Site of the Official Residence of Mirabeau B. Lamar

Austin, TX

Cornerstone laid in 1853 on a site set aside for sacred use, this was the capital city's first stone church, its native limestone blending Spanish mission lines with Gothic detail. Its founders included officials of the recently dissolved Republic of Texas, and its rector, Edward Fontaine, was a great-grandson of Patrick Henry. Renamed Saint David's in 1859, it became the home church of the first Episcopal bishop of Texas, its 1853 Philadelphia bell still ringing.

Austin, TX

Cattle king Col. Jesse L. Driskill, who drove his fortune up from the open range after moving to Austin in 1869, built this grand hotel in 1885–86 and opened it at Christmas 1886 as the finest in the Southwest. Brick dressed in limestone, it boasted three monumental entrances—one the largest arched doorway in Texas—a separate "Ladies' Entrance," and busts of Driskill and his rancher sons crowning the arches. The colonel personally chose its rich furnishings before leasing the hotel out.

Austin, TX

When Austin was founded as the Republic of Texas capital in 1839, no Protestant church yet existed in the raw new town. That autumn the Rev. William Youel Allen rode over from Houston and, on October 13, 1839, preached in Richard Bullock's hotel and organized a Presbyterian congregation of six members. Bullock and James Burke, both former church elders, served as its first ruling elders.

Austin, TX

Austin's Methodists organized in 1840, in the earliest days of the Republic's new capital, and by 1847 were worshiping near Congress and 4th Street. They bought this site in 1853 and built here under the Rev. John W. Phillips, replacing it with a larger sanctuary in 1883 under the Rev. A. E. Goodwyn. Known over the years as Central Church and Tenth Street Church — and drawing legislators and other officials to its pews — the congregation became First Methodist in 1909 and moved to Lavaca and 12th Street in 1923.