By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Today, July 4, 2026, marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. America’s 250th birthday. New Braunfels has celebrated America’s birthday for 170 years. The celebrations have changed over time but are no less important.

New Braunfels has a long and storied history of July Fourth celebrations, the first being held in July of 1846. Our earliest founders arrived in the Republic of Texas from Germanic regions of Europe in 1845 when the fledgling America was a mere 69 years old. Within one short year, Texas was admitted into the Union, making the citizens of New Braunfels new Americans.

The first Fourth of July celebration in New Braunfels began with a bang, literally. Two cannons on Sophienburg Hill fired off at sunrise to begin the day. The Adelsverein headquarters building on Sophienburg Hill displayed a large American flag of 28 stars. That flag raising was significant because just the year before, Prince Carl had hoisted a German flag above the Sophienburg while a group of settlers strung up the flag for the Republic of Texas on the Plaza. Three different flags flew over New Braunfels within one year.

The newly minted Americans were very patriotic and found it exciting to celebrate their nation in grand displays of music, parades and patriotic oratory (speeches). Nearly every organization had a band or choral group.

In 1866, the day began with cannon fire. The Declaration of Independence was read by a prominent citizen followed by a short address and most likely the Pledge of Allegiance in German. A festive procession of townspeople was led through the streets by the brass band of the 4th Regulars Union Cavalry Regiment followed by evening dances in several dance halls.

One of the most elaborate and dramatic Fourth of July celebrations ever held in early Texas was the one in New Braunfels saluting the U.S. Centennial in 1876. It was so extensive and elaborate that it received statewide publicity. The Texas Post, a San Antonio German newspaper, reported, “The Centennial of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America was celebrated with dignity befitting the jubilee, greater than in any other city of the State of Texas.”

Citizens went all out for the two-day celebration, decorating their homes and businesses with patriotic flags and wreaths of cedar and mountain laurel. For the parade, they built four triumphal arches downtown close to the plaza and hung a giant picture of George Washington in the Zeitung printing shop.

Setting the tone for the next day’s events, a cannon on Sophienburg Hill was fired 13 times in commemoration of the 13 original colonies. On the Fourth, people were awakened at dawn by the rapid firing of the cannon, followed by trumpets heralding the beginning of the festivities.

The centennial parade was a historical review of the United States of America, played out in pageantry on a grand scale under the 37-star flag. The parade began with bands on decorated wagons, Columbus, George Washington on horseback, followed by floats representing Prince Carl and the founding of New Braunfels, the Liberty Bell, Lady Liberty and a myriad of floats by local organizations and industries.

The entire procession crossed the low-water bridge into Comaltown, where on a large open green (now Eagles Hall), a dance platform had been constructed along with tables and chairs. Hermann Seele gave the opening address before dancing commenced until sunup — for both days!

In 1886, the New Braunfels Volunteer Fire Department was formed. The volunteer department was more than a fire-fighting organization. They were one of the most active civic organizations in town, collecting toys for children and fundraising for fire equipment by putting on costumed shows (they had a band!). For more than 75 years, they were in charge of the Fourth of July festivities.

By the turn of the century, Fourth of July in New Braunfels meant not only parades and speeches but concerts on the Plaza (thus the Bandstand), foot races, baseball games, dances, and fireworks! By 1920s and ‘30s, the Volunteer Fire Department made pumper races (firemen competitions) and water displays part of the fun, shooting arches of water through the air on Main Plaza. There was also miniature golf, boating on the lake and swimming in Landa’s Park.

Many still remember the ‘60s when people gathered across the Landa Park Lake to watch the fireworks. They were set off by local firefighters trained to handle fireworks. Although there were a lot of aerial displays, a number of ground-supported fireworks displays geared to the crowd seated across the lake. Everyone knew it was the end when they saw the American flag sparkling across the water.

New Braunfels grew and changed, gearing summer holidays to more tourist trade. Fireworks displays became the work of professional companies. The volunteer fire Department disbanded as the number of paid fire personnel grew and public Fourth of July events dwindled.

