HistoricSiteMarkers
Early RepublicProgressive & Modern Era

McFaddin-Ward House

Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This classical revival mansion was erected on the homestead of William McFaddin (1819-1897), who received land from the Republic of Texas for service at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. He later acquired more property and built a ranching empire. Architect Henry Conrad Mauer designed the house in 1906 for McFaddin's daughter, Di (Mrs. W. C.) Averill. Occupied (1907) by her brother, W. P. H. McFaddin (1856-1936), it is now owned by his daughter, Mamie (Mrs. Carroll E.) Ward. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

This classical revival mansion rose in 1906 on the homestead of William McFaddin, who had received land from the Republic of Texas for his service at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto and went on to build a sprawling ranching empire. Architect Henry Conrad Mauer designed the house for McFaddin's daughter, and it passed down through the family for generations. It stands amid the wealth generated by Southeast Texas ranching and the oil that gushed from nearby Spindletop.

Why it matters

The home links the founding era of the Texas Republic to the oil-and-cattle fortunes of the twentieth century, embodying the arc of one family's rise across a transforming Southeast Texas.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท William McFaddin
  • ยท Henry Conrad Mauer

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

French Trading Post

Beaumont, TX

Connecticut-born merchant and tanner John J. French built this house and store in 1845, drawing early settlers to 'French Town' to barter tallow, hides, corn, and beef for shoes, harness, salt, coffee, and cloth. The tannery stood nearby, the home stayed in the French family for 95 years, and roads and schools still carry the name; it was restored to its 1845 look after the Beaumont Heritage Society took it on.

Ellwood-Craig House

Port Arthur, TX

Built in 1900 as a winter home for Isaac L. Ellwood, a principal developer of barbed wire, this classic-revival villa was designed by Chicago architects Nimmons and Fellows with a raised Roman Doric portico. Its nickname, the Pompeiian Villa, came from a planned but never-executed series of Bacchanalian frescoes evoking ancient Pompeii. Port Arthur pioneer G. M. Craig made it his home from 1903 to 1950.

Site of Former Settlement of Richardson's Bluff

Evadale, TX

Benjamin Richardson, a de Zavala colony settler who arrived around 1830, made his home on a bluff over the Neches and, with his sons, ran a ferry that proved a lifeline during the 1836 Runaway Scrape, when panicked civilians fled Santa Anna's advance toward the U.S. border. The place was later renamed Ford's Bluff for a milling family, and in 1904 the Kirby Lumber Company built a sawmill here, giving the site its final name, Evadale, in honor of a local schoolteacher.

Hamshire House

Hamshire, TX

Built in 1859 of Louisiana cypress on land patented to William H. Smith, who died at the Alamo, the Hamshire House is a fine example of the ranch dwellings of early Southeast Texas. It was raised for Emil Broussard, and here grew up J. E. Broussard, who went on to build the first rice mill in Texas โ€” a crop that would transform the coastal prairie. The widowed Azema Broussard later married Lovan Hamshire, and the couple donated the land for the area's first Catholic church.