By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

If I had a magic wand, I would restore buildings that were torn down or significantly altered in downtown New Braunfels before the Downtown Historic District was established in 2012. The very first one on the list would be the old JP Morgan Chase Bank office building on Main Plaza.

The imposing dark brick and glass structure has always stuck out like a sore thumb on our beautiful Main Plaza. It does not blend in with the rest of the early 20th century buildings lining San Antono Street. That is not the fault of JP Morgan Chase Bank. It was like that when they got it. JP Morgan Chase was only a successor bank to the legacy established long ago by First National Bank in downtown New Braunfels.

That legacy began with a trio of New Braunfels businessmen, Walter Tipps, William Clemens and Joseph Faust, who formed a very successful merchandising business in about 1875. Tipps severed the relationship and moved to Austin. The business became Clemens and Faust. Before banking establishments, money was loaned by merchants. The two business owners operated a private bank out of the Clemens and Faust store.

Clemens and Faust Bank was nationalized in 1890, becoming First National Bank with a capital stock of $50,000. In 1894, they built the first actual brick and mortar bank building. The Romanesque Revival red brick, two-story building still stands next to the Brauntex Theatre.

Through good leadership and smart business decisions, First National Bank grew stronger and bigger. They purchased a property on the corner of Main Plaza (Old Krause Building) which had been occupied by the Public Service Company until they moved into their new building across the Plaza in 1930. The Old Krause building was razed (another building lost) so construction of the bank building could begin. By 1931, First National Bank was able to move into a beautiful new, state-of-the-art two-story bank located at 111 W. San Antonio Street. The plans were drawn up by Giesecke and Harris of Austin along with local architect Jeremiah Schmidt.

Local papers of the time reported that the new First National Bank was built in the “modernistic trend,” which we now know as Art Deco style architecture. Art Deco became popular in the 1920s and is, I think, my favorite period of architecture. Elements of the Art Deco style include vertical lines, geometric shapes, slender forms and the use of metals in the designs. The best part about it is that many times the buildings from this period were designed holistically, with furniture, light fixtures, and other components designed in tandem with the building itself. Many different Art Deco Buildings use angular geometric motifs within the interior and exterior, which all work to tie the whole design together (think Chrysler Building!).

The new First National Bank building was an absolute show place. The gleaming white limestone building stood like a monument upon a pedestal of shiny black granite that wrapped around its base. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I remember every kid ran their hands across the smooth surface of that granite when they walked by. In the summer, it was blazing hot-to-the- touch, which was quite a contrast to the cooled air inside. I remember the lines carved into the stone that ran up and down the building. Around the windows and top of the bank, there were carved geometric accents, almost Aztec in nature, set into the stone. Above where First National Bank was carved at the top of the structure, was a huge flagpole extending at a 45° angle over San Antonio Street.

The bank had two entrances: one facing San Antonio Street, one facing the Plaza. The big double doors on each entrance were heavy. They were made of metal and glass with cut out geometric aluminum grillwork over the glass. All the bank tables and fixtures were specially designed of aluminum and marble. The elongated aluminum light fixtures hung from the ceiling two floors up. There were sconces of similar design visible on the mezzanine above. The tellers worked behind tall counters where the protective cages were of aluminum with the same geometric grillwork as the doors and ceiling light fixtures. The vault and safe deposit boxes stood behind a huge, gated aluminum fence.

The floors were of terrazzo tile. You could hear the click of high heels or men’s shoes walking in the bank and people talking in muffled tones. Bank tables of aluminum and marble stood in the middle of the lobby, where customers could fill out their deposit slips. As a child, the tables seemed especially tall to me because I could not reach the pens, checks or deposit slips in the center slots of the table. Think about that, they actually provided blank checks for you to write in your information… and trusted you.

First National Bank stood watch over Main Plaza and the community of New Braunfels through good times and bad. In 1976, First National Bank merged with Texas Commerce Bankshares. It was sometime in the early 80s that Texas Commerce Bank expanded the bank footprint by taking in the adjacent building.

