ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
Located on 1½ acres on Marshall Lane in the Old Enfield neighborhood, the home was originally built in 1917 facing Windsor Road. The house was extensively remodeled in 1924 in Jacobean Revival style, a subtype sometimes referred to as Stockbroker’s Tudor, based on more formal English building traditions of Late Medieval times in which the walls of the characteristic front-facing gables are projected above the roof behind. A slight variation in the color of the bricks indicates the addition of the solarium. The timber framework is partially visible from the exterior, with stucco at the upper level; the upper and lower levels of the dominant front bay are brick. The entry features a semi-hexagonal hood supported by two brackets that are more ornate than those of the original Windsor-facing entry. A narrow, two-part arched window to the right of the entry features leaded, stained glass panes with a shield motif. The floor plan is L-shaped, with a connecting wall and hallway to the garage annex added by the Bells.
Three brick chimneys are visible – one to the left of the front entry, one between the living room and solarium, and one near the rear/kitchen door (no longer in use). A semi-hexagonal bay window with diamond-shaped, leaded lights was added in 1925. The projecting bay on the second level of the north façade, with similar windows, is also a likely 1925 addition. Its supporting brackets, like those of the newer front entry, are curved, while the 1917 brackets are simple and straightforward. The timber detail below this bay window, with quatrefoil design, differs from that of the rest of the house. Two large, beautiful old oak trees shade the north lawn, and a four-foot-high curving stone wall, likely added in 1925 or somewhat later, borders the
property along Windsor Road and Marshall Lane. The property includes one of the city’s first residential pools, ranging from four to eleven feet in depth.
Visitors enter the front door via an exquisite, decorative wrought iron screen made by Fortunat Weigl, whose true love was ornamental ironwork. Weigl also made the railings, gates and other ironwork on the property. The unusual interior of the house, with its Peter Mansbendel carvings, deserves special mention.
Interior
The front door, fronted by a Weigl screen featuring a heron, leads into a large entry hall and library, both with original hardwood floors, dark mahogany paneling, and elaborate carvings by Peter Mansbendel. A hand-carved staircase, also the work of Mansbendel, leads to the second floor. It is not certain who commissioned the Mansbendel carvings and Weigl ironwork, but it is believed to have been Marsh. A Mansbendel-carved mantel and fireplace surround is featured in the library, depicting a similar rose detail to that carved by Mansbendel for the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas (built in 1925 by a cotton mogul). A series of shields is carved in the cornice molding in the library. The original Windsor-facing front door has four panes of beveled glass in the door. Interior double doors with multiple beveled glass panes are in the library.
Beyond these rooms lie a half-bath, a dining room with paneled walls and a paneled plaster ceiling, and a kitchen with a hexagonal breakfast nook that originally had a fountain that was 4.5 feet deep. (The Tuckers removed the non-working fountain from the breakfast nook because of the danger to their young children. The original tile in the breakfast nook area was removed at the same time and replaced with travertine tile.) The kitchen area originally had a woodburning stove or heater near the kitchen door, where a chimney remains. The period chandelier in the dining room is from the Tuckers.
The living room is to the right (south) of the entry and features leaded glass windows with diamond-shaped panes on the front façade. All of the wood floors are original, including tiger oak downstairs and 12 and 14-foot East Texas longleaf pine upstairs.The solarium, west of the living room, originally an outdoor sitting area with a double-sided fireplace, was enclosed by the Marsh family and was their favorite room; the Marsh family liked to sit here in the summer with the windows open and in winter beside a roaring fire in the fireplace. The doors from the living room to the solarium are original.
Not including the gate in the arch of the wall leading to the garage, which was added by the Bells.
Mrs. Bell recalled that there was once a carved owl on the top of the newel post. Since it could not be found, she replaced it with the figure of a conquistador.
Mansbendel and Kreisle worked together on a 1925 Tudor home, the Paul Simms House in Aldridge Park (with similar shield motif in front stained-glass windows), and Mansbendel was working on his own home in 1925 (which has a staircase with similarities to this one). The original Windsor entry has a simple, uncarved stairwell, indicating that the 1917/18 house trim was not elaborate. One might thus deduce that the Mansbendel carvings in the library and entry hall stairwell were added by Marsh during the 1924 Tudor remodel, when the entry was moved to face Marshall Lane.
Young, Ione, “The Cruseman-Marsh-Bell House,” April 28, 1985, Heritage Society Austin. Based on an interview and tour of the home with Beverly Bell on April 26, 1995. and windows have the same, diamond-shaped panes. The original tile floors in the solarium could be Italian but are assumed to be Mexican saltillo tiles.
