Hill Country Gem Holds Historic Treasures

INGENHUETT-FAUST HOTEL, NOW HOTEL FAUST

Comfort is a small town with a big history, plus a cherished connection to architectural icon Alfred Giles.

By Julia Catalano Photography courtesy of Comfort Chamber of Commerce

Less than an hour northwest of San Antonio near several scenic drives around Boerne, Fredericksburg and Kerrville, Comfort (pop. 2363) is a popular spot for visitors seeking small town allure with lively outdoor activities along the Guadalupe River, antique shopping, local wineries, parks and preserve, a heritage foundation and Treue der Union historic monument.

With one of best-preserved business districts in Texas, the town’s commitment to historic preservation is renowned, says Shirley Solis, executive director, Comfort Chamber of Commerce. “The downtown district is very much a blend of old and new,” she says of the area on the National Register of Historic Places with about 100 historic buildings. The chamber offers free self-guided walking tour maps to visitors. “It’s very popular,” says Solis.

History and architecture buffs can delight in six structures on the tour designed by famed British architect Alfred Giles (1853-1920) who emigrated to the United States as a 20-yearold and made Texas his home until his death at 67.

The Giles-designed buildings below are within one square downtown block:

• August Faltin Building, 402 Seventh Street. The two-story limestone building with a Victorian Italian edifice was originally built in 1879 as a general store, with a substantial expansion in 1907. • Hotel Faust, 717 High Street. Local businessman Paul Ingenhuett contracted with Giles to design the original Ingenhuett-Faust Hotel in 1880 and again in 1894 to expand the two-story limestone hotel. The jig-cut brackets and balustrade exist from the 1880 construction. • The Ingenhuett on High, 731 High Street. What began as the Ingenhuett Store in 1883, suffered extensive fire damage in 2006, and is now restored as a special events venue. • Paul Ingenhuett Home, 421 Eighth Street. Built in 1897 as his personal home, it was designated a Recorded Texas Landmark in 1979 and remains a private residence. • The Elephant Story, 723 High Street. Originally the Ingenhuett-Karger Saloon built in 1913, then grocery store and ice cream parlor during Prohibition, the two-story commercial building features large limestone block construction, arched windows with keystones and a pressed metal cornice with the year of construction and original owner’s name in the pediment. It is now a retail store dedicated to elephant conservation. • Old Comfort Post Office, 713 High Street. Built in 1910, the small one-story Renaissance Revival-style structure exhibits Giles’ talent for blending red brick and limestone. It remained in use as a U.S. Post Office until 1952, then housed a variety of retail shops and restaurants.

AUGUST FALTIN BUILDING, NOW COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

In San Antonio, Giles worked first for contractor John H. Kampmann, and then opened his own firm in 1876. He gained fame for his designs in the city, most notably the Edward Steves Homestead, a three-story French Renaissance Revival-style mansion in 1876, and the 1880 Italian-style villa Carl Wilhelm August Groos House, both in the King William Historic District. Giles is also known for his county courthouses all over Texas, including Guadalupe and Kerr, and the original Gillespie County Courthouse in Fredericksburg, now the Pioneer Memorial Library.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Giles expanded his business to Mexico with an office in the city of Monterrey, designing residential and commercial buildings in Saltillo, Durango and other locations.

“He loved Mexico and loved the people, and so did my father,” says Robin Giles, grandson of Alfred Giles and son of Ernest Palmer Giles, one of eight children of Alfred and wife Annie Laura Giles, daughter of a Bexar County surveyor whom the architect married in 1881. Around 1887, the couple bought 13,000 acres near Comfort and named it Hillingdon Ranch after Alfred’s hometown near London.

Today, the private working ranch has remained in the family through six generations and counting. Grandson Robin, 77,

PAUL INGENHUETT HOME, NOW A PRIVATE RESIDENCE

INGENHUETT-KARGER SALOON, NOW THE ELEPHANT STORY

works the ranch with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and remembers his father’s tales about his legendary grandfather — especially when the celebrated architect traveled the 44 miles between the ranch and his San Antonio office.

Robin recalls: “If Grandpa wanted to make it in one day they would start out at 3 a.m. and would get to San Antonio at 9 p.m.” The ride, by horse or carriage, was long and hard. Later, when the railroad came, “he would use the train,” says Robin, “but it wasn’t much faster.” Grandpa raised homing pigeons, he continues, “and would take them from the ranch to town. He would release one on the way back to let them know at the ranch that he was on his way home.”

Of the house he lives in — that was first his famous grandparents, his parents, and now his — he knows of no record of its origins. “There’s a central room that might have been built by a kit, like a schoolhouse.” Alfred added on to it “as he needed to,” says Robin. “This house has seven gables because he kept adding stuff to it.” He chuckles, “Horse breakers ride the worst horses, mechanics drive the worst vehicles, and my grandfather lived in the worst house, because it really wasn’t one of his works.” Still, he adds, “You can see his flair. You look around, you know somebody with taste or talent made their mark on it.”

Most of Alfred Giles’s sketches and drawings have been distributed among the large extended family and donated to museums and conservation societies, but Robin treasures his grandfather’s diaries from 1888 to 1920, then taken over by his father and now passed down to him and used to this day. They contain primarily ranch stats and notes, such as which cattle were moved to which pasture. But one entry stands out: the day grandpa Alfred died, penned by Robin’s father Ernest. “Papa took his last breaths today and we were all there with him.” That, says Robin, gives you “lots of foundation.” Both his grandfather and father passed away in the house.

Robin needs no more reminders of his family’s legacy than to look around. “Grandpa started a herd of Aberdeen Angus from three cows he bought in San Antonio, and every one of the cows on this place goes back to that. It’s an unbroken line.” Indoors and out, he says, “We are surrounded by history.” u

For more information, Comfort Chamber of Commerce, www.comfortchamber.com or Comfort Heritage Foundation, www.comfortheritagefoundation.com.

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