HEINRICH KREISCHE HOUSE AND BREWERY

McCoy Collaborative’s Nicky DeFreece Emery presented “Hold My Beer: A Team-Based Approach for Addressing the Complexity of Conditions at Monument Hill State Historic Site, Texas’ Oldest Brewery” at the 47th annual American Institute for Conservation (AIC) conference in Connecticut. McCoy Collaborative has been working with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department on the conservation of the Site and is currently involved in the reroofing of the house. Located in La Grange, the house and brewery are part of the Monument Hill State Historic Site. Built by stonemason and German immigrant Heinrich Kreische, the house is perched on a dramatically steep limestone bluff that overlooks the Colorado River. Kreische constructed the house and smokehouse for his family beginning in 1849, and began constructing a brewery in the late 1860s that grew to become the third largest in the state. Constructed with traditional German techniques such as fachwerk, coursed rubble stone construction, wood shake roofs, and limewashed plasters, the complex is open to the public and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The buildings, ruins of the brewery and natural landscape comprising this 40-acre site are facing structural, drainage, accessibility, and electrical issues, along with deterioration of architectural materials stemming from age, extreme and uncontrolled humidity, bulk water infiltration, and adverse natural site conditions. Thorough testing and analysis were conducted which revealed a site more complex than originally expected, with a host of challenging conditions. Future work is anticipated to include repairs and restoration of the Kreische House and Brewery site and improvements to site accessibility. For more on the American Institute for Conservation, go to: www.culturalheritage.org