The Bells screened in the original patio porch off the living room; screened porches were popular for sleeping before air conditioning.
The second floor includes 6 bedrooms and 4½ baths, a sitting room and game room. There is an arched opening with glass doors between one bedroom and the sitting room. The hardware in the master closet, which allow racks of clothing to slide our, is original. The home includes four fireplaces and the original outdoor fountain. Fortunate Weigl created the interior sconces (exterior sconces are recent), front door screen, railings, gates and other ironwork for the interior and exterior.
Modifications
After water damage from an upstairs bathroom caused part of the dining room ceiling to crumble and fall in large chunks, the Bells had the ceiling duplicated in plaster of a lighter weight.
A separate two-car garage with attached servant quarters/apartment is connected by an arched brick walkway added by the Bells. The Bells converted the space above the garage into a gym for their four sons. It was later converted into offices for lawyer Paul Parsons and is now a game room with exposed beams, trusses and a loft.
The Tuckers replaced two exterior, wood frame windows due to water damage. Double pane glass was used in the replacements. The Tuckers also replaced all plumbing and wiring in the house, and restored or/or replaced all piers and beams. The Tuckers added tile in the bowl of the outdoor fountain; the fountain’s structure and surrounding tile is original.
HISTORY OF THE LAND & THE PEASE ESTATE
In early 1838, the Fayette County Board of Land Commissioners issued a head right certificate for one league of land to George W. Spear, who had emigrated to Texas with his family in 1835. Spear died in 1839. The Spear Survey, 25 labors west and north of the city’s central business district, was sold to C.S. Parish in 1841. Parish sold the land to George M. Martin for $100 cash in 1846, and it was resold seven months later for $150 to James B. Shaw, State Comptroller under Governor Pease.
In 1853 Shaw hired master builder Abner Cook to build the Greek Revival style home known as Woodlawn, which he sold to Governor Elisha Marshall Pease (1812-1883) and his wife Lucadia Niles Pease (1813-1905) for $15,000 in 1859.
Governor Pease was instrumental in establishing public education and persuaded the legislature to appropriate land for the Austin State Hospital, the Texas School for the Deaf, and the Texas School for the Blind. He also supervised the completion of the Governor’s Mansion; the Peases were the first to live there.
After the Pease family moved to Woodlawn, their home became a social and cultural center. Their eldest daughter Carrie Augusta Pease married George Graham (1847-1897) there in 1875; the young couple lived with the Peases for a few years and introduced grandchildren to the gardens. When Carrie died in childbirth in 1882 (their youngest daughter Anne had died in 1862), Lucadia, together with her daughter Julia Pease (1853-1918), assumed care of Carrie’s three children, including the newborn, at Woodlawn. Julia, a Vassar-educated woman interested in the arts and philanthropy, took over the family estate after her father died in 1883.
The three children – Marshall Pease Graham (1875-1910), Richard Niles Graham (1881-1959) and Carrie Margaret Graham (1882-1961) – had two grandfathers who were prominent in early Texas history. Their paternal grandfather, physician Beriah Graham (1804-1879), moved from North Carolina to Texas in 1846. Governor Sam Houston appointed Beriah as superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum (later Austin State Hospital) in 1859, and Governor Edmund Davis appointed him as State Treasurer in 1872.
The Pease estate, originally around 3,000 acres, extended from what is now West 12th Street on the south to West 24th Street on the north, and from Shoal Creek on the east to the Colorado River on the west, remained in the family until 1916, when the heirs of the estate—including Julia Pease, her sister’s two remaining children (Niles and Carrie Margaret Graham) together with Margaret’s husband Paul Crusemann—subdivided the property and formally announced the formation of Enfield Realty and Home Building Company with their first cousin, Walter Murray Graham (1879-1957), serving as president of the company.
After Julia Pease’s death in 1918, the estate passed to Niles Graham and the Crusemanns. Woodlawn, the four-acre antebellum home, remains at the heart of the neighborhood at the intersection of Niles and Pease Roads. Governor Pease donated 22 acres along Shoal Creek, now Pease Park, to the City of Austin in 1875.
Niles, who attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, returned to Austin to work for Crawford & Byrne, a cotton company, and became active in business, civic and social life. In the 1920s he was the secretary of the Infield Petroleum Company, which had offices in Austin and Brownwood. Niles and his cousin Murray were partners in several businesses. Murray was the son of James Walter Graham (1854-1931), who was a brother to Niles’ and Margaret’s father. Murray married Helen Gault Hood in 1910. Niles married Anita Laura Goeth (1889-1953) in 1910; they lived at Woodlawn from 1911-1913 and from 1928-1938 with their three children. Anita Laura’s father, Adolph C. Goeth, and her grandfather, Walter Tips, both headed prominent early Austin families. Governor and Mrs. Allan Shivers purchased Woodlawn from the family in 1956.
