Dolch-Hans Compound

This compound reflects a continuum of Castroville's history from before the Civil War. German immigrants Louis and Rosina (Niggli) Dolch built the stone house c. 1860. They stayed only a few years, but retained ownership into the 1880s, when Rosina's brother, sheriff and U.S. marshal Ferdinand Niggli, lived here. Butcher Thomas Edmund Hans and his wife Amelia (Tschirhart) bought the homestead in 1907 and added the brick commercial building for Hans Meat Market in 1910. An early board-and-batten barn and smokehouse, and a well house with elevated cistern, completed the compound, which remained in family ownership until 1969. Today, the site serves as an architectural record of an evolutionary city farmstead. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004