PRESENTER: Presenter
Katie Totman, Historic Preservation Officer
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SUBJECT: Title
Approval of a resolution in support of obtaining National Register of Historic Places designation for the Dittlinger Family Residential Historic District, including 372 Magazine Avenue and 581 West Coll Street.
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DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood & Community Planning
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: 5
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
As a Certified Local Government (CLG), the City of New Braunfels is required to provide a recommendation on any National Register nominations within the city limits. A letter was received from the Texas Historical Commission on March 18, 2026, stating that 372 Magazine Avenue and 581 West Coll Street have been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. Both properties are part of the locally designated Sophienburg Hill Historic District and 372 Magazine Avenue is also an individually designated local historic landmark. Unlike local historic designations, inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places carries no regulatory restrictions. However, as mentioned above, many of the properties in the proposed boundaries are already locally designated as historic. The draft nomination is included in the attachments.
The following Statement of Significance is taken directly from the nomination draft: “The Dittlinger Residential Historic District contains a collection of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century resources located on two adjacent properties-581 W. Coll Street and 372 Magazine Avenue-in New Braunfels’ Sophienburg neighborhood. The historic-age resources in the district date from around 1895 to 1925 and are associated with the Dittlinger family, one of New Braunfels’s prominent industrial and charitable families. The two primary resources in the district are the Liebscher House, a nineteenth-century Folk Victorian residence, and the Dittlinger House, a 1910 Italianate and Greek Revival residence. Built c. 1895, the Liebscher House was acquired by Hippolyt Dittlinger’s daughter and son-in-law, Franziska and Alfred Liebscher, in 1920. Dittlinger, a prominent industrialist and owner of several mills in New Braunfels, lived in the Dittlinger House next door. This house was designed by prominent San Antonio architecture firm James Wahrenberger and Son and built by local contractors Charles Roeper and Christian Herry. In addition to the primary residences, the district contains several National Folk style backhouses, as well as a wash house, a barn, a chicken coop, a pump house, and a shed that reflects middle- and upper-class residential life in early twentieth-century New Braunfels. The Dittlinger family retained ownership of the properties into the 1980s. The district is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level under Criterion C in the area of Architecture for its excellent examples of National Folk, Late Victorian, and Early Twentieth Century Revival architectural design and its association with architect James Wahrenberger. The district also provides insight into the architectural variety of early to mid-twentieth-century residential properties in New Braunfels. The district’s period of significance spans from 1895, the construction date of the Liebscher House, to 1963, covering the construction of all historic-age resources and the Liebscher House addition. The district has two moved backhouses-Resources 10 and 12-that meet Criteria Consideration B: Moved Properties, since they were relocated within the period of significance to a residential setting presumably close in resemblance to their original setting.”
HISTORIC LANDMARK COMMISSION: The Historic Landmark Commission held a public hearing on April 14, 2026, and voted unanimously to recommend support of the resolution (7-0-0).
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REFERENCE
• Action 2.2: Prioritize areas that are best suited for conservation and preservation.
• Action 2.6: Consistently evaluate the areas designated historic for strategic expansion or new designations.
ISSUE:
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STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☒Community Identity
☐Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
Properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places may qualify for State and Federal Tax Credits for substantial rehabilitation and restoration scopes of work.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff concurs with the recommendation in support of the resolution.