Carrington-Covert House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Back in 1852, a man named Leonidas D. Carrington and his wife Martha Hill Carrington made the journey from Mississippi to Austin.

Leonidas had been born in 1816, Martha in 1824, and together they were planting roots in a young, ambitious city. Leonidas had an eye for land, and he moved fast. On September 15th, 1853, he bought an entire city block from James M.W.

Hall, an Austin hotelman. Ten days later, he had a mercantile store open on Congress Avenue. Ten days.

The man did not waste a morning. Then, in 1856, Carrington hired a local architect-contractor by the name of John Brandon to build something worthy of that block. What Brandon put up was a vernacular Greek Revival home, constructed of rough limestone ashlar.

Spring of 1857, the house stood finished. Solid. The kind of place that says its owner intends to stay.

But Martha Hill Carrington had been born in 1824, and she did not live to see many years in that house. The marker gives her dates as 1824 to 1859. Leonidas himself lived on until 1897, long enough to see the city grow up around everything he had built.

The property passed out of Carrington hands in 1870, purchased by M. L. Hemphill, and then again in 1881 to the John Fields family.

Now the Fields family had a particular use in mind, or at least a tenant they were willing to take on. From 1893 to 1898, they leased the building to the Texas Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, directed by Dr. Henry L.

Hilgartner, born 1868, died 1937. A Greek Revival limestone house on a Congress Avenue block, pressed into service as a hospital. Austin was that kind of city.

Always improvising. In 1903, Fields sold the site to Frank M. Covert, born 1865, died 1938, described on the marker as the head of a prominent Austin family.

Covert lived there until 1936. After that, later owners rented the structure out as a boarding house, a residence, a nursery. The building kept finding new purposes, the way old limestone buildings sometimes do when they're stubborn enough to still be standing.

The State of Texas purchased it in 1968, and the Texas Historical Commission restored the house in 1972. One block, bought in a hurry on a September morning in 1853, and that rough limestone ashlar is still here to talk about it.

What the marker says

Leonidas D. Carrington (1816-97) and his wife, Martha Hill Carrington (1824-59), came to Austin from Mississippi in 1852. He began to accumulate real estate and on Sept. 15, 1853, bought this block from James M.W. Hall, Austin hotelman, and ten days later opened a mercantile store on Congress Avenue. In 1856 Carrington hired John Brandon, a local architect-contractor, to build on this site a vernacular Greek Revival home, constructed of rough limestone ashlar. The house was completed in the spring of 1857. The property was purchased by M. L. Hemphill in 1870 and by the John Fields family in 1881. Fields leased the building, 1893-98, to the "Texas Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital," directed by Dr. Henry L. Hilgartner (1868-1937), and in 1903, sold this site to Frank M. Covert (1865-1938), the head of a prominent Austin family, who lived here until 1936. Later owners rented the structure as a boarding house, residence, and nursery until it was purchased by the State of Texas in 1968. The Texas Historical Commission restored the house in 1972. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962