In 1978, Mayor Margaret Naegelin invited city councilmembers to her home for coffee before travelling to the plaza in antique cars, where they enjoyed ice cream and lemonade while the courthouse bells played. Mrs. Naegelin, who was also the president of the Sophienburg Museum and Archives, unknowingly initiated the first Sophienburg Ol’ Fashion Fourth of July Parade and Patriotic Program in Downtown New Braunfels. This year marks 48 years. It has grown into a collaboration with the City of New Braunfels and remains one of the oldest traditions celebrated by our Founding Fathers — of both America and New Braunfels.

Happy 250th birthday, America!

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Oma & Opa, German Texas Pioneers by Curt E. Schmidt; Around the Sophienburg by Myra Lee Adams Goff.

“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.

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Doing research on the Sophienburg Hill property brings back memories of my 7th and 8th grade at New Braunfels High School. How does the museum fit together with the 7th and 8th grades, you ask? Here’s the story:

My introduction to the first two years in NBHS, the 7th and 8th grades, were totally filled with activities where boys and girls interacted with one another. This may sound strange to you, but at Lamar Elementary (for me up to 6th grade), the boys were in the back playground and the girls in the front. An occasional wave was about as close as we got. I’m talking about the era of Shirley Temple and the Our Gang comedy boys. So going to the big NBHS was quite a culture shock.

But boys and girls were eager to meet each other, even 7th graders. The PTA tried to address this need by providing places where students could get together. The first of these places was above the Jacob Mendlovitz Dept. Store downtown on San Antonio St. (now the Antique Mall on the corner of San Antonio St. and Castell Ave. The upstairs was open to students on week-ends and chaperoned by PTA members, mostly mothers). The wooden floor made wonderful dancing to the Nickelodeon. Occasionally someone would entertain with a skit or a song.

Needless to say, the location wasn’t too popular with the downtown merchants and when someone crawled out on the window awning over the sidewalk, it was time to look for another place.

On Butcher St. the school district had a big building that was converted into an entertainment center called the “Unicorn Stables.” Open to all NBHS students, there was dancing and even skating party nights. It even hosted formal dances.

But all this planned activity was not enough for the Shirley Temple/Our Gang 7th grade crowd. We had enough of all that planned activity. We already had the Mariners and the Sea Scouts who often interacted with each other on Lake Dunlap. Mariners were the top echelon Girl Scouts and the Sea Scouts were the top echelon Boy Scouts. As fate would have it, the Mariner adult leader and the Sea Scout adult leader both had family camps on Lake Dunlap. It was only natural that the two groups would meet at the same time at the lake. The boys took delight in showing off their boating skills by dumping the girls out of the boat into the water. Blue jeans and saddle oxford shoes weighed a ton.

Before Caller I.D., one of our favorite activities was to telephone the opposite sex and hang up when they answered. One of my friend’s father, a businessman, had a second telephone in the bathroom. What fun we had, calling the boys and then flushing the commode. Today’s youth cannot do that without being arrested. I think it’s called harassment. On Saturdays we called Krause Café and in our broken German would ask, “Hast do Schmier Kase heute?” Translation: Do you have cream cheese today? Then we would hang up and start the giggling routine. Why, you ask?

The picture show was a favorite hang-out. The theatre had to hire a person to walk up and down the aisles with a flashlight and one never knew when you would be spotlighted. Saturday was double feature day and so it was possible to spend the whole afternoon and evening in the movies. You never sat in the same seat for very long. It was kind of like “fruit basket turnover” or “popcorn bag turnover.” Getting popcorn thrown at you was a sign to turn around. If there was an empty seat, you moved to it.

The girls did lots of spending the night at each other’s houses. I don’t think the boys did that. It was years before I could spend the night at anyone’s house. I would get so homesick that I would have to be taken home. There’s nothing like a guest with dry heaves. I finally made it through the night my senior year. A friend had a big slumber party at their big house downtown for all girls at NBHS. I made it all night by sitting up fully clothed in the bathtub.

