Gruene, Texas

Gruene, Texas is a historical land mark town that is visited by people from all of the United States. Individuals such as actor John Travolta, singer Vanilla Ice, Texas Governor Rick Perry, singer Cody Canada from Cross Canadian Ragweed, and country singers George Straight and Robert Earl Keen, Jr. are just a few who have visited this town (The Gristmill, 2007). Gruene is located north of San Antonio, west of Houston, and south of Austin. According to The Handbook of Texas Online, “Gruene was originally three miles north of New Braunfels at a crossing on the Guadalupe River in Comal County.” Today, Gruene resides in New Braunfels city limits (Gruene, 2008). To get to Gruene from San Antonio you need to get onto Interstate Highway 35. While on Interstate Highway 35 go north towards Austin. Get off on exit 191 and go underneath the bridge which will take you west. Drive one and a half miles till you hit Hunter Road and take a left. At this point you should be able to see the Gruene water tower. If you do not see the water tower it is possible that you are going to the wrong way. Once you take a left, go down half a mile and you should come up to what I consider the back side of Gruene. If you drive all the way down Hunter Road the road will eventually T into Gruene Road. Right at the T of the intersection, Gruene Hall is located. If you take a right at the intersection, Gruene Road will lead you down to the Guadalupe River. Located on both sides of Hunter Road are antique shops. A winery is also located on the left side of Hunter Road right next to the Gruene General Store.

The town was established by German immigrants, Ernst and Antoinette Gruene and their two sons. Ernst and Antoinette Gruene decided to settle along the Guadalupe River outside of the city limits of New Braunfels because there was a shortage of land within the city limits. Their younger son of the two boys, Henry D. Gruene, constructed most of the buildings that are still used today. These buildings are now used for the Gruene Mansion Inn, Lone Star accessory store, Gruene Haus food store, Gruene General Store, and Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar. Henry D. Gruene planted most of the vast land with cotton. This cotton industry sky rocketed and brought around thirty more families to settle in what is now known as Gruene. The families eventually over time, with the help of the cotton industry, begin to make this land into a town. The town began thriving with buildings like the cotton gin, mercantile store, and dance hall being built. In 1920, Gruene started taking a turn for the worse beginning with the lost of Henry. The town eventually disappeared once boll weevil and the depression hit. Today, Pat Molak and Mary Jane Nalley have restored the town into the town that it once was (History, 2004). I had the privilege of meeting a local, Calvin Fresne, who works in what is now known as the Gruene Antique Company. The Gruene Antique Company is located at the T where Gruene Road and Hunter Road meet. Fresne told me that Gruene Antique Company was at one point in time the Mercantile store. He gave me a tour of the building to show me what it was once used for and what it is not used for today. Fresne explained to me that the building was a one point of time a three story building that contained three different businesses. As soon as you walk in the entrance, you are entering the main floor which was once the Gruene bank. The only thing that still is used today from this bank is the vault. The vault is located in the first room to the right. Fresne showed me to the back of the store where a hand made elevator once stood. He explained that the elevator was used to get upstairs to where a car store and the offices were located. He then showed me to the middle of the room where a wooden stairway once stood. Today, all that I could see was a wooden floor that covered the entrance. This stairway leads down stairs to what was once a wine seller. Calvin Fresne was able to give me some back ground information about the history of the town as well. He explained that if you took a left at the T and go down Gruene Road the little towns of Hortonville and Saduna once stood. Today, the only thing that remains of Hortonville is a church and cemetery while nothing remains of Saduna. While concluding the interview, he explained that today Larry Lehr owns more property in Gruene than any one else.