The expansion meant renovations of the bank building, both inside and out, to make the two buildings look like one. Texas Commerce completely wrapped the original stone and granite building with dark red brown brick, as well as using it on the expanded portion. The building is now very fortress-like and not in keeping with our traditional downtown look, but there it is. They also stripped out all the Art Deco décor and aluminum grill work from the First National Bank interior, replacing it with more inviting glass and wood and carpet. Texas Commerce Bank bopped along as a successful member of the New Braunfels community until they were purchased by JP Morgan Chase Bank in 1998.

JP Morgan Chase Bank grew their footprint to accommodate a growing New Braunfels, adding other bank locations on Walnut and Hwy 46. In about 2022, Chase opted to leave their downtown location.

Now, while I know that this sounds like a downer kind of story with no way for my magic wand to really put things back like it was, there are some bright spots. The brick wall simply wrapped the 1931 building. In theory, the original limestone and granite still exists, hiding behind that brick fortress … and it might possibly be restored. If so, it would definitely be worthy of a historical marker.

And the aluminum grill work? Well, some of that was salvaged and stored in a barn until a couple of years ago. That treasure has been refurbished and is currently on display in the Sophienburg Museum reading room. Check it out.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Reaching a certain age and lifespan in New Braunfels entitles me, and others like me, to call buildings/places by other names and not sound crazy. It is like a secret code. We can use the “old” name when referring to a current building, and not many will know what we are talking about. Recently, we were talking about the New Braunfels Social Club building located at 353 S. Seguin Ave., which has nothing to do with the current establishment by that name on West San Antonio Street.

As you know, New Braunfels is known for being a social city, thanks to our founding fathers. When German immigrants came to Texas, they brought more than just tools and clothes to start a new life, they brought their culture, work ethic, music, and family values. They also brought their desire for socialization. They participated in organizations of all kinds — singing societies, shooting clubs, athletic clubs.

Eventually, athletic clubs became less about physical fitness and more about social activities — billiards, card games (skat) and nine-pin bowling. Bowling teams from various clubs around town would compete with one another, as well as travel to other towns to compete for prizes. One of the earliest organizations was the New Braunfels Social Club founded in 1864.

Unfortunately, much of the New Braunfels Social Club organization history has been lost. From what I can tell, they were more of what we now think of as a bowling team. They had no “lanes” of their own, so they bowled at established bowling alleys. They may possibly have taken their name from a hosting bowling alley. Advertisements posted in the Zeitung all-German language paper in 1890 noted that the Social Club Saloon Beer Hall and Bowling Alley, owned by Mangliers, was formerly known as Hasenbeck’s Saloon. The ads of the day gave no addresses, but Karl Hasenbeck showed up in the 1890 census as a barkeeper on Seguin Street.

In 1910, the New Braunfels Social Club organization built a building for their members at 353 S. Seguin Ave. The 1907 Sanborn maps indicate that two bowling lanes, a separate smaller building, and a beer garden had existed on that same property. The one-story Social Club building has many characteristics of the Richardsonian Romanesque period, including grand architectural elements of a heavy stone façade with columns, arched windows and stained-glass detail more like one would see on a large three-story courthouse. The new building had room for club activities and enclosed bowling lanes.

Nine-pin bowling was a team sport. As New Braunfels Social Club membership increased, their support for the community grew, holding fundraising events for Red Cross donations and to buy War Bonds. They did well. In 1930, they expanded, installing first-class billiards tables, card tables, and more bowling lanes for members. Initially, the lanes were set up for nine-pin bowling. Ten-pen bowling became more prevalent with the invention of mechanical pin setting machines in the 1950s. New Braunfels Social Club voted to install pinsetter equipment in 1959. They enjoyed success until a public bowling alley opened in the early ‘60s. Club membership dropped by 75 percent over an eight-year period and they could no longer keep up with expenses. The New Braunfels Social Club made the painful decision to close their doors for good in October 1968 due to overwhelming debt, a good deal of which was attributed to pinsetter equipment. The building would not sit empty for long.

