| City of Boerne | |
|---|---|
| Main Street in Boerne, Texas ca 1890-1900 | |
| Location of Boerne, Texas | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| Counties | Kendall County |
| Settled | 1849 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-Manager |
| • City Council | Mayor Mike Schultz Jeff Haberstroh Nina Woolard J. Kuper Ron Cisneros Jacques DuBose |
| • City Manager | Ronald Bowman |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 10,471 |
| Website | www.ci.boerne.tx.us/ |
Boerne ( /ˈbɜrni/) is a city in the Hill Country of Texas in the United States. It is the county seat of Kendall County[1]. Boerne was named in honor of Ludwig Börne, a Jewish German author and publicist, and its population was 10,471 in the 2010 census. The city is noted for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case City of Boerne v. Flores.
Boerne is part of the San Antonio–New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Boerne is the home of the Guadalupe Valley Poetry Celebration, a regional poetry festival that benefits the Boerne Public Library.
Contents |
Boerne came into being as an off-shoot of the Texas Hill Country Free Thinker Latin Settlements, resulting from the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Those who came were Forty-Eighters, intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in Latin and who believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all.[2] They reveled in passionate conversations about literature, music and philosophy.[3] The Free Thinkers first settled Castell,[4] Bettina,[5] Leningen.[6] and Schoenburg in Llano County. These experimental communities were supported by the Adelsverein[7] for one year. The communities eventually failed due to lack of finances after the Adelsverein funding expired, and conflict of structure and authorities. Many of the pioneers from these communities moved to Sisterdale, Boerne and Comfort.[8]
In 1849 a group of Free Thinker German colonists from Bettina camped on the north side of Cibolo Creek, about a mile west of the site of present Boerne. They named their new community after Cicero's Tusculum home in ancient Rome. In 1852 John James and Gustav Theissen,[2] who helped settle Sisterdale, platted the townsite, re-named it in honor of German author Karl Ludwig Börne,[9][10] with the Anglicized spelling of Boerne. The town was not incorporated until 1909. August Staffell[11] was the original postmaster in 1856.
The 1870 limestone courthouse, second oldest in Texas, was designed by architects Philip Zoeller and J. F. Stendebach, and stands directly across the street from the current 1998 courthouse designed by architects Rehler Vaughn & Koone, Inc.[12]
Boerne's robust environment encouraged the health resort industry. Sisters of the Incarnate Word founded the St. Mary's Sanitarium in 1896 for pulmonary patients;[13] Dr. W.E. Wright contracted with the Veterans Administration in 1919 to provide care for World War I veterans suffering from lung ailments;[14] the William L. Sill Tuberculosis Resort operated northwest of Boerne;[15] and Mrs. Adolph (Emilie) Lex opened her home to recovering patients, eventually converting two rooms into operating rooms.[16]
Karl Degener organized the Boerne Gesang Verein (singing club) and the Boerne Village Band[17] in 1860. The family and descendants of Sisterdale resident Baron Ottmar von Behr have included three generations of directors of the Boerne Village Band, and four generations of musicians.[18] The band is billed as "Oldest Continuously Organized German Band in the World outside Germany", and in 1998 [17] the Federal Republic of Germany recognized the Boerne Village Band for its contribution to the German heritage in Texas and America.
Some of the early settlers in Boerne migrated from the collapsed Fisher-Miller Land Grant experimental colonies of the Darmstadt Society of Forty.
Boerne is located at (29.794445, -98.731483)[19], 30 miles (48 km) northwest of San Antonio.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.1 square miles (16 km2), of which, 5.8 square miles (15 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) of its (4.74%) is water.
Two of Texas' 7 show caves are located in Boerne, Cave Without a Name and Cascade Caverns [1]. They are both actively growing limestone solution caves.
As of the census[20] of 2000, there were 6,178 people, 2,292 households, and 1,613 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,061.1 people per square mile (409.9/km2). There were 2,466 housing units at an average density of 423.5 per square mile (163.6/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 94.76% White, 0.36% African American, 0.37% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 3.29% from other races, and 1.05% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.44% of the population.
There were 2,292 households out of which 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 25.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.10.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.0% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 84.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $42,009, and the median income for a family was $50,903. Males had a median income of $35,039 versus $25,773 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,251. About 6.5% of families and 9.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.5% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.
Boerne Independent School District has two high schools:
The original high school, Boerne High School, has served the Boerne community for the last 100 years. The colors for Boerne High School are purple and white, with gray or silver used as an accent color; the school mascot is the Greyhound. Boerne Middle School originally had blue and white as their colors with the mascot being the Pups, but they have adopted the same colors and mascot as the high school. In later years Boerne Middle School was divided into two middle schools; Boerne Middle School North and Boerne Middle School South. Boerne Middle School North feeds into BHS. Students living north of HW 46 attend BHS.
Boerne High School has been noted nationwide for its excellent Advanced Placement program, which has unusually high participation and success rates compared to similar schools around the United States. In the year 2007, eight B.H.S. students qualified in the National Merit Scholarship Program, with one receiving a scholarship.
Boerne High School has excelled in its athletic department, being named the best in the region recently by the San Antonio Express-News. The Boerne Greyhounds have won multiple state championships in varying sports over the past few years:
The new high school, Boerne Champion High School, recently opened for the class of 2008-2009. It shares the site with new Cibolo Creek Elementary. The mascot is the Chargers, the colors navy blue and white. It is named after former Boerne High School teacher and principal Samuel V. "Sam" Champion, who died on January 8, 2007 after a long battle with brain cancer. Boerne Middle School South feeds into BCHS. Students living south of HW 46 attend BCHS.
Boerne Champion High School, despite only being open three years, has also had success in its athletic department with state championships, including a national championship in cross country in 2009.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||