A historic Brenham house lives on, beautifully
BRENHAM - Back in 1960, when Houston Chronicle columnist Sig Byrd visited the Roehling House, it sounded as if the place might not withstand much more time.
Built in a plantation style between 1840 and 1845, the home had 64-foot long galleries that stretched all the way across both floors of the front and back. In the front, the porches overlooked acres of idyllic, rolling prairie. Out back, beyond several barns, a most magnificent view beckoned from a bluff overlooking the Brazos River. From there, on a clear day, you could see across the river well into the next county; cotton and corn fields had once filled that flatter land, and the horizon finally disappeared about 30 miles in the distance.
Byrd wound up there when he was writing about the centennial of Bethlehem Lutheran church nearby. Wanting to meet the oldest member of its congregation, he found Dora Roehling, 95, scrubbing her floors, a few miles up the road from the church. Widowed for many years, she shared the big country house with her daughter Lydia, who was born there in 1889, and son-in-law, Otto Gindorf.
Built in a plantation style between 1840 and 1845, the home had 64-foot long galleries that stretched all the way across both floors of the front and back. In the front, the porches overlooked acres of idyllic, rolling prairie. Out back, beyond several barns, a most magnificent view beckoned from a bluff overlooking the Brazos River. From there, on a clear day, you could see across the river well into the next county; cotton and corn fields had once filled that flatter land, and the horizon finally disappeared about 30 miles in the distance.
Byrd wound up there when he was writing about the centennial of Bethlehem Lutheran church nearby. Wanting to meet the oldest member of its congregation, he found Dora Roehling, 95, scrubbing her floors, a few miles up the road from the church. Widowed for many years, she shared the big country house with her daughter Lydia, who was born there in 1889, and son-in-law, Otto Gindorf.
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