Almost all of my classmates had their driver’s license by age 14. There was almost no traffic so that made a big difference. Six 14-year-old girls (me included) drove out to a vacant ranch house out of town owned by the parents of one of the girls. We were going to spend the weekend in this house totally unchaperoned. We got to the ranch house in the afternoon full of confidence and independence.

When it started to get dark, we decided we would drive back to town to go to the movies. I have always wondered about that decision. We left the porch light on because we knew it would be dark when we got back. Sure enough, it was almost ten o’clock when we drove back to the ranch.

Coming over the hill leading to the house we were quite alarmed as we saw that the porch light was out. Pitch dark. We told ourselves all kinds of stories as to why that light was out and why it was so dark in the country.

We entered the house through the kitchen door and built a fire in the fireplace. We turned on the radio and on came the Mary Roberts Reinhart Mystery Theater. That program was known for the scariest of all mysteries, like all of Edgar Allen Poe’s mysteries. Even the theme song was scary. I think it was from Swan Lake. That program made your heart beat faster but for some reason we were drawn to listen to it, as they say, “like a moth to a flame.”

Suddenly there was an unfamiliar sound coming from the basement under the house. It sounded like bottles breaking. Absolutely stiff with fear, one of the girls went over to the door in the floor leading to the cellar. She screamed and claimed that someone was trying to push the door open. All six, like stampeding cattle ran to the kitchen looking for shelter. Some sat under the table, some in a closet and I remember standing up in the shower. There we froze until the sun peeped across the horizon and we packed up and left. But one more thing: outside we checked the half-open window leading to the cellar and discovered foot prints in the mud. We were in the car and out of there and no, did not go back.

We never solved that mystery but I’m sure that if there was someone there, they were more afraid than we were. Now come on, you guys that were in the cellar, fess up.
Back to why the Sophienburg Hill stories reminded me of my 7th and 8th grades. It was because my 7th grade friends had get-togethers of boys and girls most Saturday nights. One particular party was held at the old Ernst Gruene mansion where the Sophienburg Museum now sits. It’s been torn down but not because of this story. At the party, there was lots of dancing and record playing, popcorn and cheese dip, Orange Crush and Dr. Pepper with peanuts. But one activity was a little iffy. This is why I haven’t mentioned any names of participants in this whole column.

Our favorite game was “Spin the Bottle.” Sitting in a circle, someone would spin the bottle and when it stopped, the person it pointed to had to kiss them. This was a very popular game.

Suddenly there was commotion on the front porch. Two senior boys were spying on our little fun game. Pandemonium broke out. The worst of it is that they wanted to start a newspaper for NBHS. Guess what! They printed their own little paper and on the front page was the story of our private party. It was handed out to 7th-12th graders. It was so embarrassing and that was the end of our Saturday night parties.

Almost every time I enter the Sophienburg Museum I think of that 7th grade year and I go there often.

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The book, “Landa Park, Its Springs and Its People” by Rosemarie Leissner Gregory and Arlene Krueger Seales, is now available to pre-order. The New Braunfels Parks & Recreation Department and the Friends for the Preservation of Historic Landa Park, a non-profit organization, honor the 80^th anniversary of the acquisition of Landa Park by presenting this 438 page book, including two companion volumes, “Native American Artifacts, Comal Springs” and “The Comal Springs, Landa Park.”

The book begins with the history of the area millions of years ago up to the present. In other words, everything you ever wanted to know about Landa Park. Artwork and thousands of color and historic photographs paint a picture of what the park was and is now.

It’s difficult to do justice to a book like this in a review, so I chose the last small section of the book that recalls personal recollections of the park by individuals and what meant the most to them. Over 75 people were asked those questions. If you have lived here awhile, you will relate to their recollections. If you’re not from here, you will be surprised at a lot of what you read.

In all of the stories, some subjects emerged over and over. I am assuming that these subjects were the most important to the individuals. It’s a little bit like being asked, “In one word, what did Landa Park mean to you?” Names are in the book, but only a few in this column.

