When the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce published a new brochure in the 1960s, they (rightfully) had a lot to boast about. New Braunfels was just beginning its change from a small town to a large town. Today, our community is changing from a large town to a city. Growth always produces changes – good and not so good – but many things remain the same. People still want the best for their families. They want good schools and good churches. They want activities and entertainment. They want to feel safe. And, they want to feel like they are a part of something – they want to belong.

Just hear the words of the 1960s description:

The “Beauty Spot of Texas” does not adequately describe the lure of the captivating attractions offered vacationists, sportsmen, tourists, and the opportunities for business men and those seeking a year ‘round home here in New Braunfels. Only by coming to this peaceful community, nestled at the foothills of the far famed Texas hill country, can one really appreciate the charm this area affords. Landa Park, where the taut nerves relax, and the great outdoors beckon, has for years been a Mecca for visitors. One of the Southwest’s largest outdoor swimming pools, filled with the crystal clear waters from the famous Comal Springs, constantly changing, assures the finest bathing facilities. Scenic drives, both in the City and the Texas hill country, along roads lined with wild flowers, and ranges abounding with wild deer and other game, are plentiful. Hunting and fishing are excellent. Golfing on one of the sportiest nine-hole courses in the country with well-trimmed fairways, grass greens, and six water hazards make this course most unusual and inviting. The Comal Springs, said to be Texas’ largest with a daily flow of two hundred ten million gallons of sparkling water, bubble up from subterranean rivers to form the enchanting Comal, the largest, shortest river in the world. The beautiful Guadalupe flows through the City on its way to the Coast.

Included with the description are some facts:

• Founded in 1845.
• Altitude 644 feet at the Plaza; 1700 feet in the nearby hills.
• Population: New Braunfels 8,000; Comal County 12,500.
• Average temperature: summer 78.4°; winter 58.4°.
• Average rainfall: 29 inches.
• Ranches: 375 in Comal County; 800 acres average.
• Farms: 750 in Comal County; 72 acres average.
• Churches: 13. All housed in fine buildings.
• Schools: 6 public and 2 parochial in the City.
• Manufactured products: flour and feed, cotton textiles, silk hosiery, gauze, children’s garments, mattresses, cedar oil, dairy products, wool tops, monuments, lime, road building materials, rock, wool, leather goods, potato chips, cold drinks, roasted coffee, and ice.
• Comal County is one of the best 65 counties in Texas for future development of business.

What differences from today’s city do you find? The temperature definitely is warmer. And what happened to all those ranches and farms? There are many more schools and churches. New Braunfels produced potato chips?

Our very location guarantees that New Braunfels and Comal County will continue to grow and change. No longer rural, but urban in nature, we still have a lovely quality of life. “Just a Grand Place to make a Living and a Grand Place to Live”.

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Once upon a time there were two large Victorian houses sitting side by side on Seguin Ave. next to the First Protestant Church. These two houses belonged to Joseph Faust and his son Walter Faust. Walter Faust’s house was right next to the church and it still stands there. Joseph Faust’s house was right next to Walter’s. That house no longer exists. Well, that’s not exactly true because it was sold and moved a little way down the street. It seems impossible that the large house could be moved, but it was.

Before we get to that almost impossible story, let’s look at the history of hotels in New Braunfels. Hotels, earlier called inns have been popular forever. A traveler getting a good night’s sleep, food, drink and good fellowship was essential to a mobile population. The first inn known in New Braunfels was that of Count Henkel von Donnersmark located across the street from the present McAdoos Restaurant. Von Donnersmark catered to those immigrants newly arrived who had money to spend and still nowhere to stay. Supposedly this inn did a big liquor business. It even became the post office.

Soon to follow were inns on the Main Plaza such as the Millett Hotel on the property where the courthouse is located. Also the Guadalupe Hotel which still stands. The Guadalupe became the Schmitz Hotel in 1855. This was the most well-known hotel because it was also the stopping place of the pony express.

Down East San Antonio St. was the Comal Hotel or Eggeling Hotel built in 1899 (Prince Solms Inn). By the time trains came to NB, passengers were picked up at the train station and taken to the hotel.

Now we get to the granddaddy of them all, the Faust Hotel. What prompted the building of this big downtown hotel was interest in attracting the early 1900s tourist. Paul Jahn with the Chamber of Commerce reported that a committee had been formed to promote the idea of a hotel. The New Braunfels Hotel Company Inc. organized and it was decided to form a stock company of local citizens.

