Gerhardt Ihnken, of Grosswarm, Javerland, Germany, met his wife Mary Pichot, of France, on the ship that brought them to Texas in 1846. She spoke no German and he spoke no French. They had 11 children together.

Ihnken owned a sawmill where the home’s cypress dove-tail beams were milled. He was known for bringing the first binder and reaper to Castroville

The Ihnken House is a two-story, side-gabled home with a centered, hipped roof protecting a second-story square balcony. The balcony sits on the roof of the first floor’s shed porch that spans across the entire front facade. Every roof plane is fixed with a metal standing seam roof.

The primary volume is symmetrical with a centered front door and two rectangular double-hung windows on either side. The front door is framed by sidelites and a transom window. All of the windows boast functional shutters.

The second-story balcony also features lattice detailing and its door is framed like the front door with transom and sidelights. On the balcony’s side walls are stained wooden shingles and siding.

The northeast facade hosts two windows in its gable and supports a chimney that peeks through the gabled roof’s ridge. From this facade, an addition to the home has a horizontal, rectangular window on its right side. It is gabled and also has an attached garage emerging from the northeast facade.

The primary volume’s southwest facade similarly boasts two windows in its gable and a chimney on the ridge above. Its first floor has three windows that are not centered. Like the front facade, the windows on the side elevations have functional shutters and do not significantly shrink in size in the gables.

The scale of this home is notable among its Alsatian counterparts in that it uniquely features a defining balcony. Alterations noted in Garden Club publications include a porch foundation that was replaced with concrete. The house is a prime example of the classic stone structural system. Its southwest facade stands above a tiled patio.

The property features an iron fence. Many large trees grace the property and frame the structure, which has a Castroville Conservation Society marker.