The Waterloo Compound are of some of the very oldest commercial buildings in Austin. Located where the preAustin 1835 settlement of Waterloo was established, Moonshine is steeped in the early history of the city. In 1852, a German settler named Henry F. Hofheintz built a log cabin in the northwest corner of the Waterloo Compound. Hofheintz hauled freight to and from Mexico and also sold goods from a spring wagon he drove around the village of Austin and into surrounding counties. Shortly after constructing the cabin, which was taken down in 1866, Hofheintz built a small building nearby to serve as a warehouse for his store of trade goods and as a corncrib for his mule team. This building later became known as the “Sunday House.” The Sunday House, now over 150 years old, earned its name because of a common arrangement between city and rural German settlers; on Saturdays, Hofheinz would empty his goods from the Sunday House and let rural families stay overnight, so that they could visit the markets and attend Sunday Church in Austin the next morning. There are 65 historic Sunday Houses in Fredericksburg and another 35 in the New Braunfels area, and while there used to be more than 30 in Austin, over the years they have been torn down one by one. Hofheinz’s Sunday House is now the last one standing in Austin. The cedar posts and limestone walls are original, as are the ceiling and the interior beams. The brick floor was added in the early 1900s. The Sunday House is now a popular space to hold a small private event at Moonshine, and certainly one of the most unique dining rooms in all of Austin. In 1854 Hofheinz purchased the Waterloo Compound (the land extending from Red River to Waller Creek) from the State of Texas for $112 and built a two story building of Austin “stack” limestone and yellow pine on the southwest corner. He used the large room on the ground floor as a dry goods store and the upper floor as his residence. The ground floor of the building is Moonshine’s main indoor dining area. Hofheinz’s daughter, Catherine Louise, married Adolph “Dutchy” Reissig in 1866. Adolph built, adjoining the store, a large room that became a domino parlor and a saloon. There is a large cellar below the saloon and it is said that there Dutchy made wine from Mustang grapes grown on the property. Today, Moonshine stores its extensive wine collection in the same cellar. In the late 1870s the Carriage House was built for the carriages of the two families, and today functions as Moonshine’s Carriage House Bar. The Sunday House and Carriage House remain the only true examples of their architectural style left in Austin. In 1880, Hofheintz died and the Reissig family purchased the store and property from the estate. The saloon operated until shortly after Prohibition ended, when a large door was cut through to the store. It becameone large dry goods store, which stayed in business until 1952, owned and operated by the Reissig family. The store had then been open for 98 continuous years.
Between 1952 and today, the building has been operated by a number of small businesses and has seen many careful restorations. Established in 2003, Moonshine is the second restaurant to occupy the space. The Hofheintz-Reissig Store, as it is officially known, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is an important part of Austin’s cultural history.
Tour Monica sat took a tour with The Real Ghosts Of around the Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill and talked about the many ghosts believed to be in the area in and around the building.
https://therealghostsof.libsyn.com/the-real-ghosts-of-moonshine-comfort-and-cocktails-part-2