At the first meeting of stockholders, Emil Fischer was elected president, Walter Faust, vice-president, and B.W. Nuhn, secretary-treasurer. An offer was made by the Joseph Faust Estate to place a hotel on the Joseph Faust property where his house was. It was moved off the lot and sold to the Drs. Frueholz. It is cattycornered to the church where it still stands. The story of that move can be found in the Sophienburg.com column on 11-30-2010. The Walter Faust house was eventually purchased by the First Protestant Church.

Although primarily an agricultural community, because of the rivers, New Braunfels was also tourist town. With the coming of the railroad, the town was becoming more well known. After a severe drought in the early 1920s, the community recovered and saw a need for hotels. Salesmen called drummers were flocking to town to sell their goods. They not only needed a room to stay in, but also a temporary room to set up their products. This practice was very important to the mercantile business. The New Braunfels Hotel Company would build a hotel called the Travelers Hotel.

My husband, Glyn, grew up living in the Goff Hotel in Kenedy and remembers the salesmen that stopped at the only hotel between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. The 65 room hotel was owned by his grandparents, P.R. and Ida Goff. Stories about this hotel are very similar to the stories of the Faust and they were both built about the same time.

Bids for the four-story Travelers Hotel were requested and the total was to be $120,000 for the building only. Architect was Harvey P. Smith of San Antonio and contractor was Walter Sippel.

After completion in 1929, the hotel was leased to Nagel & Wuest of San Antonio for 15 years. About the time of opening, Nagel & Wuest who agreed to pay for some of the furnishings could not pay for what they had agreed. Since several conventions were already scheduled, First National Bank of New Braunfels agreed to pay the suppliers until they would be reimbursed. That never happened. A grand opening celebration was held Oct. 12, 1929 in spite of the trouble. It was quite an affair with over 2,000 people attending. Who didn’t show was the governor, Dan Moody, even after sending in his RSVP accepting.

A few years after opening, the hotel was turned back to the Hotel Company ending the contract with the Nagel and Wuest. They released the building with all bills pending. The Board turned down future lease offers because they wanted to sell the building.

Upon the death of Walter Faust, Hanno Faust was elected president of the company and he was given full power to operate the hotel in 1933. The hotel was renamed the Faust Hotel after the Faust family. Milton Dietz was the executor of the will of Walter Faust. In 1946, Dietz became president of the company and also became general manager of the Faust Hotel. In 1947, the hotel was purchased by local businessman Arlon Krueger who retained ownership until 1977. Hotel businesses everywhere were being replaced by motels that were more accessible and less expensive. By this time the grand old building was showing its age. The exterior had blackened, windows had broken, squirrels had moved in, and water had damaged the inside.

In 1977, Jackson and Houser purchased the building out of an interest in old hotels. They began the restoration process. Over time with several owners and several restorations, the once-beautiful hotel returned. Eight years ago, the hotel was sold to Vance and Priscilla Hinton.

The outdoor patio had been closed and now houses the Faust Brewing Co. while maintaining the 1920s atmosphere. Brewmaster Ray Mitteldorf who had extensive experience with several other breweries was hired to brew the beer. Making beer takes time and everything brewed in the Faust has to be sold there and can’t be sold at another outlet. This will be taken care of soon, as the Faust is opening the Faust Brewing Company on the corner of Butcher and Castell. Bottled beer and kegs will be manufactured and sold. An outdoor beergarten is planned to open in the future. The owners and brewmaster knew that something had to be done to manufacture more of their popular beer.

The historic Faust Hotel with its brewery and “brew-pub” food with a “German flair” will continue to be open to the public and “what’s old is new and what’s new is old,” so the saying goes. Look for details of the opening of their additional location.

The Faust Hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places, is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and is a New Braunfels Historic Landmark.

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The Startz Café has the distinction of being one of the only small businesses in Comal County still in operation by the same family for over 50 years. They just received the Texas Treasure Business Award in 2014. They were nominated by Representative Doug Miller. This story is about how the Startz Café in Startzville came to be.

Looking at family trees can be both enlightening and mind-boggling, especially if it traces the Startz family. Their family tree reveals to me that if they had a family reunion of all the descendants, there wouldn’t be a hall big enough to hold them. The Texas story of the Startzs’ began with the arrival of Johann Startz and wife Margarethe Loeffler Startz on the first ship sent by the Adelsverein to Texas, the Johann Dethardt in 1844. Traveling with them were her three children, Katherine Loeffler, Christian Loeffler, and Louise Loeffler and the couple’s children together, Heinrich Startz, Friedricke Startz and Caroline Startz.

