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History in
a Pecan Shell
Charles Windewehen
was a storekeeper in Washington
County – just over the Northern Fayette
County line. It was around 1870 and the community that grew
up around the store was called Truebsal.
With the introduction of viniculture in the late 1870s, a post office
was applied for under the English name of Winedale.
The post office closed in 1881 and although history has forgot the
exact date, the community chose to move two miles into Fayette
County – where Winedale sits today. Evidently the move was complete
and Winedale escaped the burden of having a New and Old Winedale.
The new community centered around a stage stop on the Sawyer and
Risher stage line that connected Brenham
to Austin. The main structure
dates from the late 1840s when it was a one room facility. Adding
a second story provided better accommodations for travels and it
became an inn.
A few buildings
(including an old filling station) still mark what is left of the
tiny community but for all intents and purposes, Winedale became
a ghost town. In the 1960s there was renewed interest in preservation
and the inn and land were acquired to create the Winedale Historical
Center.
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WINEDALE
More history by
Carolyn
Heinsohn
John and William
Townsend first settled at Winedale in 1831.
William Townsend's
home eventually became the home of Samuel K. Lewis. He more than
doubled the size of the home to use as an inn for stagecoach travelers
and had it decorated by the German artist Rudolph Melchoir.
A small community
in Washington
County named Truebsal, two miles south of the Lewis home, became
known as Winedale after the grapes the German immigrants grew there.
It had a church, post office and gin. Some time after 1881, the
village moved across the county line nearer the inn.
Lewis' house
was sold to Joseph George Wagner, Sr. in 1882.
Joseph Wagner,
Jr. operated a combination dry goods and hardware store and beer
parlor across the road from the house.
Miss Ima Hogg
purchased the old Lewis home in 1963. She restored it and moved
in other early buildings.
The site was
given to The University of Texas at Austin
in 1967 and is known as the Winedale Historical Center.
The Wagner
property across the road, including a 35-acre lake was purchased
for the complex in 1989.
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Winedale Public
School - Otto Brandt, teacher, served from 1907-1914
Courtesy
Fayette Co Hist Comm; submitted by Carolyn
Heinsohn FCHC member |
Winedale
School historical marker
TE photo,
2002 |
Winedale
Schoolhouse
TE photo,
2002 |
Winedale
Schoolhouse shutters
TE photo,
2002 |
"Winedale
School - District No. 24"
2006 Photo
courtesy Dave Shaffer
More Texas
Schoolhouses |
Subject: Winedale
Schoolhouse Picture
I was out and about
several weeks ago, and stumbled across Winedale (the University of
Texas has a historical center there), near the bustling metropolis
of Round Top. And, after
scouring your website in search of West
Texas ghost towns, found that there wasn't a picture of the Winedale
schoolhouse (attached). I'll be heading west in search of Dixieland
(and whatever else I run across)... - Dave Shaffer, Austin, March
12, 2006 |
Stagecoach
in Winedale
TE photo,
2002 |
Fayette
County 1907 postal map
Winedale (not in the map) is 4 Miles NE of Round
Top
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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