To discover more about Fredericksburg, please visit www.fredericksburg-texas.com
The landscape at the edge of the Pedernales River in autumn is gold and green, the sky is a brilliant blue. A crane, hooting and cawing, flies across the sky, breezes lift the leaves of a live oak tree. This is Fredericksburg in the Hill Country of Texas. It is a quiet town, but an active town, a place to unwind and a place to celebrate. Join us to discover Fredericksburg.
Old Fredericksburg - Hard Work and Celebrations
The year was 1846. A wagon train of ox carts bearing 120 German immigrants arrived on a settlement where two hundred year old live oaks grew next to agave and mesquite. The land promised fertility. The settlers stayed and Fredericksburg was born.
They were a peaceable and hardworking people who tilled the land, built schools and churches, created good lives. Visited by only the hardiest of travelers, they lived cut off from the world, but they were festive as well as hardworking and they paused in their work to renew old world traditions - Oktoberfest, a celebration of the harvest, the unique Christmas celebrations that were born in their own country and destined to shape the way a growing nation would celebrate a holiday. The year was 1913. The final rails were laid for the San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Northern Railway. When the first train steamed into Fredericksburg, the enthusiastic townspeople were so happy to break their isolation that they greeted the train with a three-day festival. The Industrial Revolution was opening the world, travel by rail was fun, and the eager riders discovered Oktoberfest, and the special German Christmas Celebrations.
The year was 1934. To preserve the traditions and local history, the Gillespie County Historical Society was founded. Fredericksburg would retain its old-word charm even while the world continued to open via train. The early members of the Society could not have foreseen how the airplane would change life.
Fredericksburg Today - Wine Trails, Food Trails, Celebrations and People
The year is 2006. The live oaks are now three hundred years old, the agave are giants reaching for the western sun, mesquite is cause for a celebration of its own. Autos fill the streets and private jets fly into the Gillespie County Airport bringing travelers who want to take advantage of all the Fredericksburg has to offer whether to celebrate, to eat, to taste wines, to hunt, to buy world-famous peaches in season or just to get away from it all. Fredericksburg offers it all.
There is the wine trail for tasting Texas wines. The early settlers who found a temperate climate for growth, planted grape vines from the old country, but their efforts were restricted to home production until the recent discovery that the much of the soil in this area bears similarities to the Tuscan soil. There is a restaurant trail for elegant, sophisticated dining; there are celebrations from the famous Oktoberfest which had Fredericksburg declared "the polka capital of Texas," to the famous Christmas celebrations to a celebration of mesquite or a music celebration.
They people here love the land and part of celebrating it is being responsible to it and there is even a Roundup of a different sort in the spring - this is the largest event in the southern U.S. relating to renewable energy, green building, organic growing, rainwater harvesting and alternative fuel vehicles.
If you go in peach picking season there are those peaches, those luscious peaches, those juicy peaches, ones that may be the best in the world and you'll want to buy a bushel. Or two.
Historical Center
On the map of the historic district of Fredericksburg Texas you will notice that W. Schubert Street runs parallel to W. San Antonio and that both intersect S. Crockett and S. Bowie streets. The history of America as an immigrant nation is written in the street names of Fredericksburg, and walking is the best way to enjoy the town.
Many houses here are what is known as Sunday Houses. They are small houses where farmers and ranchers would stay on Sunday when they came to town. The houses are close together, like friends assembling to assert their presence in the vastness of the Texas Hills. Many are made of native limestone, while others (our favorites) are the two-story old west wooden houses with an upper porch that overhangs and shades the sidewalk. The porches were used as bedrooms on hot Texas nights in the days before air conditioning.
You will find museums, parks, and art galleries here. There are places to eat that rival the food anywhere. And there is music everywhere, from the from the singer standing outside the patio shop that sells bird baths and metal cactus to the organized music at Hondo's where you can eat a Fried Chicken S'wich or a Blue Ribbon Barbeque Bacon Burger.
If you want to shop, you can find everything from the scented soaps at Villa Texas, fine chocolates at Chocolat, clothing, small souvenir items and even that cook's Eden Der Kuchen Laden.
Perhaps the very best reason to go to Fredericksburg, however, is just to get to know the people. If only there were a way to bring them home with you.
FREDERICKSBURG VISITOR INFORMATION CENTER
302 E. Austin Street, Fredericksburg, TX • (888) 997-3600
Free Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Hill Country and Texas travel literature and information on Fredericksburg & Gillespie County wineries. DVD presentation, public restrooms and off-street parking.
www.fredericksburg-texas.com
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