research on a subject takes me down many roads, each with their own questions to answer. For instance, I found out that early New Braunfels had cigar makers. These were not big outfits, but little factories which had one to five individuals who […]

Albert Kirchner wins Cremo contest

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Last week, David Hartmann, the present-day unofficial historian of New Braunfels, brought some old telegrams to the Sophienburg Museum. In case some of you don’t know what that is, a telegram is a written message transmitted by using an electric device called a telegraph. The message was carried from its […]

Historic treasures hiding in plain sight

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Historic Downtown New Braunfels. It calls to my heart. The fascination for me is held by the details of the buildings and architecture, the part many people do not notice. Growing up, any business that needed to be conducted could pretty much be done within two blocks from the Plaza. […]