3/10/2024 0 Comments Caffe vittoria cigar barRestoration of the Huebner-Onion Homestead In 2008, the Homestead was added to the National Register of Historical Places. In 2001, the Leon Valley Historical Society was gifted the Homestead by the InnTown Suites and the city then purchased the remaining 36 acres around the property. The hotel chain planned to bulldoze the Homestead and were literally feet from demolishing the building when community members presented a petition to save it. The Homestead was then further threatened when an InnTown Suites purchased the land and built a hotel just adjacent to the main home. The Homestead that once held the pride and joy of a hard-working immigrant and his family was left dilapidated. A fire destroyed much of the home’s interior and a separate fire was started on the barn though it was extinguished quickly by the Leon Valley Fire Department. The property was subjected to the elements of nature as well as vandals, gang activity, satanic rituals, and arson. Harriet remained in the home until she passed away in 1983.Īfter Harriet’s death, the Huebner-Onion Homestead was abandoned. In 1954, Judge Onion passed away and with his death, it was also said that the hauntings of Joseph Huebner came to an end. They ran downstairs to find their cabinet perfectly intact and the dishes untouched. In one such story, they heard the sound of their China cabinet falling and dishes breaking. Harriet shared many stories of the home’s strange and unexplained noises that they believed were caused by Joseph Huebner’s ghost. At that time, Harriet had a dining room, kitchen and mud-room added to the home. Originally, Judge Onion and his wife, Harriet, purchased the property as their ranch home, but soon after they decided to make it their permanent residence where they could raise their 5 year old twin sons on the land. Onion from purchasing the Homestead in 1930. Stories of the ghost of Joseph Huebner roaming the property circulated through the community. Many families came and went in the Huebner home. Joseph’s son, Frank, decided to sell the Homestead in 1912, leaving the memories of his childhood, along with the gravesite of his father, behind. Joseph was buried under the shade of an oak tree on the pasture he so loved.Īfter Joseph’s death, business began dwindling at the Homestead. Rumors flew about the cause of his death with many suspecting he mistakenly drank kerosene instead of whiskey. Business was fairing well for the Huebners until one day, Joseph’s body was found out on the pasture. The Huebner’s homestead served not only as a horse and mule change-out station for passing stagecoaches, but they also provided lodging and meals for travelers. In 1882, the Huebners added a second story to their family home, along with a staircase, wooden porch, and balcony. Joseph became well-known for providing care for horses and earned the nickname Doc Huebner in the community. They were also able to offer blacksmith services, such as horseshoe making and repair, to stagecoach travelers heading to and from San Antonio. Photo provided by the Leon Valley Historical Society They acquired more acreage and Joseph and his son, Frank, built a barn of wood and stone, etched with their names, which became the cornerstone of their successful business breeding and selling horses, mule and cattle. By 1862, the Huebners built a permanent 20′ x 33′ one-story home and turned the original 12’x12′ limestone building into their cook house. Huebner, was a successful jeweler and blacksmith who purchased the 200 acres of country land with the dream of one day establishing a stagecoach stop along the well-traveled road to San Antonio. Just off the gravel road was an open pasture and a small 12’x12′ hand-built home made of creek mud and limestone owned by a 29 year old Austrian immigrant, named Joseph Huebner, his wife, Caroline, and their two young children. The sound of cars rushing down the six-lane Bandera Road was replaced with birds chirping, a trickling of water through a lazy creek, and the sound of hoofs pulling stagecoaches down a small winding gravel road. The story of the Huebner-Onion homestead began in 1858. Located off the very busy Bandera Road, it’s hard to imagine, amidst the roaring sound of cars, that the old and uninhabited dwelling was once the last stagecoach stop before reaching San Antonio. Perhaps one of the city’s most well-known treasures is the Huebner-Onion Homestead, one of the oldest and rarest homestead clusters of frontier-era America. Though it’s small in size, Leon Valley holds remnants of the area’s history that date back well over 150 years. Ten miles northwest of downtown San Antonio, TX is a small city known as Leon Valley.
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