One of the most popular attractions in Gruene is the old cotton gin. The cotton gin was established in 1878 along the Guadalupe River. It is located right behind Gruene Hall off Gruene Road. The river was used for the power source for the cotton gin. Many people living in the area relied on this cotton gin for a way of living. The cotton gin was used by the local farmers to process their cotton crops. In 1922, shortly after the lost of Henry, the cotton gin was destroyed by a fire. Today, the only thing that remains is the three story broiler room. This three story broiler room has been transformed into the Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar. Still sitting along the Guadalupe River, tourists come to eat and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the river. Anita Lafferty moved to New Braunfels about four years ago. She is currently employed as a waitress at Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar. In an interview with Anita Lafferty she stated, “Most of the people who come to this town are tourists. We treat everyone like a tourist whether they are or not. Most of the locals tend to take a defense to this because they don’t want to be treated like one.” The Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar opened in 1977. It has a great laid back family oriented atmosphere. While walking up to the Gristmill, the thing that immediately caught my attention was the unique look of the building. It looks like an old rustic brick building with a wooden roof that has a big round glass window in the middle. Located outside to the left of the restaurant, a beautiful garden is found. This natural landscaped garden contains tables and restrooms which is used as a waiting area for people who are waiting to be seated at a table. The costumers also have outside and inside access to the restaurant’s bar to grab a drink while waiting. While inside the restaurant I was able to see that the entire multi-level broiler room is made out of wood. Going farther into the restaurant, several separate rooms contain native stone fireplaces. The restaurant offers indoor as well as outdoor dining. They serve a variety of food anywhere from steaks to fresh fish and chicken to sandwiches.


Gruene is a great place to visit whether it’s for a day or a weekend. I highly recommend that you come and visit this once historical ghost town. Randy Ramon, a tourist from California, stated, “Coming to Gruene I have had a really great experience. It reminds me of the old black and white tv shows because it is a small town where everyone is really friendly.” Gruene host several events to get tourist to come visit the town. One of the most common events that takes place is the Gruene Market Days. It is over 100 vendors with handmade crafts and food. The Market Days are held every their weekend from February through November. I have attended the Market Days twice and they have things from jewelry to house decorations to anything that deals with wine. Some other events that are held are the Christmas Market which is the first weekend in December, American Music Jam in May, Texas Metal Arts Festival in September, Gruene Music and Wine Fest in October, and Tour de Gruene which is a bicycle tour for local charities in November.

Local Art

Over the past few weeks we have studied various different types of art works. I attended Guillan 35 located in Lytle, Texas, which is a privately owned art gallery. The gallery along with the art pieces belongs to Anthony Guillan. I was very privileged to meet the artist because he gave me his inside feelings about the art pieces. Guillan displays around two hundred art pieces that are composed from anything he can get his hands onto. Most of his art pieces are oil and water color medium. Other art pieces are made with chairs, eye glasses, sheets of metal, wood, water hoses, and so forth. The two pieces that I chose to write on have not been giving names. Guillan informed me that neither pieces are done but, until he gets the material to finish them he put them on display.


The piece of art that impressed me the most is composed of metal from a Volkswagen. It is a painting as well as a sculpture. This art piece is very colorful and immediately catches ones eye. I was drawn to this piece of art because of its overall look. The art piece is an illustration of an opened mouth. Within the mouth, he painted teeth which included cavities and all the thousands of germs. Guillan stated that this piece of art is his interpretation of the Rolling Stones. The first thing that caught my eye was the bright red lips and tongue. Within the red lips the value is both light and dark. Once focusing on the piece, I noticed that it is asymmetrical. The bottom lip is thicker than the top lip and the painting is not equally divided in the middle. I would consider this piece of art three-dimensional because the tongue protrudes out away from the painting.
The whole art piece is flat except for the tongue. I would also consider the art pieces a little rough and a little shiny. It is a type of art piece that the contrast between the colors is obvious. My overall impress of the piece of art is that it is absolutely beautiful. I don’t care for art that much but, I would buy this piece. The way he put the pieces together shows us that it has the sense of making it visionary. While making this piece the artist used a lot of imagination. The message I got from this piece was that the mouth contains lots of germs.


The second piece of art is made with blue jean pants and jackets. It is a painting that has a free formed frame. It does not catch the audience’s attention right away. After taking several minutes to view the piece, I realized that it is an illustration of the United States reversed. Guillan explain that the reason he put the United States backwards was because of a comment he heard on television. It was an interview of a foreigner and he stated that “You American will never understand us can you don’t see yourselves from the inside out.” I found it really striking that the art piece was made out of clothes. Guillan placed the clothing in a certain form and combined them together with glue. He used cement ties not to hold it together but, to represent the binding of keeping the United States together. The colors used in this piece are all naturally light colors except for the outlining border. This piece of art is asymmetrical because the right side of the painting is bigger than the left side. I consider this piece three-dimensional because the pants are full pants with the pockets and zippers and because he also uses wire. The texture of the art piece is rough and dull. Using natural colors gives the dull look to the painting. The contrast is subtle between the colors. My overall impression of the piece is that it is amazing how he uses the pants and jackets to make this. I feel it is a peacefully piece of art because it ties all the states in the United States together.

