Gruene (pronounced like the
color "green") is a ghost town in Comal
County, Texas, which was originally named
Goodwin. Once a significant cotton-producing
community along the Guadalupe River, the
economy is now supported primarily by
tourism. Gruene lies entirely within the
city limits of New Braunfels. Much of Gruene
was listed in the National Register of
Historic Places on April 21, 1975.
Gruene's history begins in
1872 when German farmer Heinrich (Henry) D.
Gruene purchased 6,000 acres (24 km2) of
farmland three miles (5 km) north of New
Braunfels along the Guadalupe River. He
built his house and planted his surrounding
land with cotton. In 1878, Gruene opened a
mercantile store to serve the several dozen
or so families sharecropping on his land.
The town benefitted by its location along
the stagecoach route between Austin and San
Antonio, the store thrived for many years
and stimulated local commercial growth.
Gruene Hall opened in 1878, and the Thorn
Hill School and three large cotton gins soon
followed. By the time the
International-Great Northern Railroad was
built across Comal County in the 1880s the
small community was bustling with commercial
and farming activity, and officially took
the name Gruene after its founding father
and most prominent citizen.
By 1900, Gruene was a
prominent banking, ginning, and shipping
center for area cotton farming. Though it
never had a post office of its own, the
community did possess 2 freight rail
stations by the 1910s. Gruene was decimated,
however, by the boll weevil blight of the
1920s, and further doomed by the effects of
the Great Depression. By 1930 the population
had fallen to 75, and post World War II
highway construction bypassed the town. By
1950 Gruene was essentially abandoned and
had become a ghost town.
More recently, as a result of the
restoration of area structures, such as the
Gruene Hall and old mercantile store, Gruene
began a re-birth of sorts in the early
1970s. Redevelopment and restoration of the
area continued throughout the 1970s and
1980's and today, and though no longer an
autonomous community (it was absorbed by New
Braunfels several years ago) Gruene
maintains a thriving tourist business. Many
original structures from the town's heyday
still exist, including the
Gruene Family Home, a
Victorian-style edifice built in 1872
which is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places and
today operates as the Gruene Mansion Inn. A
historic water tower rises above Gruene
Hall, and other buildings at the heart of
the district have been renovated into shops
and restaurants. There is also a
wine-tasting room.
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