DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses just sit there. They hold their secrets close, let the years stack up like old newspapers, and don't say a word.
And then there's the Crusemann-Marsh-Bell House on Marshall Lane in Austin — a house that didn't just sit there. This one kept growing, kept changing hands, kept surprising people. Let me walk you through it.
It starts in 1917, out in what was then the brand-new Enfield subdivision — one of the first homes built out there. The folks who put it up were Carrie Margaret Graham Crusemann and her husband Paul Conrad Crusemann. Now Carrie wasn't just anybody.
She was the granddaughter of Texas Governor E. M. Pease.
That's a name that carries some weight in this state. And Carrie, she knew how to use what she had — she served as a silent partner in the Enfield Realty and Home Building Co., working alongside other heirs of the Pease estate. Silent partner.
In 1917. Think about that for a moment. Then along comes 1924.
Charles Marsh, co-owner and publisher of the Austin American, gets hold of the place, and brother, he does not leave well enough alone. He changes the home's design, moves the entrance — moves the whole front door, mind you, from Windsor Road over to Marshall Lane — and more than doubles the size of the house. More than doubles it.
Whatever the Crusemanns built, Marsh said, I'll take two of those. What he ended up with is a Jacobean Revival style home, brick and timber, with half-timbered multiple gables and multi-pane arched windows. It is a serious-lookin' structure.
And the details — oh, the details are where this house starts showin' off. The woodcarvings inside were done by a craftsman named Peter Mansbendel. The ironwork was shaped by Fortunate Weigl.
Notable craftsmen, both of them, and their work is still in there, still telling the story of what this place once meant to the people who built it, changed it, and cared enough to make it beautiful. Some houses just sit there. This one earned its marker.
What the marker says
Carrie Margaret (Graham) and Paul Conrad Crusemann and this house built in 1917 as one of the first homes in the Enfield subdivision. Mrs. Crusemann was the granddaughter of Texas Governor E. M. Pease, and served as a silent partner in the Enfield Realty and Home Building Co. with other heirs of the Pease estate. Austin American co-owner and publisher Charles Marsh changed the home’s design and more than doubled its size in 1924, moving the home’s entrance from Windsor Road to Marshall Lane. The Jacobean Revival style brick and timber home features half-timbered multiple gables and multi-pane arched windows. Detailing by notable craftsman includes woodcarvings by Peter Mansbendel and ironwork by Fortunate Weigl. Recorded Texas Historical Landmark – 2009