The Rohrbach House is located northwest of Castroville, in Medina County Texas. Building at least a Log Cabin was a homestead requirement. And it appears that DOM Rohrbach did that and more. His original homestead has the quarry used to make his eventual 4-room home he built in about 1852.

It is likely the home was built a room at a time, giving a building an exact date when on or two rooms were built each year is difficult. Markings on the building stones show the progression of building. They were “read” by the stone mason Baltazar Espinosa. Logically the first room had a fireplace and a small front porch. A high pitch roofline was for the snow… that rarely occurred in Texas, but was the seasonal norm in Alcase. The vaulted area and a few boards made for a very flexible use of the whole home volume. The next room extended the first and was a larger room Larger stones as well. Confidence had grown that the homestead would work out to make such a large investment in time and materials. The last rooms were the southerly and included another fireplace.

Here is a virtual tour of the recent 2019-current restoration effort highlighting the architecture of a stone building.

When someone asks “Hey, when are you going to be done”, you have just spotted someone that has never done a historic restoration project. I usually reply that a better question would be “Hey, can you tell me about the surprises you found in your old house?”