By Jim Mikula, President/CEO
Last week, business representatives from Bardstown, Kentucky visited Fredericksburg to learn about commerce on our historic Main Street. Founded in 1780, Bardstown is one of the oldest towns in Kentucky, and it is widely known as the Bourbon Capital of the world.
Our guests walked Main Street to experience our retail stores, tasting rooms and other establishments. They also ventured out to the east side of Gillespie County and visited a few wineries to learn about their vineyard operations and how effective the Main Street tasting rooms were to their business model.
The group had several observations that made them envious of our town. First, they greatly appreciated our wide main thoroughfares - Main, Austin and San Antonio Streets. Another observation was the absence of residences on Main Street in the primary, commercial blocks. They explained that Bardstown’s streets followed the style of streets built before and after the revolutionary war in the eastern United States. In other words, their central Main Street is narrow and has residences on it. While Fredericksburg did originally have residential homes on Main Street, there are no longer any existing today at street level. A few of residential structures have survived - such as the home where Admiral Nimitz was born – but they are now businesses.
Listening to our visitors talk about Fredericksburg, I began to see our town through their eyes, and my appreciation grew for the founders who planned the streets. John Meusebach had a vision for how the town would be laid out, beginning with Markplatz at the center. He also hired Herman Wilke, a surveyor, to design the street plan.
In 1846, Hermann Wilke was tasked with surveying and mapping out the new German settlement of Fredericksburg. He designed the town's layout based on the traditional style of German villages along the Rhine River, from where many of the colonists had originated. Key features of Wilke's plan included:
- One long, wide main street that roughly paralleled Town Creek
- A grid pattern of streets
- Individual town lots for settlers
- Ten-acre farmland plots allocated to each settler near the town
Herr Wilke completed his initial work assignment in time to accommodate the first wagon train of 120 settlers that arrived in Fredericksburg on May 8, 1846. While I assume he continued surveying after May 8, I am impressed by having the street grid laid out and town lots identified for the first settler’s arrival. Having developed raw land into resorts using modern equipment, LIDAR and software, I doubt any team I led could have accomplished what Herr Wilke did. Well, I suppose he did not have to file a permit or go through the civil processes in place today…I’ll let y’all know if anyone from city staff, P&Z or City Council comments on my remark! 😊
Fast forward to 1991: after many years of Markplatz being used for purposes other than what John Meusebach intended; the Market Square Redevelopment Commission was created. This group worked to restore Markplatz to our town founder’s original intention. One of the reasons Fredericksburg is such a magnet is the preservation of valuable heritage that keeps us unique. So, we can look to both the past – Meusebach and Wilke who, literally, laid the groundwork – and to modern leaders such as the Commission to keep us on a sustaining path.
Danke schön Herr Wilke! We do stand on the shoulders of giants in our little community.
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