At the corner of Main Street and West San Antonio, next to Main Plaza is the Hillje Music Store where you can rent musical instruments, but before 1901, on that site was Homer’s Livery Stable, where you could rent a horse and buggy for a dollar a day. The story of the present-day Carstanjen Building right after this.

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At 705 South Main where the Lovern Law Firm calls home, it was originally the real home and mansion of Rudolph Carstanjen, one of Boerne’s first settlers from Germany by way of Rio De Janeiro. In 1901, he built the 2 story Carstanjen Building and one of the early tenants was Levyson’s Drug Store which closed in 1920. The Plaza Drug Store was next owned by Bill and Wilda Williams. In 1941 Erhard Ebner purchased the drug store, and ran it there until 1967, when Ebner’s Drug Store moved across the street.

Rudolph Carstanjen never saw the fruit from the building he built in 1901 because he died in 1902 and rests in the Boerne Cemetery.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

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If you think Boerne has grown, the population of Bergheim in 1970 was only 22 souls. The story of our brother city Bergheim, right after this.

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While the intersection of State Highway 46 and FM 3351 is relatively flat, the German name Bergheim means “Mountain Home”. Home in the Hills is more accurate. It was founded by Austrian immigrant Andreas Engel, who came to Texas in 1885 and worked for Casper Sueltenfuss. Andreas built the first cotton gin around 1900, but after the dreaded boll weevil arrived, it evolved into a General Store and Post Office where it remained in the Engel family for 4 generations. They also operated the largest cedar yard in Texas, specializing in fence posts for ranch owners. Today, that building is the Bergheim Meat Market, and the population of Bergheim is closer to 1700.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History, and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

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In 1905 the very first Kendall County Fair happened on Labor Day - Monday, September 4th, except it wasn’t on the fairgrounds you know today. The history of The Kendall County Fair right after this.

Sponsor: Kendall County Roofing

The very first Kendall County Fair took place in 1905 in the Opera House on Main Street - the site of the present-day Black Rifle Coffee. There was no rodeo or rides. It was created to have an annual event to exchange agricultural and livestock ideas, recipes and share news of events. In 1913, the Kendall County Fair Association was formed and was given an offer they couldn’t refuse. The Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff Family would deed 55 acres of their land on present-day River Road. The terms included a clause that forbade the sale of the property. H.O. Adler was the first president, Miss Martha Fabra was the first-lady manager. The only times the Kendall County Fair failed to meet was during World War II… and you remember…in 2020 for the pandemic.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History, and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.