I didn’t see any disadvantages of viewing the art pieces in person. The advantage of seeing the art pieces in real person is that I was able to meet the artist. By doing this he gave me all the background information behind each piece. Another advantage is that I was able to see every little detail in the art pieces. While viewing them online you can’t enlarge the picture so I missed some of the elements in the paintings. Another disadvantage of viewing them online is I have dial up so it takes about an hour for one page to display. But on the other side, the advantage of doing it online is that it saves me time and gas to go to a gallery.

AGUA

Elyzabeth Earnley did a fantastic performance on behalf of AGUA. AGUA, Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, is a non-profit organization that relies on grants and donations to keep the organization striving. The organizations main focus is on protecting the Edwards Aquifer. For the beginning of her presentation we recapped what we have already talked about in previous class periods. She discussed where the Edwards Aquifer is located and the people who rely on it. The Edwards Aquifer lies within the counties Edwards, Kerr, Real, Bandera, Kendall, Comal, Hays, Travis, Bexar, Medina, Uvalde, and Kinney. San Antonio along with millions of other people in Central Texas benefit from this aquifer. The aquifer is broken down into four different zones. These zones are the contributing zone, the recharge zone, transition/artesian zone, and the artesian zone. The contributing zone is an area where rainfall is collected. This water passes through the limestone formation to the recharge zone. The water is then held within the artesian zone until it is dispersed. After Earnley explained the Edwards Aquifer, we looked into environmental issues that affected it. These issues lead to contamination of the aquifer which would be impossible to clean once it is highly contaminated. The issue that is affecting the aquifer the most would be contractors using the “grandfathering clause.” The “grandfathering clause” allows contractors to use someone else’s property plan or documents which go back into the properties history to build over the recharge zone. The contract could have nothing to do with this land at the time of the document but, are still allowed to use it as their own document. Earnley has stood in front of numerous city meetings using documents from SAWS, the Edwards Aquifer, and the actual case trying to prevent the construction to take place. While rapping her speech up we were put into groups to view actual cases that have taken place. Our objective was to see if the contractors were allowed to build what they wanted on that location with no restrictions.

Historical Hotel

Originally built in 1893, Alice Lytle built a hotel as a way to support her five children as well as her mother-in-law. After the death of her first husband Alice was remarried to B.B. Rose. Locals eventually renamed the building to the Rose Hotel, which is now known as the Gidley house. Today, the Gidley house is the oldest intact building in the little town of Lytle. In the future, the Gidley house will be transformed into the Lytle city Museum.

The way the house is faced, the front side of the house is located on Oak Street. The house is located on the upper left side corner of the property. It is a two story white house with a light green tin roof. The overall structure of the house is overwhelming. The first floor of the house has an open decked porch that wraps around to the left side. The second level of the house has a netted in porch. Along the second level there is a walkway with doors leading into the various rooms.

The right side of the house was renovated in the early 20th century to include a kitchen, bedroom sleeping porch, and bathrooms. On the right side of the property, a closed in two car garage sits between the Gidley house and Alice’s personal house. This garage could have been the parking garage for the people staying in the hotel or it could have been used for storage. Sitting a little towards the back right side of this garage is an open sided shed.
The shed seems to have been used as another garage. To the right of this shed is Alice’s personal house. This house is located on the lower right corner of the property. This little one story house is medium in size and extends out onto the back right side of the property towards Main Street. If the big two story house was a hotel, she needed somewhere to live with her family. Like the Gidley house, the front of the little house is facing towards Oak Street. It is also made with the same material that the hotel was made of. On the right side of the house the property ends. There is a road directly next to the house, South Bank Street, with the Lytle Volunteer Fire station across it.

Along the left side of the house is a lower and upper walkway connected by a case of stairs. Just below the staircase is a green wooden two person swing. Behind the staircase is a door leading into a guest room. On the upper level deck, there is nothing but a room and the entrance into the netted porch. The back side of the house is located on Main Street. If you were to walk straight out the back door, you would walk right into the middle of the street. The back side of the house is plain with the exception of windows.

In an artistic view, the property is asymmetrically balanced. While glancing at the property, the main focus goes straight to the Gidley house. The bright white color of the house draws the attention away from the dull colored businesses located around it. Being that the houses are made out of wood, the textures of the houses are rough.