Johann Startz received a town lot in New Braunfels on Seguin St. but soon after arriving in New Braunfels settled in the area of Mission Hill and then moved to Smithson Valley. After Margarethe died, Johann married the widow Catherine Wenzel and they had one son together, Ludewig. It is thought that the family then moved to Buffalo Springs Settlement on the upper Guadalupe near the third river crossing.

Johann’s oldest son, Heinrich, moved to an area known as Hillview, near where our story of the Startz Café takes place. Heinrich married Louise Artzt and where they lived would later be known as Startzville. It was 17 miles northwest of New Braunfels near Tom Creek. Startz Hill, originally called Hillview, was changed to Startz Hill to honor Heinrich Startz. With its height of 1,400 feet, it is the highest point in Comal County. Later land owner, Carl D. Allen, donated the hill to Comal County and it is now named Allen Park. It was considered the first county park in Texas. From its summit, one gets a view of Smithsons Valley and a stunning view of Twin Sisters Mountains 32 miles away. Author Laurie Jasinski in “Hill Country Backroads” reveals details of an ancient sea bed which can be viewed at the park providing travelers with interesting fossils and water-formed rocks. The Sanders family found many geodes, some round and some split open revealing their crystalline centers.

This land in the hill country (Bergland in German) is what my grandmother called “the mountains”. Her description of the mountains was any place above the Balcones Escarpment. She had lots of friends in the mountains and it was a long time before I associated this area with mountains. It wasn’t what I learned in school as mountains.

Now let’s get to the Startz Café. Just down the road from Allen Park (Startz Hill) at the intersection of Cranes Mill and Sattler Road, Bruno and Viola Elbel had a cedar yard and a store in 1939. The Elbels built a house with a small grocery store inside where they sold mostly to the cedar choppers in the area. Cedar chopping was a big business. This home burned down in 1942 and so they built a rock home in its place. This was the building that Curt and Alice Schlameus Startz leased from the Elbels in 1944 and bought in 1946. Curt Startz was the son of Heinrich and Louise Startz.

In addition to the home there was an ice house which still stands, and two gasoline pumps later removed. Ice was in demand even before tourists arrived. Because Startzville was not on the Guadalupe River like other settlements, they had to rely on well water with a windmill. Also standing is a hand pump for kerosene.

Curt and Alice Startz were the sole owners of the store. Alice ran the store after Curt’s death in 1959. The Startz’s son, James Sr. and his wife Lorine, were the next generation to run the store. It was James Startz, Sr. who added the café next to the house.

The area was first called Startzville by Dr. E.J. Duffin who did a painting in 1950 of the front of the store calling it Startzville after the original members of the Startz family. By that time they had lived in the area more than 100 years. His humorous comments painted on the side of the building were: Startzville – Paradise Valley of Comal County; Population, same; Elevation, unchanged; Temperature, delightful; ice, groceries, beer. According to local author and historian, Alton Rahe, Dr. Duffin was possibly a good friend of the Startzs and owned 310 acres of land adjoining the Startz property.

With the building of Canyon Lake and Dam, nearby Cranes Mill and Hancock were submerged. Possibly the only advantage of not being on the Guadalupe River, Startzville remained and the area’s population increased as it became a tourist spot.

After the death of James Sr. and Lorine Startz, their two children assumed ownership of the business. They are James Startz Jr. and Sandra Startz Duncan. A fourth generation member of the Startz family is presently running the thriving café. She is Monica Startz Wetz, daughter of James Startz Jr.

Sandra Startz Duncan has some interesting memories of her grandmother, Alice Startz. Sandra and her brother James spent lots of time with her at the café. Like a few other early business women that I have heard of in Comal County, Alice had her opinions and didn’t mind sharing them. She was strict about a “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy. Once she went out with a shotgun during the night when some teenage males were confiscating beer and soda and were putting them in the bed of their truck. She held them at gunpoint and used the pay-phone to call the law.

Sandra remembers activities like domino games and cards with lots of beer. She said her grandmother, although she had a “raw” sense of humor, was well liked.

Café hours are: 6am-2pm Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; 10am-2pm Tuesday; 6am-8pm Thursday and 6am-9pm on Friday. Some of the old time family favorites include such items as Oma Startz’s (Alice) original chili and enchilada recipes, and Mamo’s (Lorine) pies like she made them.

It’s still a family operation with family members helping out. They “stayed put” and “bloomed where they were planted” in Startzville, Comal County, Texas.

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