Friedrich & Margaretha Hiller House

Friedrich and Margaretha Hiller House. . Friedrich and Margaretha (Beck) Hiller immigrated to Texas from Württemberg, Germany circa 1851. Friedrich was listed as one of the founders of Victoria's German Lutheran Church founded in December of that year. Hiller began purchasing land in the Victoria area in 1855. This modest frame home was constructed on a tract purchased in 1858, approximately one mile north of the original townsite of Victoria. The Hiller home is the oldest extant structure of the historic Spring Creek community, now a part of the City of Victoria., The original layout of the home featured two downstairs rooms with a center hall and stairwell, and in the half story above the lower rooms, a single family bedroom spanned the entire width of the house. The dining room and kitchen at the back of the house were added at a later time, but were present by the early 1900s. One of the Hillers' sons, Johann Michael, moved into the home after the deaths of his parents in 1880 and 1881, and the home became known as the "Mike Hiller House." The original house exhibits an extended hall and parlor floor plan, with single rooms flanking a central hallway and a full-length porch supported by square wood columns., According to 1865 tax records, Hiller had accumulated 198 acres of land in and around Victoria by that time. Much of the Hiller property on the north side of Victoria has been purchased by the city through the years. These transactions began circa 1935 and continued until 1998. Today, much of the original Hiller land is part of Riverside Park. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009.