Edward Dietert House

This photo was updated April 17, 2016

This folk Victorian home now has the address of 332 Clay Street, and until recently was the Soul Cafe.  In March 2016 the Pint & Plow Brew Pub opened here.  The house sits at the corner of Clay and Jefferson.  I believe it was originally 529 Jefferson Street.  Unlike the Tivy hotel, which was actually rotated on its lot, it appears the house is in its original location.  The front door was moved instead.

In researching this house, the first mention I could find of the 332 Clay address was in a 1963 advertisement for apartments to rent. The fact that I cannot find a mention of this address prior to 1963 would usually suggest that the building wasn't much older than that, but this house is clearly much older.
The 1924 Sanborn map shows a house in this location and with about the same footprint. The address then was 529 Jefferson Street.  A 1930s aerial photo also shows the house.

The January 17, 1974, Kerrville Mountain Sun had a story about James J. Vogel, who was running for Justice of the Peace.  He resided at 332 Clay and had legal offices at 529 Jefferson.  I think it was the same building--just with doors facing different streets.

Based on the evidence, I am certain this was the Edward Dietert house at 529 Jefferson. Edward and Tekla Langbein Dietert arrived in Kerr County from Boerne in 1903 and built a home on the corner of Jefferson and Clay streets the next year.  They lived there the rest of their lives.  Ed Dietert died September 1959, his widow in April of 1960.  They are buried at Glen Rest Cemetery.

Ed Dietert was a rancher on the Divide.  His obituary reported that his family resided in Kerrville so that the children might attend school and the services of their church.  This arrangement was not uncommon at that time.
Also according to his obituary "Cabinetmaking was his hobby, and some of the finest interior work in some of the older homes of the city is his handiwork."  I wonder which houses those are.
Perhaps one of my readers will know.