The City of New Braunfels was looking for a site on which to build a new civic center. The City Master Plan recommended a convention site on IH 35 at Walnut (across from H-E-B). The city placed a bid of $35,000 for the Social Club property, only to have it rejected by the club’s membership. The city withdrew the offer but let it be known that it was prepared to initiate condemnation procedures to acquire the property. The Social Club received one other bid for $40,000 and accepted, even though the purchase price would not cover the club’s entire $51,000 debt. So, who outbid the City? The Elks!

A local chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was chartered in 1963. The New Braunfels Elks Lodge No. 2279 leased the old Oasis Club property (current location of Microtel Inn & Suites on Business 35) for their new home. This fraternal organization, built on the tenets of “Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity,” fit right into the fabric of New Braunfels. Their membership grew quickly over the next five years and sought to build their own lodge building. The Elks had already purchased a piece of land on Highway 46 South for their new lodge. When the Social Club building came up for sale, they jumped on it and closed in January of 1969.

The Elks put in over 5,000 volunteer hours to remodel the old Social Club, including removing the bowling lanes and transforming the area into a dance floor. The eight maple bowling lanes weighing 56,000 pounds were painstakingly taken up and reassembled, pegged, glued and refinished to create an 1,800-square-foot dance floor. Think giant jigsaw puzzle. That’s commitment! The new Elks Lodge No. 2279 was dedicated in August 1969. The 114-year- old lodge building has been and continues to be one of the most popular venues in New Braunfels.

On a side note, the New Braunfels Social Club decision to accept the Elks’ bid over the city’s, to some was controversial, but ultimately, it was the membership’s call. They basically saved the 1910 treasure. Had the vote gone the other way, the Social Club bowling alley would have been torn down and the Civic Center would have been built on the other side of the street.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

It’s happened again. While looking for an old house address in the archive, my eyes strayed across the page to an unknown item, and my curiosity got the best of me. I needed to solve the mystery of a street named Pecan. I had no idea where that was. Having lived nearly my entire life in New Braunfels, with the exception of a few years away at school, I thought I could tell you where almost every old street was in this town, but it seems that was not the case.

With magnifying glass in hand, I headed for the map drawers. I went for the earliest representation of New Braunfels as surveyed by Nikolaus Zink in 1845. Zink was an army officer on leave and at the disposal of Prince Carl. He is responsible for laying out the newly established colony in the manner of European towns, with streets and town lots arranged around a large open main plaza. Zink even added a smaller market plaza a little further from the center of town. For his efforts, Zink was granted 25 acres along the Comal Creek along with his own named street designated along the edge of his property. Early street names were in German. The two main ones, San Antonio Strasse and Seguiner Strasse (strasse means street), obviously marking the direction to those cities, intersected at Main Plaza. I also found Berg (Hill) Strasse, which ran along the base of the hill where the Sophienburg sat. There was Brücken (Bridge) Strasse, which led to the pecan tree bridge across the Comal: Fahr (Ferry) Strasse, which led to the ferry crossing on the Guadalupe; and Sack Gasse, (sack alley), which led from Lindheimer’s garden to the ferry crossing. No Pecan Street on that map.

Moving on to an 1868 map, I found it. Pecan Street was short, only two blocks long, located between Zink Street and the Comal Creek. But that mystery led to others with more streets that I did not recognize, many names of which are now different. New Braunfels more than tripled in size in just twenty-three years, challenging the numbers of today’s rapid population growth. Prince Carl settled New Braunfels on 1285 acres purchased from the Juan Martin de Veramendi Family. The Veramendis in turn, hired an agent named Murchison to develop and sell lots in Comal Town, situated across the Comal River, but that’s another story.

