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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Glenewinkel home a haven on Walnut Creek
Published January 4, 2009
SEGUIN — Texas Ranger Capt. Robert Hall and his father-in-law John G. King helped to settle the town of Walnut Springs, later Seguin, in 1838.
Hall built a two-room cabin with a dog run along Walnut Creek, a short distance downstream from the Ranger Station.
Hall, who married Mary Minerva “Polly” King, once rode 200 miles through “Indian country” to buy his wife a pair of new dresses, according to the book, “Life of Robert Hall.”
But Hall didn’t stay very long in Seguin. By 1850 his family lived on Sandies Creek on Gonzales County and the home he built at what would eventually become 214 S. Travis St. was occupied by members of the Douglass, Dodson and Burges families.
It was William H. Burges who bought the house and installed a Greek Revival facade on the home and made other improvements.
By 1966, the timeworn house had a sun porch and a rear kitchen added on to the original cabin and the structure needed extensive remodeling.
Lynn Glenewinkel, recently graduated from college, purchased the property in 1966 and restored it by 1967, and installed his photography studio in a lower portion of the house on the creek side.
Today, Claire and Lynn Glenewinkel spend most of their time in the sun porch that also serves as a small informal dining area adjacent to their kitchen. A patio at the rear of the house overlooks Walnut Creek, and they can be found sitting outside in cooler weather.
“The house had been vacant for 10 years when I bought it. Nothing much was changed except that Burges added the Greek Revival front with the columns,” Lynn explained.
He said Capt. Hall had originally platted the house lot, a garden lot to the rear (across the creek), and then a farm lot, but Hall lost the property when he didn’t stay for the required period of time that the original shareholders had to stay in their houses.
“He had to build a certain dimension here (14 feet by 16 feet) and he abandoned it before the contract was fulfilled. The repossessed home eventually was in the hands of William Burges. My studio was a garage and an apartment for one of the Burges boys,” Lynn said.
The kitchen area at one point caught fire and it gutted the added on part of the house, but the original house remained unscathed, and today stands with the original log walls sealed inside the renovated home’s newer walls.
The most used room in the Glenewinkel home is the 16 by 20 ft. sun porch.
“We don’t have a formal living room, everybody hangs out in this room, it’s a perfect place to lay out and be comfortable,” Claire explained.
The sun room has a large sectional sofa that can accommodate the Glenewinkels and their guests whenever they throw one of their annual parties, such as the Day of the Dead celebration in early November.
The house has a couple of other niches, such as a side porch on the north side of the house where Claire and Lynn Glenewinkel take their morning coffee.
And the back patio features a small fountain with a couple of koi, a Mexican-tile laden table, and a brick floor.
“I love to collect rocks and bricks. Every time I saw something being torn down I would get some bricks,” Lynn said regarding the patio floor.
Lynn said that when he bought the house in the 1960s, his plan was to restore it to what it was after the additions were made to the original two-room cabin, and no more than that.
“I never added on anything that wasn’t there,” Lynn said.
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