| Vo l u m e 1 2 0 1 3 22 TEXAS

For more than a year, Susan and Tom Doell, of Dallas, have been working on the restoration of a circa 1900, two-story German rock house in the Texas Hill Country. Located in the small community of Hilda in Mason County, the struc-ture will eventually become the family’s home. Susan Doell spoke with Texas HERITAGE magazine about the special challenges and delights of restoring a more than a century-old building.

Our motivation to take on this project came from a love of the ar-ea’s history, as well as the fact that we needed a larger space for our growing family. My husband’s an-cestors helped found Fredericks-burg, and we purchased our ranch near his great-great grandfather’s homestead 20 years ago. In 2011, the adjacent ranch became avail-

Drives Restoration of Hill Country Home

able. On that property there was a magnificent two-story rock home. Charles Geistweidt, a descendant of early pioneers in the area, built the structure, which had since been abandoned for 25 years or so. We knew immediately that the preser-vation of this house was something we needed to do.

My husband and I have years of experience in building and re-modeling homes of all ages, but we quickly learned that this type of project required a much different level of expertise and experience. Fortunately, we were able to as-semble a great team consisting of a knowledgeable and experienced architect and builder from Freder-icksburg, as well as skilled rock ma-sons, carpenters who were attentive to every detail, and talented inte-rior designers.

Every day of this project has

been a learning experience. At the start, the house had no bathrooms, plumbing, electrical, or heating and cooling systems. Creating our new home has been like working a jigsaw puzzle as we try to make all of the modern amenities fit into the space.

From the very beginning, we had two objectives: first, to not alter the original house or cellar and, sec-ondly, to add on a more modern liv-ing space that worked with the orig-inal home. The exterior back porch was reconstructed on the original stone footing, and it became space for three bathrooms. A window in the back of the kitchen became a door leading to a pantry area, which created additional storage; now you walk from the old enclosed side porch into a family great room and entertainment space. We felt it was important to maintain the in-

A Passion For the Past

Opposite page: This German rock house was built by Charles Geist-weidt. This page, above, left: The restoration of the home included an addition of a 1,500-square foot family living space; right: Double porches offer the family spectacu-lar views of the Texas Hill Country. All photographs by Susan Doell.

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tegrity of the original house by bal-ancing the old with the new.

The house had all of the original long-leaf pine flooring, four-panel doors, window and door trim, and beaded ceilings, which gave us a good foundation on which to build. We used pictures of the exterior of the house, as well as interiors of similar residences in the area to get a sense of how to restore this home. Also, there are many good books that are available on this particular vin-tage of home built by the Germans as they settled this area of the Hill Country; we relied heavily on those for ideas as we replaced cabinetry, door hardware, and light fixtures.

Absolutely the biggest obstacle throughout the project has been the rock walls that are 12-18 inches thick. To move one window and door in order to create a larger opening into the new addition re-quired weeks of work that involved scaffolding, iron rods for structural support, and dedicated rock ma-sons who were not afraid to remove and rebuild using the old rocks. New electrical wiring required chiseling through those rock walls with their interior plaster finish. Plumbing had to be hidden in joists and in the backs of cabinets. The rock for this house was mined originally at a nearby site, so in order to create an addition that blended with the old structure, it was necessary to find new but similar rock. The resource-ful masons successfully searched

on our ranch to find rock that would blend with the original stone, which had been exposed to the ele-ments for more than 100 years.

My advice to others considering a similar undertaking would be to have a complete vision of what you want the house to be after the resto-ration process. Include people with expertise on the age and design of the home in that process, and then be prepared to be flexible as you go through the construction period. Restoration of historical properties is tedious and slow but worth the journey.

Throughout this project, we have been gratified by the overwhelming support and appreciation the com-munity has shown as we bring back to life this old structure that has been so important to them. Many of the people in this rural com-munity are related to the original owner, spent summers working on the ranch, or played with the many children who grew up in this house.

The reason that we decided to take on this project originally was a feeling of responsibility to bring dignity back to the Geistweidt Fam-ily’s magnificent home. At the same time, we wanted to create a space for our family that generations would enjoy together. We take great satis-faction in the fact that we accom-plished both of those goals after a long and sometimes difficult con-struction process.

H E R I T A G E W I N T E R 2 0 0 6

From A Watery GraveBy James Bruseth and Toni Turner

Reviewed by William C. Foster

Ten years ago this summer, marine archeologists with the Texas Historical Commission located the 300-year-old wreck of La Belle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s ship, in Matagorda Bay on the central Texas coast. French and Spanish archival records indicated that the vessel had been lost somewhere along the bay shore of Matagorda Peninsula in February 1686, but extensive marine investigations of the area conducted by the state during the previous decade had been unsuccessful in locating the site of the wreck.

After the wreck of La Belle was located, and with substantial private financial help and the support of Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, Texas Historical Commission archeologists recov-ered the wooden hull of the ship and the submerged treasure aboard. T.R. Fehrenbach, who is a former chair of the Texas Historical Commission and is presently commissioner emeritus, writes in his forward to the book that La Belle is the only 17th-century ship to survive in North America. From A Watery Grave is the artfully told and fully illustrated story of the discovery, excavation, and preservation of the shipwreck told by the principal archeological investigator and director of the Archeological Division of the Commis-sion James Bruseth and his wife, writer Toni Turner.

Employing a unique cofferdam con-structed around La Belle, the archeologi-cal team recovered from the vessel over one million artifacts including a bronze cannon; blue, green, and red seed-size glass trade beads; and more than a thou-sand grape-size copper trade bells or cro-tals. They also found brass pins, Jesuit finger rings, and other trade goods for use by the French colonists in exchange with the local Indian population. Bruseth and Turner describe the cargo for the colony in careful detail with illustrations

indicating the distribution of barrels and boxes of muskets, powder, shot, swords, and trade goods found stowed in the hull of the ship.

When the preservation phase is com-pleted, the assembled hull of La Belle and artifacts from the ship will be exhibited at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. La Belle artifacts are also on loan through the Texas Historical Commission to central Texas Gulf Coast museums including the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, the Victoria Museum of the Coastal Bend, and a network of local museums associ-ated with the La Salle Odyssey in Bay City, Palacios, Edna, Port Lavaca, and Rockport. Although La Belle was an officially documented French naval ves-sel, a bilateral agreement between the United States and France permits La Belle and its artifacts to remain in Texas in perpetuity.

During the excavation, the skeletal remains of two individuals were dis-covered. Near the remains of one, the investigators found a small pewter cup or wine taster with the name “C. Barange” stamped on the side. In February 2004, the remains of the Frenchman were buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin with tributes delivered by Texas Historical Commission Chairman John Nau, III and the French ambassador to the United States Jean-David Levitte.

Thus the French sailor will remain in Austin with his ship.

Bruseth and Turner eloquently intro-duce the reader to the fascinating saga of La Salle’s expedition to Texas and to the remarkable recovery of his ship by the Texas Historical Commission. But the authors add their own dimension. They share with the reader the drama and thrill of a real archeological discovery of a significant lost vessel and the recovery of its treasure that had been buried by the sea and sand for more than 300 years.

From A Watery Grave is itself a treasure, one that will elegantly grace coffee tables while also enriching academic libraries. And the work discloses even more, it reveals the archeologist in us all.

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