IMAGE CAPTION: Early map reflecting important areas of newly established New Braunfels. No. 1 Marktplatz is now known as the Main Plaza. No. 2 identifies the location of the Fleischhalle (Meat Market), which later became known as the Marktplatz and now known in English as Market Plaza. (Texas State Library and Archives Commission.)
By Tara V. Kohlenberg —
In this day and age, most everyone has heard of “planned communities.” They are essentially little towns (or subdivisions) that are perfectly engineered to have just the right ratio of houses to businesses to green space, carefully packaged to attract more people to a region. We see the advertisements all the time. Would you believe that New Braunfels, along with nearly every community established by the Adelsverein, is actually a planned community … right down to the “planned open spaces”?
When Prince Carl arrived with the first immigrants, he had Nicholas Zink, a civil engineer, survey the area, lay out town lots and blocks, and designate “planned open spaces” for future use such as churches, meeting areas and other town properties. Immigrants under the auspices of the Verein were to receive a town lot, a farm lot and assistance with basic supplies and food to help them get started in Texas.
Originally, the food was distributed from the Vereinsgebäude (headquarters buildings) und Magazin (warehouse) on Sophienburg Hill. The Magazin, once located approximately where the Dittlinger home stands, is how Magazine Street came to be named. As more and more immigrants arrived, it became clear that the provisions held by the warehouse were not sufficient to support them all. So, like all good people in Texas, they bought cattle!
Cattle to provide the daily provision of beef. Cattle for survival. I know what you are thinking … where did they keep them? Downtown, of course. On a wonderful little “planned open space” just a stone’s throw from the center of town, the Verein set up a meat distribution center for immigrants. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Except, the whole “hoof-to-table” operation was right there on the space of one downtown block — combination stockyard/slaughterhouse/butcher shop in August heat. Mmmmm.
The Verein engaged butcher Henry Burkhart to run the slaughterhouse. Initially, the new immigrants were not charged for the butchering service until the successful establishment of the town was assured. The only charge was for the cost to purchase the animals for butchering. People had to arrive early in the morning to receive their ration of meat for the day.
A late 1840s map shows that the unnamed town lot had a building called the Fleischhalle located on the south end of the open lot, right at the edge of Comal Avenue. Fleischhalle translates literally as “Meat Hall,” but “Meat Market”, “Butcher Shop” or “Market House” would be a more recognizable to us. It was described as an open air shed for butchering. The area around the Market House became known as the Marktplatz, now Market Plaza.
As the town grew, so did private enterprise. In 1857, city ordinances regulated butchering and required meat to be sold only through the Market House. Multiple butchers, each with their own cutting blocks, rented space in the butcher shed that was said to be 20 feet wide and 40 or 60 feet long. Holding cattle in town was no longer necessary. In the afternoons, the butchers would go out to the farms to purchase the beeves, then they would butcher and field-dress and skin the carcasses there in the country. They would bring the carcasses to the shed to hang and cool overnight, dropping the skins off at either of the two tanneries. Incidentally, one of those two tanneries was Tolle Tannery. The Market Plaza faces Comal Avenue and is bordered on three sides by Tolle Street. Tolle Street leads down to the Comal River and former location of Tolle Tannery.
What began as a short-term solution to supply the immigrants with provisions evolved into a long-term commercial success lasting more than 60 years. New Braunfels continued to grow and became more “worldly” with the arrival of the railroad in 1880. The smelly business of butchering, complete with flies, was no longer welcome by downtown residents and businesses. (There was no AC!) In 1908, a petition by citizens on Market Square was presented to the city, calling attention to the unsanitary condition of the surroundings and things began to change.
After serving the area as a central market point, Market Plaza was rented out for various activities. It was the perfect location for storing various crops, such as cotton, until they could be processed in the mills. The site was also the perfect location for a variety of entertainment, including amusement rides, carnivals, music shows and traveling tent theaters. It was close to the center of town, but away from any “traffic” or noise from horse-drawn carriages and automobiles of the day.
It is possible that one of the first movies shown in New Braunfels was at the Market Plaza. In a 1973 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung article, Frederic Oheim shared remembrances of the first film being shown in New Braunfels. It was a series of short subjects shown as part of a traveling carnival set up on Market Plaza, although he did not see it. He was a kid, and the topic was a little risque.
Just like now, any open space becomes attractive to those who want to build. The Market Plaza was considered as a building site for several projects through the years, but none were carried out, including: an American Legion Memorial Hall (1921), a New City Hall (1929), a Community Center (1934), and a parking lot (1956). In 1937, Emmie Seele Faust offered to fund the building of the first free-standing public city library if they built it on Market Plaza. The citizens of the surrounding streets complained that it would create too much traffic. Emmie Seele Faust Library was then built on the corner of Coll and Magazine, on a lot offered by the Sophienburg Memorial Association.
IMAGE CAPTION: City signage at southwest end of the Market Plaza facing Comal Avenue.
Eventually, after failed attempts to build on the Plaza for any use, it became a park. The Market Plaza park on Tolle Street is approximately 500 feet long and 60 feet wide. The City of New Braunfels has taken steps in recent years to make the park even more inviting by adding sidewalks, picnic tables, shade pergola, landscaping and a water fountain.
The Comal County Historic Commission has designated Market Plaza at 292 Tolle St. as an historic site, the significance of which helped ensure the survival of New Braunfels founding families in 1845. The importance of this historic site will be commemorated with a Texas Historic Marker ceremony to be held in the coming months. Stay tuned.
Sources: Comal County Historic Commission; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.
“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.