Spring Branch: Anhalt Hall

Cattle rustlers built Anhalt Hall, in a roundabout way. In October 1875, farmers around this Comal County settlement finally got tired of losing livestock. So they organized a stock-raising club to protect each other. Soon it had about 50 members and a new name: the Germania Farmer Verein. In 1879, they built a meeting hall. Then they started throwing parties.

Shortly after, in 1880, the first Maifest arrived, for members and families only. The Verein ordered six kegs of Boerne beer, six kegs from St. Louis, and twelve gallons of wine. That’s a farmers’ club with priorities. The settlement’s name fit, too. “Anhalt” means stopping place, and travelers between New Braunfels and Boerne stopped here.

Beams Soaked and Bent

In 1908, the Verein hired New Braunfels contractor Christian Herry. He built a 60-by-80-foot dance hall for $2,512.37. A local paper called it the largest hall in the county. Look up when you walk in. Builders reportedly soaked the roof beams to bend them into arches. Because of that, the ribs curve across about 60 feet, like the hull of an upside-down ship.

The rules came with the room. A hand-painted sign still warns dancers that the Verein prohibits “indecent uncommonly dancing.” Still, nobody seems sure what that means, which is probably the point. Meanwhile, the music kept evolving. The William Specht Spring Branch Band, a six-piece brass group, played some of the first dances.

Then came the country era. In 1978, George Strait and the Ace in the Hole Band played a Smithson Valley High School FFA dance here. Later, Jerry Jeff Walker, Gary P. Nunn, Johnny Rodriguez, and Asleep at the Wheel all took the stage. In 2018, Anhalt Hall joined the National Register of Historic Places.

The Verein still owns the hall and still throws Maifest and Oktoberfest every year. Read its full history on Wikipedia. Then compare it to Gruene Hall, its older Comal County cousin. Gruene draws the tourists, while Anhalt draws families whose great-grandparents danced on these boards. Come for Maifest, and you’ll dance beside them.

Featured photo: Willmannjk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0