Biry-Ahr Property

Castroville was founded by empresario Henri Castro in 1844, and by the mid-1840s many immigrants from the Alsatian region of Europe had settled there, recreating a distinctive Alsatian culture in the countryside of Medina County that largely remains intact. The Biry House, an excellent example of early Alsatian immigrant architecture, was built between 1847 and 1850 by Jean Jacques (Jacob) Biry, who was born in Oberentzen, Alsace, and immigrated to Texas in December 1846 at age 30. In 1847, Jacob and his business partner, Etienne (Stephen) Ahr, also from Alsace, purchased this lot, and deed records show that they bought several properties jointly. Jacob soon began constructing a home on the site. On June 12, 1849, he married Marianna Bilhartz, the sister of Stephen Ahr's wife, Anne Marie Bilhartz. The Birys raised their four boys and Marianna's four brothers in the house. Built room by room over several years of local semi-regular shaped limestone stacked with lime-based mortar, the house has asymmetric steep roofs, thick walls, small rooms, wide cypress planks or large flat flagstone floors, cedar shakes on the roof, two front rooms, a rear lean-to, and a loft reached by a wooden stairway. Its simple but distinctive form reflects a humble lifestyle, hardworking people, and a sense of tradition, and it enhances the heritage of Medina County and Castroville.

Castroville, Texas · United States