The two settlements were quite separate, as it required a ferry to cross the river. Two separate cities easily explains the duplication of street names: Commerce, Liberty, Washington, Union, Ferguson. It looked like a patchwork quilt, where the subdivisions and streets did not quite line up. It seemed that each developer did not take into account that it had to connect to other already existing streets. So, in October 1926, the City Commissioners voted to change all that, marking the streets in a uniform manner for city delivery.

In downtown New Braunfels, Grand Avenue, was somewhat in line with Hill and therefore changed to Hill Avenue. Both sides of Market Plaza, parallel to San Antonio St. were changed to Tolle Street. Ferry Street, one block long, was made an extension of Jahn Street. Pecan, Market and Solms (a little short street by Boy Scout Hut) were sort of in a straight line, so they all became Market Avenue. Coll Street, Church (the piece of Coll that ran beside First Protestant Church) and Warnecke (may have been the little street running from Solms to river) streets were all changed to the Coll Street that we know now. They also took Yankee (beside the mill, supposedly named for Torrey, who was from Connecticut), Gilbert and Ferdinand (possibly the short street perpendicular to Warnecke) and made a very disjointed Gilbert Street. Sack Street became Simon (See-mon) located near Lindheimer Plaza.

The 1926 action also included changing Prinz Road, where Prince Carl is said to have once owned 100 acres, to Landa Street. There is now a Prince Drive in the subdivision in the same area. High became Willow Avenue. Hoecke Street became West Bridge Street. An unnamed street in the Schulze addition on the west side of town was designated Katy Street. The street running north of Comal Creek was named Floral Avenue, as it ran along the Locke Nursery property from the hill to the creek. Later, maybe in the 70’s, a railroad crossing was put in connecting Floral and Walnut. The whole street became Walnut, except for the little dead end piece of Floral on the hill. They also changed South Union in the Kuehler addition to Kuehler Avenue.

And what of the other duplications mentioned earlier? They were not addressed in the 1926 reports, so it is not clear when the changes happened. The new names do appear on the 1936 map. Comal Town retained Commerce, Liberty, Washington and Union. In New Braunfels proper, Commerce became Clemens (named for businessman Johann Wilhelm Clemens of Clemens Dam fame) Avenue. Liberty became Hampe Street; and Washington became South Guenther. Ferguson, a one block long avenue connecting San Antonio and Mill streets, was retained by New Braunfels. In Comal Town, Ferguson Street, so named because it was adjacent to Ferguson-owned property, along with an earlier version of Basel Street, went away when Liberty Street was extended to East Dittlinger/San Antonio Street.

There is so much information to be found in these old maps, some of which can be found in articles by Myra Lee Adams Goff on our website or in her book, Around the Sophienburg, available at the museum. If all of this street information is more than you can absorb, just know that the Commissioners tried to make it simple for us when they adopted the ordinance stating that San Antonio Street is the dividing line between north and south and Seguin Avenue the dividing line between east and west. All streets parallel with Seguin Avenue would be known as avenues, and all streets parallel with San Antonio Street would be called streets. Easy, Right?

Sources: Sophienburg Archives, Around the Sophienburg by Myra Lee Adams Goff; First Founders by Everette Fey

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

With the upcoming bridge closure, much has been written about daily street traffic and river traffic and where they all will go, but it was the announced change in the Comal County Fair Parade route that got people talking. The most vocally opposed viewpoints were adamant that “the parade should be kept the way it has always been.” I suspect that they might not currently live in New Braunfels or be aware of the whole bridge issue, but I know that the fair parade has taken at least two different routes in my lifetime. So, were there others?

