808 Earl Garrett Street

2012

A note on the back of the photograph indicates this Tudor-style house at 808 Earl Garrett was built in 1916 by Otto Schwethelm at the time of his marriage to Ysabel Faltin, of Comfort. They lived here until 1943.  This was a substantial house for its time. In 1930 it was valued at $10,000.  Otto Schwethelm was a rancher and banker and worked for the Schreiner Bank for 46 years.  At the time the house was built, he was an assistant cashier at the bank.
He died at the age of 89 in 1981.  She died at the age of 96 in 1991. They are buried together at Glen Rest Cemetery.
The Schwethelms were charter members of a dance club known at the German Club of Kerrville.  I learned about the club from a January 14, 1984, article in the Kerrville Mountain Sun marking its 50th anniversary.   You did not have to be German heritage to belong. "German" referred to a "French-style dance" called the German popular when the Club was organized in in 1934.   When the dances first began they were held on one of the Real ranches in Upper Turtle Creek about 17 miles from town. Otto Schwethelm told a tale that when some of the men got out to open the seven gates on the way, they "took a drink at each one and arrived at the dance in high spirits."
(Just a bit of local color for you.)

ca 1988

Bobbie Baldwin was the next owner, living here from 1944 until 1949 when he sold to H. W. Harlin. Harlin was a rancher who lived part-time in Kerrville. In 1952 he sold to Arthur W. Brock, who in 1954 received a permit for additions to the property.  He was a career Air Force Colonel.  The Kerrville Times reported that during his last four years he served as director of the intelligence division of the Air Force.  Brock sold to James Clanton in 1961. In 1964 Clanton in turn sold to William M. Tomlinson who owned it about three years. The next owner was Robert Nuetze. The Nuetzes occupied the house until 1977. There were a series of short-term occupants after that and in 1983 Olde House Partnership obtained a permit to convert the house into the current apartment units at a cost of $30,000.