Buen Retiro

Duane's take

The official marker tells the story, and here's my telling of it, this is Buen Retiro, right there in Travis County. Now, back in 1902, an Austin financier by the name of Louis Nicholas Goldbeck built himself a Colonial Revival mansion. Not a house, mind you.

A mansion. The kind of place that says its name out loud when you pull up to it, and that name is Buen Retiro. Good retreat.

And for a man of means in Austin at the turn of the century, that is exactly what it was. Goldbeck held onto it for six years. Then, in 1908, he sold it.

And here is where the story takes a turn. The Texas Association of Phi Gamma Delta came calling. Now, Phi Gamma Delta is a national fraternity, and it has a particular piece of Texas history attached to it: it was first chartered in Texas all the way back in 1856.

That is a long time to have roots in this state. The chapter that took up residence in Buen Retiro was the Tau Deuteron chapter, and from those halls came statesmen, cultural leaders, business leaders. The kind of men a university brags about later.

Of course, a property like that does not finance itself. The money to secure Buen Retiro came from many friends, as the marker puts it, with notable gifts coming from the family of university regent and alumnus H. J.

Lutcher Stark. When a regent's family writes a notable gift into a building's story, you know the place meant something beyond just a roof and four walls. That Colonial Revival mansion Louis Goldbeck built in 1902 is still standing, still serving, still carrying the weight of everything that happened inside it.

Some retreats, it turns out, don't stay retreats for long.

What the marker says

Colonial Revival mansion built 1902 by Austin financier Louis Nicholas Goldbeck. Sold 1908 to Texas Association of Phi Gamma Delta, national fraternity first chartered in Texas in 1856. Housing Tau Deuteron chapter, this has been campus residence of men who became statesmen and cultural and business leaders. Financing for property cam from many friends, with notable gifts from family of university regent and alumnus H. J. Lutcher Stark. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972