McFaddin-Ward House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the McFaddin-Ward House in Jefferson County. Now settle in, because this story spans a long stretch of Texas history, and it starts the way the best ones always do, on a battlefield. The year is 1836, and a man named William McFaddin is fighting at the Battle of San Jacinto.

The Republic of Texas takes note. For that service, McFaddin receives land. Just land, out there waiting.

But William McFaddin, born in 1819, was not a man inclined to let land sit idle. He acquired more property, kept acquiring, and built himself what the marker calls a ranching empire. By the time he passed in 1897, that homestead was something to reckon with.

Now, here is where the story turns from frontier grit to something a little more refined. In 1906, an architect named Henry Conrad Mauer is hired to design a house on that very homestead. A classical revival mansion, no less.

He designed it for McFaddin's daughter, Di, who was Mrs. W. C.

Averill. You picture that: a grand classical revival mansion rising up on the same ground where a San Jacinto veteran once built his ranching world. The house was occupied in 1907, though not by Di.

Her brother, W. P. H.

McFaddin, born in 1856 and gone in 1936, is the one who moved in. And the story doesn't stop there. That house is now owned by his daughter, Mamie, who is Mrs.

Carroll E. Ward. Three generations, one homestead, one mansion.

William McFaddin rode away from San Jacinto with a land grant and a future. Turns out, that future had some very fine architecture in it.

What the marker says

This classical revival mansion was erected on the homestead of William McFaddin (1819-1897), who received land from the Republic of Texas for service at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. He later acquired more property and built a ranching empire. Architect Henry Conrad Mauer designed the house in 1906 for McFaddin's daughter, Di (Mrs. W. C.) Averill. Occupied (1907) by her brother, W. P. H. McFaddin (1856-1936), it is now owned by his daughter, Mamie (Mrs. Carroll E.) Ward. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976