Since we seem to be past our party-hardy-until-past-3am-and-then-puke-in-the-nieghbor's-yard phase of our lives, we've started a new tradition of going on a First Day Hike on New Year's Day. This year brought us to the Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites just outside La Grange, Texas, about a one hour drive east out of Austin. This allowed us to enjoy a hike as well as some frontier German-Texas venacular with a splashy-dash of Art Deco.
Heinrich Kreische grew up in Germany and trained as an architect and brewmaster. He immigrated to Texas in the early 1830s. In 1849 he purchased 172 acres on a 200-ft bluff overlooking the Colorado River and La Grange. He built his house in two stage: the first stage consisting of a tiny two-story stone masonry structure for his early family and a second stage that significantly expanded his house for his wife and six children. His masonry skills were in demand in the county; he built some structures in town, including the second courthouse (now destroyed) and the first jail. In 1860, he employed his masonry skills to build a brewery down the lee side of the hill downstream from a small spring. One source (and another) suggests this was Texas' first commercial brewery. By 1879, Kreische had the third largest brewery in Texas. A friend of mine from the area and related to the Kreische's told me that the oldtimers said the beer tasted like the Shiner Bock of today. His beer was delivered as far away as Fort Worth and San Antonio.
The discovery of large-scale artesian water supplies in St Louis and in Texas resulted in the industrialization of beer production, putting many small breweries such as Kreische's out of business. Kreische's death in 1884 (he literally fell off the wagon) also sealed the death the brewery which closed for good in 1888.
Also on site is the burial tomb for casualties of the Dawson Massacre and the Black Bean Death Lottery, both post-independence scuffles with Mexico before Texas joined the United States.
visitors' center
Bluff Beer! (None left: I checked...)
The courthouse in La Grange that Kreische built.
Model of the downhill side of the brewery
Photo of the downhill side of the brewery
Part of the infrastructure he used to capture and use the spring. His brewery ingeniously operated off of the gravity flow of the water, including an evaporative cooling system.
waterhosen
photo of the up-hill side of the brewery; this is where the socializing and partying occurred after Kreische brewed a fresh batch
Another photo of the front.
stable with guest room (see dormer).
tack hangers
smokehouse
The rear of the house.The white structure protruding in the foreground is a rainwater cistern topped with a sewing room.
View from the other side.
Note the white structure about the doorway and the different roofline at the top: this was the original homestead (the roof seen here was added later to integrate the original house with the expansion).
Inside the original house.
Inside the original house.
Looking from the addition into the original house.
Detail of the joinery.
Looking into the cistern.
The second floor of the original house.
Looking out the front door of the addition.
The white structure in the foreground is part of the original house.
Front of the entire house.
The entire front of the house. Kreische designed the new facade to symmetrically incorporate the original structure on the right. It may be hard to see, but the facade finish is different on the original structure (scored plaster) as compared to the rest of the house (rough limestone). According to the National Register nomination form, Kreische intended to finish the entire front of the facade with plaster.
When you turn around from the photo above, this is the view of the Colorado River.
The Art Deco monument.
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