Locals Buy Historic Hall

A trio of Schulenburg businessmen purchased the historic Freyburg Hall in Southern Fayette County.

Cale Kobza, who grew up near the hall, along with brothers Chip and Colton Bubela of Schulenburg, announced last week that they bought the century- old country hall from the Pettit family of Schulenburg.The new owners plan to renovate the dancehall, which was built by the Sons of Hermann in 1912, with a reopening tentatively scheduled for sometime next year.

“We’re planning to let the good times roll once again at Freyburg Hall,” said Chip Bubela.

When asked why they decided to purchase the hall, Bubela responded, “To make our ancestors proud.”

“Cale’s family is from that area, and he’s been really passionate about saving the hall,” Bubela said. “My family had farmland in the area. So there’s a lot of family heritage for us in Freyburg.”

Bubela said the building needs some extensive renovations. The hall has not hosted regular events in many years.

“The first thing we want to do is get to where you can use it again,” Bubela said. “There’s a hole in the ceiling where the kitchen and bathrooms are at. We’re going to tear that out and pour a slab. We’ll probably put a commercial kitchen in there and some nice, air-conditioned bathrooms.”

Plans also call for renovations to the Biergarten and for the main building to be re-leveled. Bubela said he and his partners haven’t decided whether to air-condition the dancehall area. He said one option would be to refurbish the dancehall with airconditioning and insulation in a manner similar to the recentlyrefurbished parish hall in Praha. Another option would be to preserve the breezy old dancehall and supplement cooling with some large fans.

“We haven’t decided which way we want to go yet,” Bubela said.

Either way, the partners are planning a big reopening celebration for next year.

“It’s going to be big,” Bubela said. “We’re going to blow everybody’s socks off with the first event.”

Many years ago, the hall hosted an annual Mayfest and another regular event known as the Freyburg Hootenanny. Bubela said he and his partners hope to resurrect those events.

Bubela said he expects renovations to take about six months.

“We’ll get it going sometime in 2023,” he said.