Carrington-Covert House
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Leonidas Carrington, a Mississippi merchant, came to the young capital of Austin in 1852, bought this block the next year, and opened a store on Congress Avenue. In 1856 he hired local builder John Brandon to raise this vernacular Greek Revival house of rough limestone, finished in the spring of 1857. Over the following century it served as a family home, an eye-and-ear hospital, and a boarding house before Texas acquired and restored it in the early 1970s.
Why it matters
One of Austin's oldest surviving houses, it traces the capital's growth from a frontier town into a permanent seat of Texas government.
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Related people
- · Leonidas D. Carrington
- · Frank M. Covert
- · John Brandon
Themes & tags
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