Fauth Cottage Restoration 2003

FAUTH COTTAGE RESTORATION 2003

The John Fauth Guest Cottage is the oldest continuously occupied residence in Gonzales, TX, and it is the only remaining example of Steamboat Gothic architecture in the area.

At sometime during the long history of Fauth Cottage, the back half of the house was divided into three small apartments. During the 2003 restoration, the apartment walls were removed and the original open floor plan of the old prairie home was revealed. That area is now the kitchen and small bedroom of Fauth Cottage. The original portion was constructed like a barn; only the outside walls are weight-bearing.

While workers were leveling the floors of Fauth Cottage, hundreds of bricks from a long-ago fireplace in the original one room cottage were discovered under the house. Those ancient bricks from the Gonzales Brick Co. were used to build the "new" kitchen fireplace plus the front steps, side steps, and back steps of the cottage. One can see bricks with "Gonzales" embossed on them. All of the yellowish brick used in Fauth Cottage are over 100 years old and came from the old Gonzales Brick Factory. The clay of the Guadalupe River accounts for the characteristic color of the brick. Many of the old homes in Gonzales feature this brick which has not been commercially available since the early 1920’s.

While restoring Fauth Cottage, it was also discovered that neither the back nor the front half of the house had ever been properly joined together. Massive ceiling beams in the kitchen were installed and bolted into the attic of the front half of the house. Now, the two halves of the ancient house are securely held together with hand-hewn long-leaf pine beams obtained from an Amish barn in Pennsylvania.

Charcoal covered walls, ceiling, and support beams were found behind the paneling in the entry hall. It was deduced that Fauth Cottage had endured a horrific electrical fire--probably in the early 1960s. But, the fire damage had not ever been properly repaired; it was only covered over with paneling to hide the extensive damage. All of the burned and unstable wood was removed from the hall and replaced during the 2003 restoration. Two hall doors and the front door portals still bare black scorch marks from the long-ago fire. The scorched areas were left by the restorers as a visual testament to the house's endurance during the fire.

The chandeliers hanging in the front and back of the entry hall have been in the house since the early 1900s. The center chandelier in the parlor has "Tiffany" embossed on the back and is also from the turn of the century. The small chandelier hanging in the reading nook of the small bedroom is the fourth chandelier that is from the original installation of electric lights in the cottage.

While removing many coats of paint from the master bedroom mantel, a carved "F" was discovered on the left side of the mantel close to the top. (It appears Mr. Fauth initialed his work!)

An old workshop covered the entire backyard of Fauth Cottage until the shop was demolished in 2003. Rare long-leaf pine wood from that building was used to make the coffered ceilings in the parlor and master bedroom and to make repairs to the water-damaged inlaid floor in the parlor. The long-leaf pine wood was also used to make all the cabinets in the kitchen plus the large kitchen table. All of the visible wood used in the 2003 restoration is at least 145 years old.

The floor in the parlor is an inlaid parquet that was patterned and cut by John Fauth using native woods and no electrical cutting tools. The dark wood is black walnut and the lighter wood is long-leaf pine. The stone pillars that form the house's foundation were hand hewn at the old Maurin quarry located outside of Gonzales. More Maurin quarry stones can be seen in one of the front pillar of the Randall-Rather building and in the outside facade of the Dudley Hoskins dry goods store building one block away on the main square.

When the current owners purchased Fauth Cottage, the original water pond in the front yard was filled with dirt and was believed to be a long-forgotten flower bed. A previous tenant of Fauth Cottage announced that it was, in fact, a pond--used to keep fish that were caught in the local Guadalupe River alive and fresh in place of refrigeration. The pond was put back in working order, and an authentic water pump was installed to recycle water.

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