Bungalow Remodeling is Booming

Several bungalows in town are being remodeled, including the one at 1803 Austin Ave., the one at 1504 Ash and the one at 2004 Main St. To see what bungalows in Old Town can look like with a little remodeling, check out the photo of the remodeled bungalow at 2006 Church Street (bottom), which was originally featured in a September 2009 post when it was under construction.

Under Renovation

Several homes in Old Town are currently being renovated, including this one at 200 Walnut (bottom) and this one at 1603 Church (top).

A Victorian Lady

Exterior renovations have been completed on the house at 803 College St. Except for the new additions, the house looks very much like it might have during the Victorian period. See the previous post from April 15, 2010 for photos of the house before renovation and when it was first built.

Georgetown's Historian

I finally got the chance today to meet Ralph Love, who is Georgetown's unofficial historian. Mr. Love's great uncle was David Love, who was one of Georgetown's early businessmen. Two buildings on the square are named after him. Mr. Love works part-time at the Georgetown Library and helps residents who have questions about local history and geneology. I was hoping he might be able to find an old photo of my house or some information on the first owner. He wasn't able to find anything right away, but he promised to do some research for me. While I was looking at the albums of old photos the library has, I took a picture of the old train depot that used to be located near Southwestern (where the feed store is now). Mr. Love said in the 1920s, trains used to arrive at this depot with orphans who were up for adoption and people would come pick out children they wanted. The depot was unfortunately torn down in the 1970s.

Save This House

The owner of this house on University Avenue is selling it to be moved, probably to make way for commercial development. The house is located across from the shopping center in which El Patron is located. The listing agent Lackey Real Estate, (512) 863-9613 or lackeyreal.estate@verizon.net

Update - The Tate House

This is how the Tate House (see previous post) looked after just two weeks of remodeling. It just goes to show what hidden gems we have in Georgetown for people who are willing to put the time and money into them! The house next to this one (803 S. College St.) is now being repainted in a coordinating color scheme.

The Tate House

The same family that purchased the Leavell House (see earlier posts) has also purchased the green bungalow that is next to it at 807 College St. A woman named Mrs. Tate lived there for many years. The first order of business is clearing the yard, which had gotten quite overgrown. The new owners offered some of the plants in the yard to neighbors who wanted them, as well as some old bricks. Will Moore took the bricks to build a new walkway in front of the Logan-Parker house he is renovating on 7th Street (see earlier post about Sears Kit homes). We'll have to get a picture of that when it is done!

Remodeling Project

One of my co-workers at Southwestern bought this house at 1209 Olive St. and is remodeling it. You can see the original wood siding underneath the other siding.

The Lane- Riley House

Bill Jones, the Southwestern University Historian, took me to see this house this week. It came up because I asked him to clarify whether Rev. James Sterling Lane was the first chaplain at Southwestern. Dr. Jones said that Rev. Lane served as chaplain for Southwestern in his capacity as minister of the First United Methodist Church in Georgetown (in those days the minister of the Methodist Church also served as the chaplain at Southwestern). Dr. Jones then told me that Rev. Lane's home in Georgetown is still standing, so we went to visit it. The house is located at 1302 College St. It is vacant and needs a lot of work. It was built in 1872, the same year Southwestern University was being founded in Georgetown. In 1908, it was bought by another Methodist minister, Rev. George Riley (1853-1925). Descendents of Rev. Riley apparently still own the home. The house has a Texas Historical Marker and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It still has the old well on the property. Rev. Lane was a Civil War veteran and is buried in the IOOF cemetery behind Southwestern. His grave is one of the ones featured on the Williamson Museum's cemetery tour this weekend (May 1, 2010).

The John Leavell Homestead

Work is going full-swing on the house at 803 College St., which is known as the John Leavell Homestead. The new owners are adding an addition on the south side of the house, a garage on the north side of the house, and several rooms on the back of the house. They also appear to be adding a porch on the front. For the record, I am posting a photo of the house as it looked in 1896. This photo hangs in what used to be the County Seat restaurant. The house was built in 1880.

A new garage

I don't know whether last week's snow caused the roof of this dilapidated garage on College Street to cave in or whether the owners decided to finally tear it down. In any case, it is being rebuilt, which will be a nice improvement to the neighborhood.

Updates

In this post, I provide updates on several properties we have been following for the past few months.

• The gas station/garage on University Avenue at Church Street has been sold. Whitestone Tire Center, which is currently located at 1000 S. Austin Ave., plans to remodel the building for its new store. They are going before HARC Feb. 25 to get their plans approved.
  
• Two blocks down on Church Street, the garage and addition have been framed for the house at yellow house at 1009 Church St.
  
• Work began in earnest this week at the house at 601 College Street. Several dumpsters full old old asbestos and other things were seen being removed. It appears the new owner plans to renovate the house from top to bottom - literally.
  
• A little further down College Street, the house at 307 College Street has now been framed and we can start to see what it will look like.
  
• And finally, the rebuilt Booty House is really starting to look good. It will be great to have this beautiful house back on University Avenue.

The Taylor-Cooper House

This house has been on my radar screen for some time now. At first, I thought it was another house that was falling victim to "demolition by neglect." But the house was so hidden behind overgrown plants that it was hard to get a look at it. This week, I noticed that someone has finally cleared all the overgrowth from the yard. I also saw someone working on the house.

This house was originally built around 1870 for Captain Emzy Taylor, who was a retired Confederate Army officer. Taylor founded the First National Bank in Georgetown and helped establish the Georgetown Railroad Company. The house occupies an entire block near downtown that is probably prime real estate, so it would be easy to see why someone would want to let the house become so run down that it has to be town down. With the brush removed, you can see what are probably original outbuildings on the property. The house also has a concrete step in the front near the street that was probably used to get on or off carriages.