Looking for a place with a future as rich as its past? Think Boerne . . . Boerne, Texas.
Discover “The Best of Yesterday, Today,” “The Star of the Texas Hill Country,” a true “thinking (Ger)man’s town”—that’s Boerne (rhymes with “journey”).
Location! Location! Location!Boerne offers the best of both worlds in so many ways. Surrounded by the rugged beauty of the Texas Hill Country, it is only 30 miles from downtown San Antonio. Its healthy country living is just a stone’s throw away from America’s ninth largest city. A strong German heritage guides Boerne’s civic life. Yet, newcomers of all backgrounds instantly find a loving home along the winding “strassen” of the town. |
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Cerebral German RootsBoerne is named after Ludwig Börne, a German journalist of the 19th century. Börne himself never left Europe, but his writings inspired thousands of Germans to emigrate to America during the 1840s and 1850s. Five such families ended up on the banks of Cibolo Creek, where they founded a fizzling commune in 1849. After their commune failed, some stayed to establish the town Boerne. The surrounding romantic hills soon attracted hundreds of German settlers, many of whose descendents live in Boerne today. Boerne’s early German community acquired a reputation for agrarian intellectualism. Legend has it that every German farmer in the area carried the writings of philosopher Friedrich Schiller in his overalls. History has proven that legend wrong. Only half the farmers carried Schiller. The other half carried the works of Goethe. |
German CultureThe Boerne Public Library still preserves a 1614 Low German (Platte Deutsch) Bible - one of only six known to exist. Other marks of a German past are the signposting of Main Street as Hauptstrasse, the annual Weihnachts (Christmas) Fest, the Oktoberfestkonzert and the summer evening Abendkonzerte. The Abendkonzerte features a phenomenal tradition—the oldest German band outside of Munich. The Boerne Village Band has been performing German music for 140 years. Boerne youngsters grow up aspiring to join this ancestral group. The Band plays on the Main Square summer Tuesday evenings with an oom-pah that inspires the lively to leap up and polka. Who can just sit there and listen? There is a story about two members of the Boerne Village Band who had once known each other in another role during World War II. They had fought in the same battle on opposite sides. After the War, the German soldier moved to the United States and eventually to Boerne. Forty years later, these two enemy soldiers became true friends as they played German music side-by-side in the Boerne Village Band.
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A Town that Time Forgot?“When they replaced the Cibolo Creek road dip with a bridge, I came to realize the town had changed”—comment from a young Boerne resident. Texas cities lurched into modernization during the 1950s through 1980s with feverish disregard for the old. Boerne was different. As neighboring towns hoisted modern buildings, Boerne lay largely untouched. Its Old World charm lingered along Main Street to give it an air of “not keeping up with the times.” Boerne refused to become “new.” What gives Boerne its unique charm today is not the old “restored” but the old “maintained.” The old “unchanged” makes Boerne decidedly chic. Back in the ‘60s, when I-10 was under construction, the locals hoped the Interstate would spur growth--much as did the railroads of an earlier era. Little did they know how Boerne would change and remain the same. The population has burgeoned three-fold since 1970 so that nowadays less than 20% of the town is of German descent. Yet, its 7,500 residents continue to delight in a collective German past. All the while, San Antonio has been accelerating northward putting Boerne within minutes of one of the states’ major medical centers and a sprawling campus of the University of Texas. In return, Boerne offers San Antonio an urbane country enclave for dining, shopping and a visit into the past. |
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140 Historical BuildingsImagine the enchantment of 140 historical buildings in a town as small as Boerne! Don’t miss the following (1) Ye Kendall Inn—Make Ye Kendall Inn your place to stay and experience the world of lawmen, army officers and cattle drivers of yore. This stagecoach inn was built in 1859. (2) Limestone Grille—dine in the tradition of Presidents. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower have enjoyed culinary delights at the Limestone Grille. (3) Robert E. Lee House—this dwelling on Main Street provided Lee with quarters during his frontier days in Texas. (4) Kronkosky Tower—this model of a Japanese shrine was built in 1901. Today it is part of a Benedictine Sisters Monastery. (5) The Kendall County Courthouse--built in 1870, it is the second oldest courthouse in Texas. How coincidental that both the town and the county are named after journalists! George Kendall, America’s “first war correspondent,” co-founded The New Orleans Times-Picayune before moving to the Boerne area in the 1850s. |
The Art of BoerneThe architecture of the past meets timeless art along the Hauptstrasse. Thirty professional artists belong to the Boerne Area Artist’s Association, which puts on three annual shows: The Spring Parade of Artists, its Fall Colorfest Art Show and the Dickens Gallery in December. Don’t wait for a show, as more than a dozen galleries are awaiting you every day. Start with The Eclectic Collection, the Manor House Gallery or the Garden Path Gallery, all on Main Street. Some have their own special events. |
Boerne goes all out for shoppers each month during its Market Days weekend. Vendors from all over Texas—and even out of state—bring you crafts you would never find anywhere else.
Market Days attest to Boerne’s receptivity to outsiders. Its Downtown Merchants Association actually welcomes vendors from other places to set up tent stores on the Main Plaza. Shoppers from San Antonio and all over the Hill Country flock into town to take advantage of this exciting event.
Other Texas towns have market days where anything goes. But Boerne offers consistently upscale merchandise at bargain prices that will thrill your pocketbook as well as your aesthetic sense.
Boerne by NatureYou don’t have to leave town to find bargains, and you don’t have to leave town to find nature. The nationally acclaimed Cibolo Nature Center and Wilderness Trail will keep you attuned. Wander through grassland, marshland and river-sourced woodlands. Observe native plants in four habitats. Make friends with ducks along the banks of the Cibolo, for the ducks are the creek’s VIPs with rights protected by law. |
Outside of TownAs you leave town to explore Kendall County, a variety of treats awaits you. · Four miles up the craggy hills to the west is the 27-hole Tapatio Golf Course. Rated one of the 5 Best Golf Courses in Texas, its splendor exceeds its rank. · To the east is the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf and Country Club, whose 20,000 square-foot headquarters was built of stone from the bottom of a creek during the 1930s · Joshua Creek Ranch offers 1,300 acres of trails, natural beauty and accommodations · Actress Olivia de Havilland once owned nearby Guadalupe River Ranch Resort and Spa. The larger Kendall County abounds with camping, hunting, clear-stream fishing . . . wavy hilltops, green slopes and quiet valleys . . . scenic byways . . . lush parklands . . . caverns . . . and even an Old Tunnel full of bats. |
What was once an isolated “thinking (Ger)man’s town” is now an urbane country paradise.
Boerne’s visitors and residents come from all over the world. They speak in accents that are crisply Midwestern, distinctively Northeastern, even European, and occasionally Southern or Texan. Regardless of accent, they all resound with the same irrepressible oom-pah when they tell you: “I sure love this place.”
Whether you’re planning a vacation, a retirement, or a daytrip, come to Boerne. You’ll understand why the future is as rich as the past.
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