Jewel of the Texas Hill Country (Fredericksburg slogan)

The city of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country (central Texas) is a popular tourist town. Fredericksburg’s Germanic heritage is evident in its architecture, and there are many bed and breakfasts, restaurants, bakeries, wineries, and antique stores in the city.
   
The slogan “Jewel of the Texas Hill Country” has been applied to Fredericksburg since at least 1987. Other Texas Hill Country cities also claim to be the “jewel,” but not as frequently as Fredericksburg.
 
     
Wikipedia: Fredericksburg, Texas
Fredericksburg is a city in Gillespie County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,911 at the 2000 census, and 10,432 in the 2005 census estimate. It is the county seat of Gillespie County. The community of Luckenbach, immortalized in country music, is near Fredericksburg.
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Tourism
The city has become a weekend destination for people in Central Texas, specifically those from Austin and San Antonio, who come for the bed and breakfasts, abundant hunting, fishing, antique stores, the German influence in the form of bakeries, restaurants, stores, and peaches. Fredericksburg and the surrounding area are home to over 300 accommodations that are better known as bed and breakfasts.
 
Fredericksburg is also home to a unique form of residential architecture called “Sunday Houses”. These houses were built by the early German settlers of Fredericksburg as weekend homes, since a large majority of the counties’ population lived in outlying rural areas. The settlers would use these homes while in town for the weekend; often to patronize local merchants and attend church services. The form of these houses often consisted of several rooms downstairs, with an upstairs sleeping loft that was accessed by an outside staircase.
 
Fredericksburg is located near the center of the wine industry in central Texas. The designated American Viticultural Areas of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country AVA and the much larger Texas Hill Country AVA both include Fredericksburg inside their boundaries. Fredericksburg is a common starting point or destination for tourists visiting wineries in the Texas Hill Country.
 
Because the town does not prohibit public consumption of alcohol, many people enjoy cold beer while strolling Main Street.
 
Wikipedia: Texas Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country is a region of Central Texas, USA, that features rolling, somewhat rugged, hills that consist primarily of limestone. The Hill Country terrain can be seen in San Antonio’s northern suburbs and Austin’s western suburbs. The region is the eastern portion of the Edwards Plateau bounded by the Balcones Fault on the east and the Llano Uplift to the west and north. The terrain is punctuated by a large number of limestone rocks and boulders and a thin layer of topsoil which makes the region prone to flash flooding.
 
Several cities were settled at the base of the Balcones Escarpment, including Austin, San Marcos, and New Braunfels, as a result of springs discharging water stored in the Edwards Aquifer.
   
Due to its karst topography, the area also features a number of caves, such as Inner Space Caverns and Natural Bridge Caverns. The deeper caverns of the area form several aquifers which serve as a source of drinking water for the residents of the area.
 
Several tributaries of the Colorado River (Texas)—including the Llano and Pedernales rivers, which cross the region west to east and join the Colorado as it cuts across the region to the southeast—drain a large portion of the Hill Country. The Guadalupe, San Antonio, Frio, and Nueces rivers originate in the Hill Country.
 
The area is also unique for its fusion of Spanish and Central European (German, Swiss, Austrian, Alsatian, and Czech) influences in food, beer, architecture, and music that form a distinctively “Texan” culture separate from the state’s Southern and Southwestern influences. For example, the accordion was popularized in Tejano music in the 19th Century due to cultural exposure to German settlers.
 
In recent years, the region has emerged as the center of the Texas wine industry. Three American Viticultural Areas are located in the areas: Texas Hill Country AVA, Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country AVA, and Bell Mountain AVA. 
 
The Texas Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country, what a place to live. Where the pace is a little slower and the air is clean. Many people have passed through here for the night and stayed. Because they lost their heart to the Hills.
 
The area is also unique for its fusion of Spanish and Central European (German, Swiss, Austrian, Alsatian and Czech) influences in food, beer, architecture, and music.
 
In recent years, the region has emerged as the center of the Texas wine industry.
 
Kerrville is known as the Heart of The Hills of the Texas Hill Country.
 
Fredericksburg is known as the Jewel of the Texas Hill Country.
 
Google Books
American Vernacular
Regional Influences in Architecture and Interior Design:
by Jim Kemp
New York, NY: Viking Press
1987
Pg. 185:
The jewel of the Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg is graced with tidy stone houses that vividly illustrate the German tradition of building with masonry as well as the regional tradition of utilizing the materials at hand, in this case stone.
     
AAPM 40th Annual Meeting - August 1998
Wednesday, August 12th  
FREDERICKSBURG: JEWEL OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Advance Registration - $39 per person On-Site Registration - $42 per person
Fredericksburg is a charming German community north of San Antonio in the beautiful rolling hills of Texas. Enjoy your continental breakfast while you absorb the beautiful drive. Your first stop will be the Fredericksburg Herb Farm. This 1880’s farmhouse, turned apothecary, has herbal beauty potions, herbal condiments, a candle shop and Bed and Breakfast, all on four acres of herbal paradise. One lucky guest will win an etched bottle of herbed vinegar. Next travel to the heart of this charming area – Downtown Main Street. Shop the areas most interesting shops full of antiques, local crafts & furniture – even a micro brewery. You will be given a map of Main Street and be able to “dine on your own” in one of 10 charming restaurants. For the non-shoppers, visit the Steamboat Hotel Structure, originally built in 1852, home to the Admiral Chester Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War. Admiral Nimitz, the last U.S. five star Admiral, was a native son of Fredericksburg. The lush Japanese Garden of Peace behind the hotel is a gift from the people of Japan. Also view the History Walk of the Pacific War. As you return to San Antonio, you will now understand the town’s reputation for “gemuethlichkeit”, a warmth and friendliness intertwined in 150 years of the town’s history.
 
STS News - November/December 1998
Fredericksburg: Jewel of the Texas Hill Country
The first stop in the all-day tour is at the Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park Visitor Center where a trolley tour will stop at the first school LBJ attended, a reconstruction of his birthplace, and the Johnson family cemetery. This is followed by an exterior tour of the LBJ home, the show barns, the ranch lands and the registered Hereford cattle.
 
The next stop is the German community of Fredericksburg, where you’ll enjoy lunch and the quaint shops that abound. There are also two museums in town, the Pioneer Museum, showing the history of the area, and the Steamboat Hotel Structure built by Admiral Nimitz, the last of the US five-star admirals. 
 
Fredericksburg Realty
Fredericksburg the Envied Jewel of the Texas Hill Country
January 24, 2008
— Rhonda Ramsey @ 1:04 am
Have you ever dreamed of living in an environment with an old-world impression twisted with trendy charm…come to the Texas Hill Country?  A place where the sky is bluer than blue on a clear day, you can actually see to count the millions of big bright stars on a clear hill country night, you can gulp in crisp fresh clean hill country air,  you can enjoy the tone of the hill country life, a place where you see friendly and remember what the word actually represents, and where secure does not stand for locked-up, the place where the daily pace in life has been reinvented from bygone days, come to Fredericksburg and experience the envied jewel of the Texas Hill Country and make your dream come true.