Sophienburg Museum and Archives

Downtown renovations important

June 14, 2015

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Ron Snider has been awarded the Dr. Frederick Frueholz Comal County Historical Commission Award for his work in the restoration and preservation of downtown New Braunfels buildings. In the 1960s a trend of tearing down old buildings, remodeling them into modern buildings or using the

Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home from 1923 to the present in the same family

March 8, 2015

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff It’s the same business, in the same place, run by the same family for almost 92 years. That’s Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home, now involving the fourth generation. And it doesn’t look like they are going to run out of clients any time soon. In the early

Henne Hardware survives 148 years downtown

November 2, 2014

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff I walked into Henne Hardware and the bell rang above the door alerting the clerk that someone had entered. I was immediately greeted by two cats named Clifford and Eugene, so named by owner of the store, Paul Martinka. These cats, or at least their

From distillery to woolen mill to laundry

May 4, 2014

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Two sisters, Debbie Elliott and Lynn Norvell, have built homes on the property that has been in their family over 100 years. The property is on the corner of Garden and Comal Sts. on the Comal River, next to the Garden Street Bridge. They are

Historic Kindermaskenball Parade This Coming Saturday

April 6, 2014

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Eleven years ago Rosemarie Gregory and I wrote a book called “Kindermaskenball, Past and Present”. It’s about an event here in New Braunfels that goes back to the early days of the settlement. At the beginning of the book we made this statement: “Kindermaskenball is

Pictures can be painted with words

March 20, 2012

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Thanks to some early settlers, we have pictures painted with words of what early NB looked like from writers like Roemer, Lindheimer, Brach and the most prolific of all writers, Hermann Seele. Let’s not forget all those personal letters that were saved by families. One

Dollhouse collection displayed at Sophienburg

November 29, 2011

Around the Sophienburg, Sophienblog

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Don’t we all love the feeling of an old-fashioned Christmas? Once again, the Sophienburg has decorated for the Christmas season, but this year wins the prize. The collection and exhibit ladies have put together a dollhouse display of 14 different dollhouses plus small doll collections.