The Spies house, now the Winedale Visitor Center, was built by Alfred Wagner (1891-195) around 1930 for Adam and Christina Spies, the parents of his wife, Lina, and his sister-in-law, Leona. It now functions as the Visitor Center. The pollinator garden in front of the house was created by the Gideon Lincecum Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists in 2017.
This house was built in the mid-1800s on Jack's' Creek about two miles south of Winedale on land that was originally part of the old Nassau farm, which served as the headquarters of the German Emigration Company in the 1830s and 1840s. Due to their efforts Round Top became a largely German community by the 1860s. The structure is now named for Hazel Ledbetter, who presented it to Miss Ima Hogg's Winedale project in 1965. Hazel's Lone Oak Cottage has been authentically restored to the simple architectural beauty of a dogtrot style common to the home of an early German Texan settler in the mid-nineteenth century. The two front rooms of the cottage feature the "Winedale Story" exhibit with the history of the region and community and how Miss Hogg fulfilled her vision assembling representative structures into a historical complex to serve as a teaching laboratory for students.
The Lewis-Wagner House is the centerpiece of Winedale. The house is a two-story frame house of eight rooms, with two rooms on each side of the breezeway on both floors and a galleried porch across the front. The frame, siding, and floors are all made of cedar but locally. The structure has been restored to its mid 19th-century appearance, when it was occupied by the Samuel K. Lewis family.
The kitchen and smokehouse are located behind the Lewis-Wagner House and were added during restoration of the main residence. Both log structures were moved onto the site of the original kitchen buildings and were restored as a kitchen and smokehouse. Both structures feature half dovetail notches formed by interlocking pieces.
The Theater Barn is a renovated and rebuilt hay barn adapted for use as an auditorium and stage to host theatrical and musical productions. The hay barn was constructed in the 1880s from cedar beams salvaged from an animal-powered cotton gin dating from the 1850s which stood on the Lewis farmstead.
The Transverse crib barn, or four-square barn, consists of four cribs joined by a framework with distended facades and gabled ends. The structure is located on its original site and is one of the few such barns still in existence in Texas. Constructed sometime prior to 1867 entirely of hand-hewn timber, the barn was designated to store corn in the cribs, hay above, and animals and equipment inside.
The Biegel House is a frame structure built of cedar logs up to twenty feet long, covered later with boards. This rear example of full dovetail cornering log construction was recorded as a Texas Historical Landmark in 1965. The house was originally located on land granted by the Mexican government in 1832 to German settler Joseph Biegel. Biegel and his fellow landowners were part of Fayette County’s first German settlement, an agricultural community of German, Swiss and Alsatian families.
The Gideon Lincecum Arboretum was originally created in the late 1970s with markers for native plants, trees, and grasses. IN 2017, the Gideon Lincecum Mater Naturalists revived the trail on a smaller scale and relocated the marker to a more accessible area. As part of the Blackland Prairie and Post Oak Savannah ecosystems of Texas, the trail provides access to native grasses, wildflowers, tree, and pollinator bushes leading to a natural pond where bald cypress and dragonflies abound.
Historic preservationists have called this impressive structure “a work of art.” Stylistically, the McGregor House is a vernacular Greek revival house, typical of an area planter’s home. The two-story structure has a central passageway with a large room on either side and a one-story ell with porch and dining rooms. There are three richly decorated public rooms (the entrance hall, parlor and dining room) and four plainer private rooms (three bedrooms and a family sitting room in the upstairs hall).
This one-room school was constructed in 1868 about a quarter mile from its present location. The school served the predominately German community as an elementary school and for Lutheran Church services until 1943. In that year consolidation sent Winedale students to the Burton School. The school was moved to its present location in 1992.
The Lauderdale House, an example of a Texas classic revival farmhouse, was built in 1858. It was moved to the Winedale property in the mid 1960s and restored to serve as a guest house for resident scholars. Fire destroyed the house in 1981. Only two of its chimneys are left standing.
Cotton was one of the predominant cash crop dating back to the days of Stephen F. Austin’s colony. The Joseph Wagner family worked the land and ran several local businesses, including a general store, service station, and a Blacksmith shop, during the first half of the twentieth century. The family operated the cotton gin and feed mill from 1928 to 1956. When agriculture and related businesses wanted, the cotton gin and mill were dismantled in 1958 and sold to Central American for continued operation. What remains are the concrete mountings of the Bessemer diesel engine of the cotton gin and feed mill.
This Tour is a Virtual Museum or Site Tour.
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The Winedale Historical Complex, a division of UT Austin's Briscoe Center, is a collection of nineteenth-century structures and their period furnishings situated on 225 acres in northern Fayette County. Winedale's collections offer a tangible link to the Texas past, capturing the evidence of history through architecture, furnishings, and decorative arts.
