Herff-Rozelle Farm

The Herff-Rozelle Farm is an excellent example of a Texas Hill Country farmstead that has changed little since the early 20th century. The house, farm, domestic structures, and surrounding fields remain remarkably intact in light of the rapid urbanization of Kendall County. The primary (and historic) entrance to the site is from Herff Road, named for Ferdinand Herff, who purchased the property in 1852. Herff eventually acquired over 10,000 acres in the area, and his children also built homes along this thoroughfare that now connects the Old San Antonio Road and State Highway 46. 

The nominated property encompasses 56.5 acres of a 68-acre tract that was owned by the Herff family from 1852 until 1935 and then sold to George and Erma Rozelle. The farm was the summer retreat for Ferdinand Herff and his family, and the home of Herff's son, Charles, until it was sold in 1935. The two-story, cut limestone house was built in 1883 and reportedly replaced an earlier structure that burned. The farm complex also includes a barn, outhouse, smokehouse, windmill, a concrete vat, an aviary, a caretaker's house, and other utilitarian structures. These structures reflect the farm's evolution, primarily under the ownership of Charles Herff and George Rozelle.

The rural context of the house is preserved by the surrounding pastures that extend from Herff Road to the confluence of the Cibolo and Menger creeks. The creeks are lined with towering cypress trees just as they were in the middle-nineteenth century. The fields, now unplanted, were used by both Charles Herff and George Rozelle to pasture sheep and grow hay and fruit trees.

The farm is nominated to the National Register under Criterion A (local level) in the area of Agriculture because of its association with early ranching and agriculture in Kendall County. It is also nominated under Criterion B (local level) as the only remaining structure associated with pioneer Texas physician, Ferdinand Herff, who helped advance modern medicine in both San Antonio and Boerne and supported rail transportation that helped transform the Hill Country economy. The farm is nominated under Criterion C (local level) in the area of Architecture as an intact complex of residential and utilitarian structures that exemplify rural life in 19th and early 20th century Texas. The period of significance for the Herff-Rozelle Farm extends to 1959, although George Rozelle, who continued the farming tradition of the Herff family held the property until he died in 1962. All of the standing structures are older than fifty years and are considered to be contributing to the farm.