Hillcrest
San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1872 by Wm. R. Leonard; enlarged to 12 rooms, 1878, by Leonidas Cartwright. Hand-hewn timbers, ceilings and 1 1/2" heart pine floors cut locally. Brick made at old Ayish Bayou kiln. 7 fireplaces. Marble mantels from France, came by Sabine boats. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Raised in 1872 and enlarged to twelve rooms in 1878, this house was built almost entirely from the land around it — hand-hewn timbers, locally cut heart-pine floors and ceilings, and brick fired at the old Ayish Bayou kiln. Its seven fireplaces are dressed with marble mantels imported from France, carried inland by boats up the Sabine River. The blend of local craft and worldly finish speaks to a prosperous Reconstruction-era East Texas.
Why it matters
The house shows how frontier builders combined homemade materials with goods reached by river trade, marking the settled prosperity that followed the Civil War in East Texas.
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Related people
- · Wm. R. Leonard
- · Leonidas Cartwright
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Built in 1839, in the days of the Republic of Texas, this house was purchased in 1847 by Matthew Cartwright, a member of a prominent East Texas family. Remarkably, it remained in the hands of his descendants for generations, and the State of Texas honored it with a marker during the 1936 centennial of Texas independence. Homes like it anchored San Augustine as one of the oldest Anglo-American settlements in the region.
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