Kreische, Henry L., Brewery and House

The Henry Ludwig Kreische Brewery and House is an example of the early central Texas industry, as well as an example of a stone-building technique of the highest caliber. The Kreische Brewery and House epitomize the ingenuity and industry, as well as the consummate craftsmanship, brought to Texas by many immigrants in the statehood period before the Civil War. H. L. Kreische built the first commercial brewery in Texas. Construction began in the 1850s, and he was producing beer before 1860. His beer was exported to places as far away as Ft. Worth and San Antonio under the banner of "Frisch Auf", meaning refresh or fresh up.

Kreische came to Texas via Galveston in the early 1830s and settled in LaGrange on what is now called Monument Hill. He had been educated as an architect in Austria and was an expert brewmaster as well. Kreische built many fine structures in Fayette County, among which is the Catholic Church in Hostyn, and LaGrange's first jail and second courthouse." The stone used in the original monument, erected to the memory of the Dawson Company and Mill Expedition, heroes in the Texas struggle for independence from Mexico in 1842, was cut by Kreische. He also provided the land where the present monument now stands, just 200 feet from his house. Supplementary to Kreische's activities as a brewmaster and builder, he and his family raised cattle and ran a ferry across the Colorado River a mile upstream from his house. The ferry service, which was dis- continued in 1890, was instigated mainly for the convenience of distributing beer to LaGrange, but he also shuttled people and their produce across the then-bridgeless river.

Kreische's Brewery prospered until the introduction of an ice-cold beer from St. Louis. Refusing to bend to popular tastes, his business dwindled. Kreische died in 1882 and his family closed the brewery in 1888. His children, three boys and three girls, never married and all remained living in the house until their deaths.

After Julia, the last member of the family, died, the seven acres of land and the house were willed to the Catholic Church. In 1969 it was purchased from the church by a group of LaGrange men, then later was sold to V.A. Hrbacek, the developer of the "Frisch Auf" subdivision and owner of the Cottonwood Inn. Hrbacek's corporation is in the process of developing a 500-acre resort along the Colorado river adjacent to Monument Hill. The Texas Heritage Foundation of LaGrange is planning a 1,767-seat, open-air theater at the foot of the bluff near the old brewery. At present, the Kreische House contains a museum of early Texas artifacts from Richard Freis, an earlier resident of the house; it is a private collection. The museum caretaker presently lives in the house and does excavation and maintenance work at the brewery and house.