Snead-Rieck House
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In August 1934, Edwin Brazelton Snead (1904-1982), a well-known Austin construction and development figure, built this Tudor Revival-style house. Snead, holding the demolition contract for the Old Main structure on the University of Texas campus, used the light yellow-buff bricks and other construction materials from Old Main in the construction of this house. Marked by steeply-pitched roofs, half-timbering, gables with stucco accents, a high chimney and dormered second story windows, this house is a testament to creative vernacular architecture Texans utilized during the Great Depression. The house was purchased by Meta Paterson Rieck (1889-1970) in 1939. The Rieck family, prominent Kimble County ranchers, lived in the home for many years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1934, Austin construction and development figure Edwin Brazelton Snead built this Tudor Revival house from an unusual source: holding the demolition contract for the University of Texas's Old Main building, he salvaged its light yellow-buff bricks and other materials for the new home. With steep roofs, half-timbering, gables, and a high chimney, the house shows the inventive vernacular architecture Texans improvised during the Great Depression. Kimble County ranching family the Riecks bought it in 1939 and lived there for decades.
Why it matters
The home is a tangible piece of University of Texas history reborn as Depression-era craftsmanship, preserving materials from the demolished Old Main.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The house was built in August 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression. Money was tight, materials were dear, and Americans everywhere were making do — repairing, reusing, and improvising rather than buying new. That spirit of thrift and ingenuity shaped everything from farm sheds to fine homes.
Austin in the mid-1930s was a growing state capital and university town, still small enough that a well-known local builder could leave a personal mark on its neighborhoods. The University of Texas was in the middle of a major building campaign, remaking its campus and, in the process, clearing away some of its oldest structures.
Architecturally, the Tudor Revival style was in fashion for American homes of the period, with its storybook silhouette of steep roofs and half-timbering. Here that popular style met Depression-era resourcefulness, and the result was a house that tells you as much about its economic moment as its aesthetic one.
People & events
The builder was Edwin Brazelton Snead, who lived from 1904 to 1982 and was a well-known figure in Austin construction and development. Snead held the demolition contract for Old Main, one of the University of Texas's original and most storied campus buildings. Rather than simply haul the rubble away, he saw opportunity in it.
Into his new home went the light yellow-buff bricks salvaged from Old Main, along with other materials from the demolished structure. In one stroke he turned a wrecking job into a supply yard, and a Depression-era economy into a distinctive house. The building he raised shows the full Tudor Revival vocabulary — steeply pitched roofs, half-timbering, gables accented with stucco, a tall chimney, and dormered windows on the second story.
In 1939 the house passed to Meta Paterson Rieck, who lived from 1889 to 1970. The Rieck family were prominent ranchers from Kimble County, in the Texas Hill Country, and they made this house a home for many years. Their long tenure is why the marker carries both names — the builder who conceived it and the family who lived in it.
Its place in the American story
This is a piece of University of Texas history hiding in plain sight in a private home. Old Main was among the university's founding structures, and when it came down to make way for the campus's landmark Main Building and Tower, most of it was simply lost. But a portion of it lives on, brick by brick, in this house — an unusually literal example of architectural salvage and reuse.
More broadly, the house embodies how Americans built during hard times. The Great Depression forced a make-do inventiveness on the whole country, and vernacular architecture of the 1930s often reflects budgets and salvaged materials as much as design ideals. A fashionable Tudor Revival home constructed from a demolished landmark's bricks is that ethic made visible.
The later chapter — a Hill Country ranching family settling into a capital-city home — also captures the ties between rural Texas and its growing cities in the 20th century, as prominent families moved between the land and the towns that served it.
If you visit
This is a private residence, so enjoy it the way you would any admired house on a walk — from the public sidewalk, without disturbing the people who live there. Do not expect tours, hours, or open doors; the reward here is in the looking.
Let your eye trace the Tudor Revival details the marker describes: the steep roofline, the half-timbering and stucco, the tall chimney, the dormers set into the upper story. Then look harder at the brick itself, that pale yellow-buff color, and remember that these were once the walls of a University of Texas landmark. Knowing that, an ordinary front elevation becomes a quiet monument.
It makes a satisfying detour for anyone touring Austin's older neighborhoods or exploring the university's history. Stand for a moment and consider the layered story in front of you — a vanished campus building, a Depression-era builder's ingenuity, and a ranching family's long tenure, all resting in a single wall of salvaged brick.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Edwin Brazelton Snead
- · Meta Paterson Rieck
Themes & tags
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