Talk:Ethel Felder Webster House

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[edit] Enfield History

Below I've pasted the Enfield history section from this article. It's much too general for an article just about one house, but it's good work and should go in an article about Enfield. Happywaffle (talk) 20:29, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Enfield, a pasture of the Pease Estate “Woodlawn,” the mansion home of Gov. and Mrs. E. M. Pease, was surrounded by acres of family land. Pease descendants created Enfield from the east pasture of the estate through their Enfield Realty and Home Building Company.

Founders were Julie Pease (the Pease’ daughter), Julie’s nephew R. Niles Graham, her niece Margaret G. Crusemann and her husband Paul, and a cousin, Marshall Graham. They filed a plat with 65 lots on June 4, 1914 for “Enfield-A- a Subdivision by R. Niles Graham et al of Part of Outlots 6, 7,and 8 in Division Z of the city of Austin, Travis County, Texas” (Travis Co. Plat Book 3, p. 44). This plat covers the SE corner of the Pease estate, closest to downtown. The plan is clear today. Enfield-A- is bordered generally by W. 12 St, Parkway, Pease Park, Windsor Rd., and Lorrain. Enfield Rd begins where the original rock wall in the street still stands. It and the culvert on the north side of the street accommodate a small spring that begins just uphill and drains into Shoal Creek. The 1102 Enfield Rd house faces this low, curving wall, which is seen in one of the early advertisements for Enfield Realty, placed in Gossip on Sept.23, 1916.

Enfield Realty and Home Building Company: Murray Graham, R. Niles Graham, and Paul Crusemann filed to incorporate their company on May 22, 1916. The first announcement appeared on Sunday, May 14 in the Austin Statesman. Its officers were noted as “Sales Agents for Enfield, Austin’s Exclusive Residential Section.” Gossip, a monthly newspaper, noted on May 27, 1916 the “picturesque new addition… [where] an immense amount of work is being done at Enfield…” In 1915, City Engineers noted that Dr. Hugo F. Kuehne had planned the subdivision. It was designed as the first Austin suburb planned for cars, with streets paved with tarvia before homes were built. Dr. Kuehne had been the founder of the UT Architecture Department and had gone into private practice.

2 Enfield (later 1102) was among the first houses in the subdivision. Enfield Rd is first listed in the 1916 City Directory, with no structures along it. The 1918 Directory shows five Enfield Rd homes with no street numbers, beginning on the north side at Parkway (By 1920 that house would become 2 Enfield, and later 1102). Gossip of Jan 27, 1917 states, “Work has recently been started on a handsome residence in Enfield for Mrs. Ethel Webster.”^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Demolition Attempt

This story and its details should be included: [1] Happywaffle (talk) 20:29, 15 March 2008 (UTC)