Enfield Neighborhood
The original Pease Estate was around 3,000 acres. On a bluff overlooking Shoal Creek, Pease Park and the downtown district, the Enfield neighborhood was designed to accommodate large, beautifully appointed homes in a rural setting. Many of the homes were built by Enfield Home Building and Realty.
Austin native Hugo Kuehne, founder of the University of Texas School of Architecture and its architectural library in 1910, was called upon to design a plan for Enfield that would preserve the unique country-like charm, topography, and natural beauty of the wooded area while incorporating modern conveniences such as paved streets, concrete sidewalks, gas, electricity and water.
One hundred fourteen homes were built in the first eight years. Between 1924 and 1940, Westfield (1925), Tarry-Town (1934), and Westenfield (1932) opened additional tracts of the estate for development. Thanks to the Enfield Home Building and Realty Company, the neighborhoods had a swimming pool, a riding club, landscaped parks, a paper called “Westenfield Screech,” and in 1940 a shopping center. Enfield was one of the first suburbs to
The Greek Revival Beriah Graham House survives on 26th and Salado Streets in Austin.
Graham and Pease family files, and Enfield Realty Company file, Austin History enter.Kuehne left the University and established his private practice the same year he began work on
depend on the automobile for transportation, but Niles Graham was convinced the addition would not prosper without public transportation and agreed in 1926 to subsidize a bus line to serve Enfield if the line failed to make a profit.
The Pease-Graham family’s contribution to the development of Austin was a very important one, as the city had been lagging in economic development and population growth since the dream of turning the city into a manufacturing center had collapsed with the Colorado River dam in 1900. Austin continued to serve as the government and educational center, but it was not until 1928 that the city began to provide such infrastructure as paved streets, sewers, sidewalks, and parks with playgrounds and swimming pools.
Thus the Enfield development furthered the idea of Austin as a beautiful place to live, touting restrictive covenants that prevented the sale of alcohol, construction of apartments, or occupancy by those of African descent. Dwellings were required to have a 30-foot setback from the street. A minimum of $3,500 for a one-story or $7,500 for a two-story home was required. Expert craftsmanship was characteristic of the development.
Clearing and design layout for Enfield A was begun in 1915, with Kuehne serving as the landscape architect. Enfield Road bisected the addition, which began just west of Shoal Creek and ended just west of Lorrain Street, with Windsor Road and Parkway at the north edge, and 12th and 14th Streets as the south boundary. Enfield took its name from Enfield, Connecticut, the birthplace and home of Governor Pease before his move to Texas, and its streets were named for Connecticut towns: Windsor, where his wife was born; Hartford, the state’s capital; Poquonock, where Lucadia’s family lived, and others. Niles Road was named in honor of Lucadia Niles Pease; Lorrain Street took its name from Governor Pease’s father, Lorrain Thompson Pease. Other streets named for family members include Marshall, Murray and Pease.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
The first lots in the Enfield suburb went on sale in September of 1916. It is thought that this home may have been the first home in the suburb. It was built by Carrie Margaret Graham, granddaughter of Governor Pease, and Paul Conrad Crusemann, a German emigrant who owned a successful cotton business in Fort Worth. The couple had married in 1903 and had one child, Paul Jr. The family moved several times between Germany and the U.S. before settling in Austin in 1916. Margaret, a sister of Niles Graham, then became a silent partner and co-developer in the Enfield Realty Company. Her husband served as the firm’s secretary.
Initially, slow sales frustrated the developers. Thus, in addition to advertisements and auctions, the heirs of the Pease estate lured new homeowners to Enfield by building and decorating a home for one of the family members, who moved on to another lot after a few years. Niles Graham and his wife, Anita Laura Goeth, lived in several Enfield homes, including one on
Kuehne left the University and established his private practice the same year he began work on Enfield.
Enfield, Connecticut, was first settled by Pease’s direct ancestors on the banks of the Connecticut River. Windsor Road was given its name by Governor Pease when he made his home at Woodlawn.
Sources include: Farrell, Mary D. & Elizabeth Silverthorne. First Ladies of Texas, the first one hundred years 1836-1936, A History. Stillhouse Hollow Publishers, Inc. Belton, Texas. 1976.Austin History Center: Graham and Pease family files, and Enfield Realty Company file.
the southwest corner of Enfield and Lorrain (1920-22), before returning to Woodlawn. Enfield Realty’s president, Murray Graham, lived at 15 Enfield Road in 1920, at Windsor Road and Marshall Lane in 1922, and on the southwest corner of Westlin (as West Lynn was then known) and Windsor Road in 1924. Enfield Realty & Home Building Company built a home for Murray’s sister Belmont Graham and her husband Florian King at 1500 Lorrain in 1922; the Kings sold the home a year later. Belmont and Murray’s father, James Walter Graham (1854-1931), a druggist, lived on the north side of Enfield Road just west of Lorraine Street by 1922.
