Details for Carrington-Covert House

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5453006423

Data

Marker Number 6423
Atlas Number 5453006423
Marker Title Carrington-Covert House
Index Entry Carrington-Covert House
Address 1511 Colorado Street
City Austin
County Travis
UTM Zone 14
UTM Easting 621150
UTM Northing 3350263
Subject Codes Greek Revival (Architectural style); hospitals; houses, residential buildings
Marker Year 1962
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Yes
Marker Location Texas Historical Commission offices, SE corner 16th and Colorado streets
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size Medallion & Plate
Marker Text 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

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