King Cotton ruled the Texas land
More than oil or the cattle brand
Until boll weevils stripped the crop
And the Depression put a stop
But here stands a shell to former glory
Remembering Gruene’s farming cotton story
Stop and feel history swirl by
Under the Central Texas sky.
Largely a tourist attraction today, Gruene (originally known as Goodwin) was settled in the mid-nineteenth century by German farming families. Renamed Gruene (pronounced ‘green’) after 1903 when the U. S. mail rural free delivery route was established, the town remembers the key movers and shakers, the Gruene family. Son of 1872 pioneer Ernst Gruene, Henry (Heinrich) D. Gruene (after deciding the cowboy life was not for him) and his family dominated town affairs. Most of the remaining structures that comprise the Gruene Historical District were erected under his direction, and the extended Gruene family called the town home, and managed most of the businesses.
The cotton gin, just a shell of its former self, nods toward the key economic crop of Gruene’s “boom” days. Cotton had been introduced into the area in 1852 and by the 1870s was recognized as the number one cash crop. Heinrich acquired enough cotton-producing land to support between twenty and thirty tenant-farm families, and he assigned plots of 100 to 200 acres to each.
To serve the farming community, H.D. built a town, beginning with the mercantile. This was followed by the cotton gin, powered by water from the Guadalupe River. H.D. also set up a lumber yard in conjunction with his mercantile store and sold longleaf pine used in building barns and the three and four room houses of the tenant farmers. A bank was added. and H.D. also provided land for a school and served for a time as postmaster. In addition, he built a dance hall and saloon (1878). Providing entertainment for the tenants and surrounding farmers, Gruene Hall was the center of the community's social life – and remained in operation through boom and bust. [You just walked past it to get to this marker.]
As noted, the water-powered cotton gin and adjacent boiler house stood behind Gruene Hall on the bluff above the Guadalupe River (now The Gristmill Restaurant). After it burned in 1922, the building was completely demolished, save for the boiler house. A new electric gin was built down the road to the east (now Adobe Verde). The replacement served the community only a few years, however, as a result of the boll weevil plague in the late 1920s (the crop was completely stripped) and the Depression in the 1930s.
The openings on the main (east) facade of the two and a half story brick structure have been filled in and the deteriorated brick walls are presently sheltered by corrugated tin. In front of the boiler house is a 100-foot water tower, also “built” by Henry D. Gruene shortly before his death in 1920. (The water tower and the four or five water hydrants located along Seguin and Austin Streets were probably built sometime between 1916 and 1920 when H. D. Gruene platted the town into lots and blocks and proposed streets.)
Primary sources:
The Handbook of Texas Online: “Gruene Hall” (
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Texas Historic Atlas: Comal County: National Register of Historic Places: Gruene Historic District Reference Number: 75001962 (
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Links/Further Reading:
Greune Hall website (
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Greune Texas website (
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Touring Texas 'Greune' (
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The Handbook of Texas Online: “Greune” (
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Wikipedia: “Greune Hall” (
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Wikipedia: “Greune, TX” (
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German American Pioneers “Greune Hall” (
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National Park Service: “Gruene Historic District” (
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Guide to Texas Outside: “Gruene, Texas - Fun Things to See & Do” (
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Official Gruene Brochure www.gruenetexas.com/downloads/gruene-brochure.pdf