Gently resisting change since 1872
Come find this historic town with heart still beating.
Music venue or scenes from the past
Being Gruene means a wayfarer’s treating.
Overlooking the Guadalupe River, the small town of Gruene (“green”) retains its cachet as the nucleus of a late nineteenth century cotton community. Little changed since the death of its namesake founder Henry (Heinrich) D. Gruene in the 1920s, downtown Gruene retains its historic feel, as there has been little construction here since the town’s essential demise with the boll weevil infestation of the 1920s and the Great Depression of the ‘30s.
The first Europeans to settle the area were German farmers, arriving in Texas in the late 1840's and 1850's with the Adelesverein, the Society for the Protection of German Immigration. In New Braunfels, the first city to be surveyed and settled by the Society, town lots were quickly sold out, and newer settlers moved north into the surrounding fertile countryside. About four miles northeast of New Braunfels, immediately east of the Guadalupe River, a community by the name of Goodwin emerged.
Notable among these first Adeleverein settlers were Ernst Gruene, Sr. and his wife Antoinette, both of Hanover, Germany. Ernst Gruene bought up area farm lands throughout his life. The deep alluvial soil was extremely adapted for the cultivation of grain products and, particularly, cotton. However, it was Ernst's second son, Henry (Heinrich) D., who was to develop the community that would later bear his surname.
Born in 1850 in New Braunfels, H.D. left the area in 1870 to join a cattle drive. Disillusioned after two years, he returned to the area, married, and built a home in Goodwin, soon after buying out his brother’s interest in the old family homestead.
Cotton had been introduced to the area in 1852 and by the 1870s was recognized as the number one cash crop. With visions of converting the fertile land into cotton fields, H.D. advertised for share-croppers. Within several months, twenty to thirty families responded, and H.D. assigned plots of 100 to 200 acres to each. Gruene conveyed land for the building of Thorn Hill School in 1874, and a more centrally located school was building in 1893. In 1878 Gruene established the first mercantile store in a frame building on the road from San Antonio to Austin. Here tenants could buy groceries, canned goods, household and farm implements, and hardware supplies inexpensively – and could even purchase on credit, if necessary, until harvest time.
Not long after building the mercantile store, H.D. constructed a cotton gin powered by water from the Guadalupe River. The gin burned in 1922 and was demolished, save for the still standing boiler house. A modern, electric gin was built nearby (now Adobe Verde). H.D. also operated a lumberyard, opened a bank, a dance-hall and saloon (the continuously operating Gruene Hall), and more. H.D. also became the community's first postmaster in June, 1890, operating a post office out of the general store.
Transportation was an important factor in Gruene’s success. The mercantile store was located on the old original north and southbound stagecoach route, the main road between Austin and San Antonio. The Brown and Tarbox stagecoach line, as well as other travelers, regularly passed through Gruene and the store provided a stopping point for provisions and refreshments. By 1904 the store’s success prompted Gruene to construct a larger two-story brick commercial building. The store also became a working bank, holding many farm mortgages as well as offering extensive farm financing. Within a few years of building the new store, Gruene added one-story additions to each side dedicated to the banking and post office facilities. The International and Great Northern Railroad built a freight and passenger depot about a mile west of the community in the 1880s and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas line built another depot in 1901. These allowed H.D. to export cotton and grain and import goods for his general mercantile store. H. D. Gruene and his family dominated the town affairs for two generations, economically and politically, and the community officially changed its name to Gruene after 1903 when the U.S. Mail rural free delivery route was established.
H.D. had grand visions for the town he founded. In 1916 he and a surveyor, Mr. Marbach, had drawn the town off into lots and proposed streets. However, the project never got further than the maps, and H.D.’s death in 1920 marked the end of Gruene's development. The town limped along for a few years: as mentioned, in 1922 a fire destroyed most of the Gruene cotton gin, but within a few months a new electric cotton gin was constructed. In 1924 one of the first Chrysler dealerships in the country opened its doors across the street from the second mercantile store. Promise dimmed and faded: economic disaster struck the following year, when the boll weevil completely stripped the cotton crop. Not one bale was salvaged. The tenants fell deep into debt and many moved away.
No sooner had the cotton crop recovered, than the Great Depression administered the coup de grâce. The automobile that had helped bring prosperity and increased mobility to the people of Gruene in 1924 contributed to the town's decline a few years later by increasing the competition with the stores, jobs, and amusements in neighboring New Braunfels. Declining cotton production brought an end to the tenant system in 1938. In addition, the mercantile store closed that same year when the route of the old north/south road was moved a few miles east. With the end of the tenant system and the closing of the store, the two railroad stations closed – the depots later destroyed. After World War II the school house was moved, lock, stock, and desk to just outside of New Braunfels. The one business which continued to operate throughout the hard times was the Gruene beer hall.
In the early 1970s developers planned to raze the town in order to build new homes. While visiting the dormant community in 1974, Cheryle Fuller was taken by its preserved charm, and began efforts to save the town through devising a development plan and conducting a historical survey. In 1975 Gruene was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, San Antonio residents Bill Gallagher and Pat Molak used a $20,000 loan to purchase a number of local buildings, including the hall, and Molak, along with Mary Jane Nalley, began the work of preservation and renovation, which continues to this day.
Gently resisting change since 1872, Gruene is now essentially a tourist destination. The Historic District (National Register of Historic Places Reference Number 75001962) was certified in 1975. The historic district is bounded by the Guadalupe River on the west; on the south follows the property lines of the old Othmar Gruene House, the old Ernst Gruene, Sr., House, and the structures along the old Austin road; continues on the east by encircling the property of the old electric cotton gin and an employee's cottage; and on the north follows New Braunfels Street to the river including the houses along the north side of the road. Seventeen contributing structures include the old Ernst Gruene, Sr. House; the old Othmar Gruene home; the H. D. Gruene Mansion (the most spectacular dwelling in Gruene) and it’s ell-shaped servant's quarters; the one-story Foreman's House; the one-story frame Victorian cottage immediately to the west of the second mercantile store; the Ogletree house; the Hampe house; commercial structures Gruene Hall, the first mercantile store building, a barn to the east, and the second mercantile store; the boiler house, all that remains of the water-powered cotton gin, the electric gin, and the 100-foot water tower (built by H.D. D. Gruene shortly before his death in 1920 – it and the the four or five water hydrants located along Seguin and Austin Streets were probably built sometime between 1916 and 1920 when he platted the town into lots and blocks and proposed streets).
Extensive reading can be found regarding Gruene, most detailed of which is the application for Historic Registration, greatly relied upon for this article (Texas Historic Atlas: Comal County: National Register of Historic Places: Gruene Historic District Reference Number: 75001962 (
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Other links:
Greune Texas website (
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Greune Hall website (
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Touring Texas 'Greune' (
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The Handbook of Texas Online: “Greune” (
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The Handbook of Texas Online: “Gruene Hall” (
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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