DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Mauthe-Myrick Mansion. Now, some houses in Texas just sit there. And then some houses have stories baked right into the stone.
This one — well, the stone is actually the starting point. Rafael Mauthe was a German stonemason, born in 1802, and the man clearly knew what he was doing with his hands. In 1856, he purchased land from Abner Cook — and Cook wasn't just any neighbor.
The marker calls him a noted architect, which in Austin terms means his fingerprints were on some of the most recognizable buildings in the region. Mauthe sat on that land for over twenty years, and then in 1877, he built this house. A stonemason building his own home.
You can imagine he wasn't cutting any corners. Mauthe died in 1879 — just two years after finishing the place. But the house didn't go quiet.
His wife Mary kept right on living there, managing the family's nearby rental property on her own after he was gone. She held onto that home for nearly two decades, until her death in 1898. And here's where the story turns.
That same year — 1898 — the home was sold to Anne Katherine Brown Myrick. Now, Anne Katherine wasn't just anybody walking in off the street. She was the daughter of T.J.
Brown, a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. A woman with that kind of lineage moving into a stonemason's house — the place was clearly doing something right. Anne Katherine lived there too, and not long after she arrived, the house got its crowning touch.
In 1903 and 1904, an ornate porch was added — detailed in the Greek Revival and Classical styles. You can picture it: all that careful stonework from 1877, and then this elaborate, almost theatrical porch draped across the front of it a quarter century later. Anne Katherine Brown Myrick lived on until 1947, and by then her name had become part of the house's name.
The Mauthe-Myrick Mansion — a stonemason and a Supreme Court Justice's daughter, joined together by the same four walls. Some houses just sit there. This one kept collecting history.
What the marker says
Rafael Mauthe (1802-79), A German stonemason built this house in 1877 on land purchased from the noted architect Abner Cook in 1856. Mauthe's wife Mary (d.1898) lived here after his death and managed the nearby family rental property. In 1898 the home was sold to Anne Katherine Brown Myrick (d.1947), the Daughter of Texas Supreme Court Justice T.J. Brown, who also lived here. The ornate porch, added in 1903-04, features detailing of the Greek Revival and Classical styles. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1981