1800's Texas Stone House

The original 1800's Texas Stone House was restored in the fall of 2014, funded by the Conservancy. The house was constructed out of dressed limestone and three of those limestone walls remain. Owned by Max and Minnie Voelcker, the 330-acre landscape was home to a working dairy farm for decades. The Texas Stone House was already there when Max’s father, Louis Voelcker, purchased the land in 1917. It is believed that Max lived in the stone house until he married Minnie in 1925 and built her the white bungalow style house at the front of the Homestead property.

Both Max and Minnie were born on the countryside dotted with dairy farms in an area known as Buttermilk Hill. The Voelcker Farm, which is now a part of Phil Hardberger Park, was the last whole parcel of farmland left in San Antonio. With determination, the couple vigilantly held onto their land even as the pressures of urban encroachment through highways and developments increased. Max and Minnie lived on this German farmstead until their deaths in 1980 and 2000, respectively.

Features

• Circa late 1800’s

• About three-quarters of the structure's original limestone walls remain.

• Constructed of dressed limestone laid up in a coursed rubble pattern. Interior roofs feature tall ceilings with a painted beadboard covering and plastered walls.

• Flooring is wide tongue-and-groove pine boards.

• Gable ends of the building are constructed in stone and there is a central stone chimney.