Perhaps you’ve seen the windmill and the covered wagon alongside Highway 290 five miles east of Fredericksburg. Perhaps you’ve noticed the cluster of unique, rustic buildings. But if you are like thousands of other motorists that take this main road to Fredericksburg, you may never have stopped to explore the artistic little settlement of Rocky Hill.

Rocky Hill was little more than a scattering of ranches in eastern Gillespie County at the turn of the twentieth century, but a small rock schoolhouse was built in 1902, and provided a sort of an anchor for the small community. That schoolhouse now anchors an eclectic group of businesses; there are two art galleries, an art school, an artist’s studio, a four-star restaurant, a wine tasting room, two bed-and-breakfasts and an accounting office. The surrounding fields offer a pastoral tranquility to the setting, interrupted only occasionally by playful paint horses. The striking “coffee mill” building which houses the wine tasting room, the log cabins and the three century-old, hand-dug wells all add to the experience; you’ll also meet some very interesting people.

Searching for a better life for their family, artist Barry Bradley and wife Anne, along with their two young children, arrived in the Fredericksburg area from Houston in 1999. An accomplished wood worker since his college days in Illinois, Barry quickly became enchanted with the native woods of the Texas Hill Country and began creating fine art furnishings and sculpture from mesquite, cypress, cedar and pecan. In addition, Barry has been an accomplished boat builder for more than 22 years, and has enjoyed restoration of old wooden boats such as the sporty Yellow Jacket, Cris Crafts and Old Town canoes.

Seeking an appropriate venue to display his creations (boats, furniture, mantles, lamps, sculpture, etc), Anne opened a gallery at Rocky Hill in 2005. Personally limited by a tight budget and family responsibilities, A ...

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