{"nrhp_refnum":"83003755","name":"Plehwe Complex","other_names":["The Plehwe Stagecoach Inn"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of Leon Springs on Boerne Stage Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leon Springs","county":"Bexar County","state":"TX","lat":29.66520407200005,"lon":-98.63635255599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-12-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural homestead group of three small buildings (two residences and a detached kitchen) about half a mile west of Leon Springs on Boerne Stage Road, Bexar County, Texas, built in the 1850s by Charles Felix George von Plehwe.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the buildings as an important surviving mid-19th-century homestead in central Texas. They reflect vernacular building using hewn logs and rough limestone, and the largest house resembles the German Sunday-house form. The property also served as a stagecoach stop on the San Antonio to El Paso line.","narrative":"Three small buildings on wooded, gently sloping land west of Leon Springs, Texas, make up this mid-19th-century homestead: two modest residences and a detached kitchen. Charles Felix George von Plehwe, a Prussian immigrant born in Berlin in 1823, built them after emigrating with his wife Sophie in 1851 and buying 1,000 acres nearby. The structures combine hewn logs, timber framing and rough limestone, reflecting central Texas vernacular building. The one-and-a-half-story stone house believed to be Sophie's resembles the Sunday houses common around Fredericksburg. Soon after completion, Plehwe contracted with the stage line between El Paso and San Antonio to use the farm as a coach stop for water and fresh horses, with weekly service heading west. Later owners made changes, including metal roofs, a steel stair, and twentieth-century additions, yet the original forms remain readable. The kitchen's hearth and chimney survive, though its logs have suffered from lost stucco. The group was listed for its surviving homestead character and local significance.","period_of_significance":"1850s","architect_builder":"Unknown (built by Charles Felix George von Plehwe)","architectural_style":"Central Texas vernacular, with German Sunday-house influence","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied private residence; condition listed as fair and altered. The kitchen's hewn logs show rot, termite and beetle damage after loss of their stucco.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.655329-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/95/9710/40971095/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/83003755.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003755/dc278b4284-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003755/dc278b4284-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plehwe_complex_2013.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plehwe_complex_2013.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971095","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plehwe_Complex","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16062684"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/bexar-county/plehwe-complex-83003755/"}