1893 - Hy. Rothe Building - Hondo, TX - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

A large, nicely preserved brick building has an entrance that faces toward the corner of 18th Street and Avenue M in Hondo, TX. The corner is not the typical square edge, but is angled 45 degrees and is large enough for an entrance door to be placed in the angled area. Two stories high above the door is a half-moon arch in which is set, literally in stone and brick, the date of the building (1893) and the partial name of the builder (Hy. Rothe).

The trick here is discerning the real name of the abbreviated Hy. name. There are a few inks of companies with Rothe names associated with them still in the area of Hondo, TX. None gave any historical link back to any name of Hyram or Hyman or any other name starting with Hy... Rothe.

There was one link about a legacy Rothe family who came to Medina County in the 1860s, so they could be the genesis of the Hy. Rothe who built this building and designed the date and his name into its brickwork. Whether we know his first name with certainty or not, the date and the name Rothe is an integral part of this building at the corner of 18th Street and Avenue M. The link provided below is to a history of a family named Rothe that settled near Hondo in the 1860s. This at least fits credibly with a Rothe family member building a building in Hondo by 1893. The building itself is a brick two story office building. It is two blocks from the Medina County Courthouse on Avenue M (FM 462) when looking north and is within sight of 19th Street (US-90) when looking south.

Coincidently, the County Courthouse and the County Jail are also dated with 1893 as the year they were built.

Link to history of a family with the Rothe name settling in Hondo in the 1860s:
(visit link)
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Year of construction: 1893 Full inscription: Hy. Rothe 1893. Cross-listed waymark: Not listed

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