Pommer-Gentner House - 1840 - Hermann, MO - Dated Architectural Structures Multifarious on Waymarking.com

County of house: Gasconade Conty
Location of house: Market St., on house, Deutschheim State Park, Hermann
Marker Erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Recources, Division of State Parks

Marker Text:

the Pommer-Gentner House Catherine Oelschlaeger Gentner bought the house in 1882 for $1,500. She and her husband, G. Heinrich, had been a part of the first group who arrived in December 1837 to begin the town of Hermann. Unlike the Pommers, the Gentners started with very little. They first lived in a log house, but eventually they prospered and were able to own one of the finest residences in town.

The design of the house reflects a simplified Greek and Roman temple appearance. Variations of this restrained neoclassical style can be found in brick building of German communities all across Missouri

the Pommers & the Gentners This house is associated with two early Hermann families. Both the Pommer and Gentner families were among the intial members of the Deutsche Ansiedlungs-Gesellschaft zu Philadelphia (German Settlement Society of Philadelphia). Organized in 1836 the group sought to create a better place for Germans to preserve their language and heritage in the New World.

Although her husband, a piano maker and officer of the society, had died, Caroline Pommer moved her family to Hermann and built the house in 1840. But the new frontier could not support a music instrument business and her sons turned to carpentry. That also proved to be insufficient so the Pommers sold their house in 1856 and left Hermann. One son, Frederick Wilhelm, moved to St. Louis where he established a successful music business; his son, William Frederick (1851 - 1936), studied in Germany and Austria and became a noted Missouri composer, conductor and professor of music at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Year built or dedicated as indicated on the structure or plaque: 1840 Full Inscription (unless noted above): POMMER-GANTNER HOUSE Circa 1840 has been placed on the NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES by the United States Department of the Interior Website (if available): [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:


Any log as a visit to a waymark will require a picture as proof that the person visited a particular dated architectural structure. Any posted visits not containing a picture in the log will risk being being deleted.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.