Lew said "Wide open spaces (who remembers Laurie Anders) in the 1940's, it has become so crowded it might as well be New Jersey. The little farm house
my great-great grandparents built at the top of the hill in Round Top was bought up by a Houston millionaire and today is a tourist trap along with the rest of the town.
Haven't been to my New Braunfels house in years - the town has boomed to the point of being intolerable. I suspect Jim would back me up on most of this.
I think I know the house you speak of, and yes the whole town has changed, and not for the better. The locals don't even really like it too much & disappear during the twice a year antique / junk fest that runs for miles along the road from Warrenton, thru Round Top & on as far as the Carmine area. In the 1960's, two super rich ladies from Houston were buying up properties left & right, really only wanting the old farm houses. Miss Hogg moved several out to the original stage coach inn she preserved at Winedale & then donated it to the University of Texas. Classical music festivals used to be held there in the large mortise & tenon wood barn, before pianist James Dick built Festival Halle. The other lady moved 10 or 15 of the old mostly abandoned commercial buildings from all over the area & homes onto the east side of the Round Top square, then spent several fortunes restoring them back to the exact condition they would have been in the late
1800's thru the mid 1900's. I'm sue she had all the right intentions, but I never see many tourists paying the slightest bit of attention to them now and they seem to be falling into a gentle decay. The locals who sold their family properties were happy. They went out & built modern 3 or 4 bedroom ranch style homes - all with modern insulation (as opposed to newspaper), central heat & air, carpeting, gas or electric stoves (as opposed to wood burning stoves) and best of all ~ indoor plumbing!!! I still know a few folks in Round Top - would I recognize your family name? Mr. Birkelback tried his best to get me to buy his ~ "restaurant" ~. But I was young, in college, totally broke & completely lacked any foresight. Flash forward 50 years or so and the Royer family seems to have become quite wealthy with it, especially their famous pies, and the restaurant is featured in numerous travel & food-destination kind of magazines, including ole Bob
Phillips & his "Texas Country Reporter" TV show.
Your house in New Braunfels can only grow in value. The whole area has become a favorite for retiring folks, as well as younger people willing to commute into San Antonio for work but still live in a rural community. For the record - New Braunfels DOES have a Super Walmart!! Gruene Halle is still fun for boot scootin', but lots of city folk & not so many younger local kids.But the entire place is exactly as you'd remember it. They may have removed the chicken wire that used to drop down in front of the stage, but all else is still what you'd want it to be. You should know tho - the old bakery on the square is still putting out high quality treats. Even REAL colaches if you can believe that!! The subtle change I've noticed? The older locals sitting around the square or in the Cafe - very few still speak with a German influenced accent. Sad in a way, but a sign of change also.
To return this post to Airstreams - there is a man in New Braunfels that I'm told does beautiful high end renovations on Airstreaams & other vintage trailers.
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