Over and over, the spring-fed swimming pool came up as the most memorable spot. I recall that this pool was a byproduct of Meriwether’s damming up the lake and digging the channel. The area of the swimming pool was part of the old channel. Harry Landa later created the pool as part of his tourist business. It has been a meeting place for friends and the slanted grassy place next to the old bath house was always covered with sun bathers on towels. Participants recollected that once you learned how to swim, your parents would let you loose in the pool.

One name that will be mentioned here because it was repeated so often was lifeguard Tommy Ortiz. He meant more to swimming youth than even he can imagine. He taught hundreds of children to dive with his own diving ability. His encouraging personality inspired many young swimmers. Imagine this: Ortiz would allow children to climb on his back and he would then proceed to jump off the high diving board.

During the summer, swimming was a daily experience for city kids. The pool took the place of air conditioning that they didn’t have and with so much time in the pool, it became inevitable that children made up their own games. This was true in the spring-fed pool because it had two rafts and the game, “King of the Raft” with the winner being the last one remaining on top of the raft was invented. I remember this as a pretty tough game. The other game was “Rag Tag” where the winner was hiding under the raft so as to not be caught.

In later years, the name Bud Dallmann surfaced. Organizing the first Aquatic Club in the spring-fed pool, the club eventually moved mainly over to the Olympic Pool. He was a great inspiration to swimmers of all ages for many years.

Bucky Warwick Smith was remembered for her teaching of synchronized swimming and organizing the Miss Texas Pageant. This was a big event in New Braunfels and her synchronized swimmers put on a spectacular show in the spring-fed pool.

Water played an important part in collective Landa Park memories. Most remember swimming, wading, boating, fishing and even the drying up of the springs and Landa Lake in the 1954 drought.

Another word mentioned in the collection of memories was “dancing” and of course, dance floors. The wooden covered dance hall that was located between the Founder’s Oak Tree and the concrete dance slab was the foundation of many memories. Dancing stories, particularly during World War II told of entertaining soldiers stationed at San Antonio bases.

Several local bands were mentioned that played on the dance slab, particularly those that played for the public dances around the big oak tree. Some types of dances mentioned at the wooden dance hall were the Hokey Pokey, Mexican Hat Dance and Herr Schmidt. Who remembers the local band, “The Trackers” of the 60s entertaining the younger crowd?

By far the most single dance event mentioned was the Kindermaskenball. After the parade downtown, participants would stop at Bock Motor Company where, over the years, thousands of Coca Colas were given by Ben Bock to the thirsty paraders. Then they would walk on to Landa Park. Many remember the wooden dance hall being the location of dancing during the day and the dance slab being the location at night. The families would picnic and sometimes go home during the day. At night they would come back for the ever popular Grand March.

All sorts of celebrations were mentioned like July 4, birthday parties, and several New Braunfels anniversaries, especially the 1946 Centennial Celebration. Some remembered the 1926 Venetian Carnival on Landa Lake that they had heard of from their grandmothers.

New Braunfels has always been a sports-following town and so it was natural that many had in their memory bank the New Braunfels Tigers, a semi-pro team whose field was located where the Olympic Pool is now. Names like Dizzy Dean who was in the military at Ft. Sam Houston, pitched and became the most valuable player for 1934 in the pros. Also, spring training for the Minneapolis Millers took place in Landa Park.

Some bemoan the tearing down of old buildings like the bath house built by the WPA. The old meri-go-round and the spinning top in the spring-fed pool became too dangerous to keep. Many remember nature at its finest: the snowstorm, trees, and the glass-bottom boat on the lake. This column is a small smattering of the information that is in just one section of the 438 pages.

Many people were involved compiling this book, but all in all, the main writers and coordinators were Rosemarie Leissner Gregory and Arlene Krueger Seales. This is a collection of history and photographs well worth the price. Pre-ordering at a discount may be done now by calling 830-625-3186 between 2-5pm or using www.friendsforlandapark.org . When a book is ordered and paid for now, it will be ready to be picked up on Monday, May 2 at the Landa Haus at 360 Aquatic Circle in Landa Park between 2-7pm.

That same day books may be purchased at full price. Check the Friends for Landa Park web-site for more information.

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