Peltzer House

221 Madison

Peltzer House is a Texas German Vernacular house built of caliche block and covered with plaster. The house has two separate front entry doors framed by the square front porch columns.

Unlike most of the older stone houses in the area, this one is made of caliche block, a softer, more porous stone than limestone. Baltazar Benner must have built the house soon after April 1870, when he paid Malvina A. Nelson $300 for the lot, because it appears as a complete structure on Koch’s 1873 pictorial map. In 1882, Mr. Benner sold the property to three sisters, Mrs. Barbara Peltzer, Mrs. Mary Winkle, and Miss Kate Enderle. Mrs. Pelzer is listed in the city directory as living here until 1916, and Miss Enderle until 1920. The house was probably rented most of the time until purchased by Janet Williams and Bill McDonald from Juan Juarez in 1988. The house sorely needed the complete overhaul they accomplished. The small two-story component of the completely rebuilt addition is so expertly designed by architect Bill McDonald that when viewed from the front elevation it is not visible. McDonald is well known for the punched copper luminaria-style light fixtures he crafted and used in his architectural designs.

Rudolfo Coperena bought the property in 1997, Bradley Barron in 2001, and Wesley Oliver in 2005.

The King William Area, A History and Guide to the Houses, Mary V. Burkholder and Jessie N.M. Simpson; published by the King William Association, 2017