Fort martin Scott After the Army: Braeutigam Gardens
After the Civil War, in 1870, Johann Wolfgang Braeutigam purchased the Fort Martin Scott site and settled his family onto the land and began farming and other mercantile activities.
All that remained of the fort was the stone guardhouse. All the other buildings were salvaged during the war and the materials utilized elsewhere in the area. Mr. Braeutigam converted the guardhouse into his home and covered the exterior with wood additions to the point it was unrecognizable as a military building. The original stone remained hidden until the 1980s.
He established Braeutigam Gardens, which included a saloon and beer garden, built on the Pinta Trail near the Old San Antonio Road. It was considered a lovely spot with a grape arbor, cedars, hackberries and other native trees to create the garden atmosphere.
It was such an inviting spot that the first Gillespie County Fair, the oldest, continuous county fair in Texas, was held at the gardens. What was the old parade field was smoothed out by dragging logs, and a horse track was created. County Fair horse racing is a Gillespie County tradition that continues today. Additionally, Fourth of July celebrations and the famous Easter Bonfires were also celebrated here.
In 1884, robbers shot and killed Mr. Braeutigam as he reached for his rifle to fend off the murderous thugs. The killing brought about the end of Braeutigam Gardens, but the family stayed on the site as a farm for several more generations. In 1959, the land was purchased by the City of Fredericksburg as part of the establishment of the new wastewater treatment plant.
The historical significance as the site of the old fort came to the attention of the community. After a few years, the Fredericksburg Heritage Society urged the city to improve the site, and the community began reconstruction of the fort. Archeological surveys located the foundations of many of the original fort structures, and the reconstruction of some of the buildings began.
The Braeutigam Farmhouse, though, remained untouched until the 1980s. When a young carpenter climbed into the attic, to everyone’s surprise, the old wooden beams and stone walls of the fort’s old guardhouse were “rediscovered.”
Carefully the farmhouse additions were removed and the 1848-constructed Guardhouse was returned to its original form. So as a US Army-constructed building, dating to 1848, this makes the Fort Martin Scott Guardhouse the oldest surviving US Army-constructed building in Texas.