RENOVATIONS
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
Renovation of Staudt-Jenschke House,
New Landscaping Ahead at GCHS Campus.
By Ken Esten Cooke
Standard-Radio Post publisher
Published January 24, 2024
A renovation for a busy corner will transform the southwest corner of the Gillespie County Historical Society Pioneer Museum campus. And plans for the vibrant transformation were released recently.
Work has begun by architects at Mustard Designs and exterior work has begun by Laughlin Construction on an existing Sunday House, now dubbed the Staudt-Jenschke House.
And a landscape makeover for a formerly underutilized plot beside the house will transform the area into another tourist attraction. “It’s going to transform that whole corner,” said Monte Marshall, executive director of the GCHS.
Once landscaping is completed, the corner will be transformed and allow visitors a seamless transition from the rest of the Pioneer Museum campus. Landscape renovation work will be done by Marcus Parker.
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Renderings by
Marcus Parker Landscape Architecture
Home to Sunday House
The land was originally that of Conrad Welge, who in 1846, took ownership of town lot 301. It later passed to Christian and Magdalena Vogel, who lived in Cave Creek. Their daughter, Anna Maria Vogel, married Peter Staudt in 1872, and lived near Luckenbach. It’s believed they built the home in 1880.
The Sunday House was originally two rooms, a downstairs and upstairs room. In 1938, Bernhard and Gladys Jenschke moved into the home and made it a residence, adding a significant amount of space.
Hence the name Staudt-Jenschke House.
Columnist Leon Hale wrote of the home in a column in 1961, “Fredericksburg’s Sunday Houses Would Sleep 12.” Hale visited with then Postmaster W.W. Petmecky who introduced him to Bernhard Jenschke, who lived in the home. Jenschke told the traveling writer of Sunday Houses when people came in from their farms and ranches and built Sunday Houses where they stayed to get shopping done. “People don’t believe this,” Jenschke told the writer, “but I can remember coming to town on Saturdays, and 12 people would sleep in those two rooms.”
The GCHS acquired the property in 1999 from the old Mom Center Building to the corner, formerly the St. Joseph’s Credit Union. For years, they leased the Staudt-Jenschke House to other parties, including to chapters of the Native Plant Society and Nature Conservancy.
In renovating the property, some funds were awarded from Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) funds.
“I was trying to piece all this together when I came on board,” Marshall said of when he was hired as GCHS director.
Two generous grants came through to assist with the project, the first from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation.
“We were looking at about $300,000 just for the renovation. But we did get another $100,000 grant from the Adam R. Scripps Foundation. It will take part of that money to get the interior done, but we’re not yet sure about what form that will take.”
An early morning shot of the exterior work done to date at the Staudt-Jenschke House at the corner of South Milam and West San Antonio streets.
Gillespie County Historical Society Executive Director Monte Marshall stands among the ongoing interior renovation work in the upstairs rooms of the Staudt-Jenschke House.
Photos by Standard-Radio Post/ Ken Esten Cooke
Big Plans
GCHS has vision-filled plans for the property, some of which has yet to be defined, but all geared toward improving and enhancing the visitor experience.
Over 2024, the society will begin plans on an Educational and Interpretive Center, which will incorporate the former St. Joseph’s Credit Union building on South Milam Street. Those plans will help determine how the interior is completed.
For now, funds raised at last year’s Tannenbaum Ball will cover the landscape renovation. Ball organizers had a goal of $125,000 for the work and ended up surpassing that by bringing in $147,250.
That will cover all of the landscaping — hoped to begin and possibly be completed this year — and have some left over to cover maintenance of other historical buildings on the block.
The landscaping will have a meandering walk, another windmill, native plant landscaping and interpretive signage and panels that interpret the exterior of the Staudt-Jenschke House.
A water feature and rain garden will mimic a creek bed that Marshall said will be a draw from the property’s main campus.
“It’s a dream, but we’d like to add some interactive exhibits in other areas of the campus,” said Marilee Pankratz, adding modern museums are adding more interpretive and interactive features.
The outdoor space design and work will be done by Marcus Parker Landscape Architecture.
Fencing also will be extended to add security to the property and tie in the look around the whole campus.
Marshall laughed, recalling in those early days of town, people let their livestock roam freely and those in the Staudt-Jenschke House would let their animals wander down to Town Creek for a drink of water.
An aerial rendering of landscape plans adjacent to the Staudt-Jenschke House (at left) and the former St. Joseph’s Credit Union building (top), now all being renovated for new visitor experiences.
Campus Growth and Future
The projects will come on top of other campus improvements that have taken place since 2005. The Pioneer Museum’s main building sits on the site of the former Martin Ramos Exxon Station, and the limestone building was reassembled from the site of the Sunday House Inn on East Main Street in 2005.
Little by little, the campus has improved and increased in quality, resulting in an accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums Accreditation.
Marshall and Pankratz praised the generosity of those who have helped support and turn the GCHS into a great attraction that bookends the eastside attraction that is the National Museum of the Pacific War.
“People know this is a real tangible thing and gave generously because it’s something they’ll be able to see,” Pankratz said. A groundbreaking will take place later this year.
“We’re looking at adding family-centered attractions,” Marshall said. “We’re even looking at multi-sensory experiences that came from a previous plan.”
Those could include barn sounds, rain on a tin roof sound, and even conversations in the background native German tongue.
BY MAIL
Please make checks payable to the Gillespie County Historical Society and mail to:
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Pioneer Museum
C/O Kristy Geistweidt
325 W. Main Street
Fredericksburg, TX 78624
BY PHONE
Please call Kristy Geistweidt, Business Manager, at
830-990-8441, Ext 401 with credit card information available.