The forerunner of the Comal County Fair was a fundraiser for the new Krankenhaus (hospital) and took place in November 1892 as part of the hospital dedication. The event happened on the grounds of the Krankenhaus at the corner of Seguin and Zink (now Sts. Peter & Paul parking lot). The first actual Comal County Fair happened in November 1894 on Harry Landa property near the entrance of Landa Park. After four years at that location, the Comal County Fair moved to property in Comaltown. The fair enjoyed both successes and disappointments over the next few years, but the Fair Association finally disbanded in the years leading up to and during World War I.

In 1923, the Comal County Fair Association reorganized. Coincidently, 1923 is also when the new San Antonio Street bridge over the Comal River was completed, giving greater access to Comaltown. It also meant better access to the fairgrounds which sat at the end of Common Street.

The Comal County Fair grew and added more events and attractions. In 1928, the parade was added. The 1928 parade began at “The High School” located at the corner of Mill and Academy. It stepped off on Academy, turned left on San Antonio and proceeded all the way to the fair- grounds.

In 1929 and 1930, they got really creative. They again started at the High School, stepped off on Academy, turned left on W. San Antonio, around the Plaza (remember there was two-way traffic on the Plaza back then) and right on S. Seguin. From there, the parade went right on Coll, right on Castell, right on W. San Antonio again, around the Plaza a second time and then continued on to the fairgrounds. It must not have been as long of a parade as we are accustomed to now or they would have run into one another.

By 1931, they came to their senses and were back to straight lines. They started at the High School, from Academy to San Antonio Street all the way to the fairgrounds.

The 1934 parade started in the same place and stayed on San Antonio Street, but they disbanded at Market Street, not crossing the bridge.

1946 was a very special year. 1945 was the actual Centennial of the Founding of New Braunfels, but because of World War II, all celebrations were postponed until 1946. 1946 was also the actual one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Comal County. Everything that year was Centennial themed, thus the Centennial Fair. That parade took place in October 1946 with much fanfare, although it ultimately followed the same route from the High School down to Dittlinger’s.

By 1958, the parades formed up at Wuest’s grocery store on the corner of Clemens and W. San Antonio (now parking lot of Arlan’s Grocery) and followed San Antonio down to disband at the bridge. The Pet Parade would go first; they would wait for the morning train to pass and then the rest of the parade would go. In the late 60s and early 70s, the parade formed up at Wuest’s, but would turn onto S. Seguin and disband at Garden Street (Civic Center).

By the 1980s, the parade began at the HEB parking lot at Santa Clara and W. San Antonio Street (now McKenna Center) before heading down to the bridge. There have been times that it continued over the bridge to Eagles Hall. More people, more parade participants, more trains that will not change their schedules for parades and bridge projects may instill more changes in the future. But for now, they are sticking with straight lines. The 126th Comal County Fair Parade will form up on S. Seguin at Hampe (Post Office area) and proceed down Seguin, around the Plaza, continuing northwest to Bridge Street.

In 2020, we will also have a Founders’ Day Parade in March. Let’s hope the route is much simpler than the 1946 Centennial Founders Parade which was held on May 12, 1946. The following is what they put in the 1946 program book; you WILL need a map for this.

Parade will form at the Fair Grounds; West on E. Common Street to S. Union Avenue; South on S. Union Avenue to W. Dittlinger Street (now San Antonio Street); across bridge into E. San Antonio Street; West on E. San Antonio Street around the North side of Plaza into W. San Antonio Street; Out W. San Antonio Street to N. Walnut Avenue; North one block to W. Mill Street; East on W. Mill to N. Seguin Avenue; South on N. Seguin Avenue to Plaza, around West Side of Plaza into W. San Antonio Street; One block West on W. San Antonio Street to S. Castell Avenue; South on S. Castell Avenue to W. Garden Street; One block East on W. Garden Street into S. Seguin Avenue; North on S. Seguin Avenue to Plaza, around East side of Plaza into E. San Antonio Street and back to point of beginning.

Whew! I got confused typing it!

Sources: It’s Fair Time! by Myra Lee Adams Goff; The Herald-Zeitung; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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