Portfolio

Project:	DR. CHRISTIAN ALTHAUS HOUSE Measured Drawings
Client:	University of Texas at Austin (independent study project)
Media:	Ink on Mylar, 18" x 24" format
Date:	1977
This site is typical of many farm complexes built by German settlers in Gillespie County and surrounding areas of the Texas Hill Country. The family built a series of houses and outbuildings to accomodate a growing family, as they adapted to life on the Texas frontier in the 1860s-1870s. The larger house was built over a spring, with a partially-exposed root cellar below. Christian Althaus was one of the early Verein settlers of Fredericksburg, Texas. For more information, see The Handbook of Texas Madison R. Graham measured the buildings and drafted the five-sheet set using standards set by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Bess Althaus Graham compiled the history of the site and assisted with measurements. The drawings are on file at the Library of Congress in Washington,DC and the Alexander Architectural Archive at the University of Texas at Austin.

Groupings of farmstead buildings were typical of German Hill country farmsteads (above). Typical details include masonry lintels (right) and smokehouse hardware (below)

Winner, Honorable Mention,
Charles E. Peterson Prize, 1983