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The Farmhouse, the original building on the site, along with the windmill and hand-dug well, sits across the landscaped front lawn from the Faust House. In the 1850's, Wilhelm Eichenroht, an early settler from Germany, built the house for his family. The Farmhouse is constructed in a traditional German style known as "fachwerk" which was characteristic of the colonial German homes. This method of construction used a frame of heavy timbers with diagonal bracing members at the corners and at the doors and other openings. The braced framing style belongs to the earliest wood-building traditions of Europe. After the frame was built, the spaces between the timbers were filled in with stone, or, as in the case of The Farmhouse, sun-dried adobe style bricks. The walls were frequently given a coating of lime plaster, which through the years was renewed so often that in many cases the frame was no longer visible.
The Farmhouse was occupied as late as 1940 and was used more recently by Edwin Hanz as a barn to house livestock and to store feed. The Miles family undertook a project of immense proportions when they set out to "fix it up." They meticulously restored as much of the original structure as possible, inside and out, and have decorated the five units and the small grain storage barn (The Cabin) with country antiques including four-poster beds and mirrored bureaus. The Farmhouse is a genuine piece of Texas heritage and colonial history that leaves a lasting impression of a bygone era on visitors.
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