Vargas

VARGAS/THOMAS/PEACH TREE CAFE
448 S. Main, Boerne

DESCRIPTION: One and one half story, symmetrical; central door with sidelights and transom; front door has etched glass; steeply pitched tin roof; turned columns with a row of spindels under eave of porch.

HISTORY: The house was used as a home until 1982 when it became an office and later a restaurant, the Peach Tree Kountry Kitchen. The house remains basically the same with original picket fence installed again. Johanne Weiss family lived here about 1907, buying it from H. T. Graham. Weiss sold to Paul Adler who did not live in the house. In 1942 the house sold to John and Marie Frey; their estate sold to Ernest and Minnie Vargas in 1960. The estate of Minnie Vargas sold to the realtor, Ed Mergele in 1975. He sold to George Stumberg and Wallace Thomas. Mr. Thomas restored the house and remodeled it to be used as his office. It was used as office space for several years when it was converted into the restaurant now there. The legal instruments for obtaining the land on which this stands goes back to 1837 to the Maria Ignacia Leal Survey claim. It was acquired from the Republic of Texas in 1841. On the Plat Map of Boerne, made by John James in 1854, it is identified as Lot #30 and owned by August Steffel. In 1912, the Plat of the subdivision of Original Lots #30 and #31, in the town of Boerne, Kendall County, Texas, being part of the Original M.I. Leal Survey #180, was drawn by Frank Nowlin, surveyor.
The lot is located in the heart of the original town of Boerne, which was founded in 1849. The first person to own the property, Lot #30, after Survey #180 was divided into lots, was August Steffel, in 1854. Mr. Staffel arrived in Boerne in 1852 and his first home was a log shack with a thatched roof, only a few yards from the location of Lot #30. He operated a livery stable, stage stop and campsite along Theissen Street toward the Cibolo Creek. The family also owned a hotel, or rooming house, and a saloon. August Staffel was Boerne's first postmaster in 1856 and served for ten years. His wife, Bertha, was postmaster from 1870, when August died, until 1880. The post office was located in what is now called the Shumard Building at 334 South Main St. Also located there was the office for the Livery Stable. The family was said to have continued living in a house in back of the livery stable office for a time, then moved away and all trace was lost of the Staffel family. Bertha Staffel sold Lot #30 to Henry J. Graham in 1905.
Graham divided Lots 3-13 into the Graham Subdivision.

Source: Boerne Public Library files.

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