Brauntex opened in 1942 with Bing Crosby

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Most towns that actively renovate or recycle buildings have an old movie house downtown. We are fortunate to have our Brauntex movie theater renovated and recycled into a performing arts theater. Before it bit the dust as a movie theatre, we affectionately called it “The Brau…”

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Zink was charged with laying out town of New Braunfels

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Although Johann Nicholas Zink’s stay in NB was relatively short, his impact lives on even today, for it was he that plotted the basic plan for the layout of the town. Upon his arrival at Indianola in 1844, he was hired by Prince Carl on

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Early German immigrants faced tough times at Christmas

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The year is 1849, just five years after the first emigrants arrived on the Texas coast. Hermann Seele has been invited to spend December 26th with Pastor L.C. Ervendberg, his wife Luise, their five children, and the 19 orphans left parentless by the devastating immigration

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Sophienburg’s museum and shop decorated for the holidays

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The Sophienburg Museum and Archives are decorated for the holidays. The foyer features a doll tree and a Scherenschnitte tree. Two displays in the museum, the General Store and the Cabin have old toys. Christmas memories abound with all of us, but have you thought about

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Weihnachtsmarkt and decorated trees mean Christmas in NB

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Just imagine that you are strolling through an old German village with beautiful houses and stores surrounded by the snow-covered Alps. The Christmas season has begun and shoppers are rushing around in the Marktplatz. Sounds like fun? That’s exactly what you can experience at the

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Minutes discovered from early Comal Union School Board meeting

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Sometimes we find things stuck away in basements, attics, or sheds that look like they have value, but we don’t know why so we just hang on to them. That’s what happened to Karl Zipp, when about 25 years ago he came across a stack

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Wursthalle first became venue for Wurstfest 40 years ago in 1967

By Myra Lee Adams Goff This column is now 16 months old and this story is the “wurst” story ever. For those of you who just got off the boat, “wurst” means sausage and sausage means Wurstfest! This Friday Wurstfest will begin its 40th year in the giant building called Wursthalle which according to

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Whether you cook or not, book of old recipes is fascinating browse

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Looking through a cookbook is a little like visiting with the cooks who wrote it. You start to remember past holidays, birthdays and just plain fun days. I visit my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts. My mother wrote notes next to her recipe collection

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Warnecke had the first drive-in store in Texas beginning in 1934

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Long before we had convenience stores in New Braunfels, we had the first drive-in grocery store in Texas right at the intersection of one of the busiest spots in town. It was Warnecke’s Drive In and it was located where the Union Street Station now is

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First county fair was in 1894

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Next week will be the annual Comal County Fair which had its first event in 1894. When I was doing the research at the Sophienburg for the book It’s Fair Time for the Fair Association, there was one particular era in its development that intrigued me. It was the period

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