West-Bremond Cottage
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built as servants’ quarters about 1872, this “shotgun” house stood at 604 San Antonio near the home of Charles S. West (1829-1885), lawyer and Texas Supreme Court justice. In 1885 banker Eugene Bremond (1832-1910) acquired it. Emma Grant West (1865-1952), whose husband Robert died in 1904, bought the cottage in 1906 and moved it here for rent property. She sold it in 1925 to a teacher, Miss Katie Gannaway (1890-1967). It was purchased in 1973 and restored by attorney Byron Lockhart. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This modest "shotgun" cottage was built around 1872 as servants' quarters near the home of Charles S. West, a lawyer and Texas Supreme Court justice. Over the decades it passed through notable Austin hands—banker Eugene Bremond, the widowed Emma Grant West who moved it here as rental property, and a schoolteacher, Katie Gannaway—before an attorney restored it in 1973. Its survival owes much to the succession of owners, several of them women, who kept it standing.
Why it matters
Humble structures like this cottage preserve the everyday domestic architecture and social layers of Gilded Age Austin that grander landmarks often erase.
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Related people
- · Charles S. West
- · Eugene Bremond
- · Emma Grant West
- · Katie Gannaway
Themes & tags
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