DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. In 1889, a house went up in Travis County for a man named Myron D. Mather — President of Austin Water, Light & Power Company.
Now that's a title that carries some weight, and apparently so did the man's taste in real estate. Mather lived there until 1893, in a structure that historians would come to call a fine derivative of the Shingle style. And here's where the story gets a little extra flavor.
That house is said to be partly constructed of granite left over from the 1888 completion of the state capitol. Think about that for a moment. The same stone that helped raise up the seat of Texas government may well have ended up framin' somebody's front parlor.
The marker says "said to be," so we hold that with appropriate wonder rather than certainty — but it's the kind of detail that sticks with you on a long stretch of highway. Then comes 1897, and the house changes hands again, this time to Texas Supreme Court Justice Leroy G. Denman, though his ownership was brief.
A president of a power company, a justice of the Supreme Court — this house was keepin' distinguished company. But the name that finally stuck came later. In the decade after 1920, the place operated as the Austin Military School, and folks around those parts took to callin' it simply "The Academy." That name outlasted the school, outlasted every owner, and it's the one carved into the record today.
Some houses hold their history quiet. This one wore it like a uniform.
What the marker says
This house was constructed in 1889 for Myron D. Mather, President of Austin Water, Light & Power Company, who lived here until 1893. A fine derivative of the Shingle style, the structure is said to be partly constructed of granite left from the 1888 completion of the state capitol. It was briefly owned by Texas Supreme Court Justice Leroy G. Denman in 1897. As the Austin Military School in the decade after 1920, the house was called "The Academy." Recorded Texas Historical Landmark - 1985