The Crusemann-Marsh House is a perfect example of this sales technique. In 1917 the Crusemanns (or Enfield Realty & Home Building Company) built this home on the southeast corner of Windsor Road and Marshall Lane, facing Windsor Road, as a smaller, two-story traditional house with three upstairs bedrooms, an entrance hall, library, kitchen and dining room. The original house was less than half of its present size.
No records indicate when the Mansbendel and Weigl works were completed, or who commissioned them, but it is probable that Marsh was responsible. The property includes one of the first residential swimming pools in the city, but it is not certain when the pool was built, or whether by the Crusemanns, Clarks or Marshes. The pool is made of real cement, and the rock wall surrounding it is original. When in use, the pool could originally be drained once a week by an outlet that forced the water down the hill to Shoal Creek in Pease Park; the Bells installed a filter system and proper drain.
The property passed from the Pease-Graham heirs (R. Niles Graham, Margaret Graham & Paul Crusemann) to Pearl and Charles Edgar Clark in June and August of 1918. The Crusemann home was located on Lot 11, which sold for $11,000, while Lot 10 sold for only $1,000 in 1918, and for $2,500 in 1923 when it passed briefly to L.J. Tankersly. C.E. Clark was a partner with Leigh Ellis & Company, cotton exporters. Ellis lived one house north of Clark on Windsor.
In March of 1924, Charles Marsh, co-owner and publisher of The Austin American Statesman, and his wife Leona purchased both lots, paying $12,500 for Lot 11 and $2,500 for Lot 10. The home was more than doubled in size when Marsh desired an English Tudor country house. During this post-war era, many new houses reflected continental architectural influences. The remodeling of the Crusemann house was so extensive that what resulted was almost an entirely new structure in the Jacobethan Revival style, known less reverently as Stockbrokers Tudor. It was decided that the front entrance of the house would face Marshall Lane rather than Windsor Road; Weigl created the screen on this door and Mansbendel carved two roses in the doorframe. The Marshes added a living room, solarium, two bedrooms, a screened porch, and the garage and servants’ quarters. Seventy-two leaded diamond panes were put in the new windows of the added rooms.Peter Mansbendel, a close friend of Niles Graham, and his apprentice Fortunat Weigl did much of the finish work in the Enfield Addition. It is believed that the Marshes utilized Mansbendel and Weigl extensively in their remodeling. The Marshes also added three fireplaces and two fountains, one outside and one in the breakfast nook. The Marshes moved into the house in 1925 with their three children (Amorette, John E. and Charles E. Jr.) and remained there until around 1945. The 1930 census indicates that Leona’s mother, Susan Johns, and three servants also lived in the home, which was valued at $50,000
Sources include: Young, Ione, “The Cruseman-Marsh-Bell House,” April 28, 1985, Heritage Society Austin. Based on an interview and tour of the home with Beverly Bell on April 26, 1995.
Kuehne left the University and established his private practice the same year he began work on Enfield.
Enfield, Connecticut, was first settled by Pease’s direct ancestors on the banks of the Connecticut River. Windsor Road was given its name by Governor Pease when he made his home at Woodlawn.
The Greek Revival Beriah Graham House survives on 26th and Salado Streets in Austin.
Graham and Pease family files, and Enfield Realty Company file, Austin History Center.
Not including the gate in the arch of the wall leading to the garage, which was added by the Bells.
Mrs. Bell recalled that there was once a carved owl on the top of the newel post. Since it could not be found, she replaced it with the figure of a conquistador.
Mansbendel and Kreisle worked together on a 1925 Tudor home, the Paul Simms House in Aldridge Park (with similar shield motif in front stained-glass windows), and Mansbendel was working on his own home in 1925 (which has a staircase with similarities to this one). The original Windsor entry has a simple, uncarved stairwell, indicating that the 1917/18 house trim was not elaborate. One might thus deduce that the Mansbendel carvings in the library and entry hall stairwell were added by Marsh during the 1924 Tudor remodel, when the entry was moved to face Marshall Lane.
Young, Ione, “The Cruseman-Marsh-Bell House,” April 28, 1985, Heritage Society Austin. Based on an interview and tour of the home with Beverly Bell on April 26, 1995.
Sconces at front door are not original.
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