Southgate–Lewis House

Location

The Southgate–Lewis House is located at 1501 East 12th Street in Austin, Texas. It stands in the Robertson Hill neighborhood, an area named for Joseph William Robertson, who acquired and subdivided the land around 1848.^[17]

Architecture

The National Register of Historic Places describes the architectural style as "High Victorian" Gothic Revival. The house features projecting eaves and gables as well as a prominent front bay window with a denticulated cornice. A continuous band of vertical siding at the base of the structure is capped with a horizontal band at the windowsill. Drop siding occurs up to the sills of the second-story windows, above which multiple rows of fish-scale and rectangular shingles alternate. Ornamental bargeboard trim with brackets is located at the eave line, and the roof is made of cedar shakes with two brick chimneys. The dormer on the west elevation has diagonal support brackets for the overhang and crossed bargeboard trim.^[18] There are double-hung windows.

Construction and early ownership

The Southgate–Lewis House was constructed in 1888 by Robert C. Lambie for John Southgate, a local bookbinder and publisher.^[19][20] Southgate commissioned the home to be a private residence on what was then the main thoroughfare of East Austin.

Lewis Family Ownership

In 1913, the property was acquired by Charles M. Lewis, a professor at Samuel Huston College. The Lewis family maintained ownership until 1970. Charles M. Lewis’s daughter, Marguerite Mae Dee Lewis, resided in the home and taught at L.C. Anderson High School,^[21] a historically African American school that was located only two blocks from the house at the time.^[22] Following her death in 1970, the house was left vacant for around a decade.

Restoration and preservation

During the 1970s, several windows were broken, and parts of the roof were damaged, allowing water to enter the interior. The house was condemned by local authorities and scheduled for demolition due to safety concerns.^[6]

In February of 1979, Dr. Duane G. Albrecht, a newly appointed assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, identified the house a week before the scheduled demolition date,^[6] and initiated efforts to preserve it. Restoration work was conducted with guidance from architect David Hoffman^[23] and craftsman Peter J. Fears, with financial support from Franklin Savings,^[24] and technical assistance from the Heritage Society of Austin^[25] (now known as Preservation Austin).^[26]

Joseph William Robertson

Joseph William Robertson (1809–1870)^[27][28] was a physician, a Texas Ranger, and a member of the House of Representatives in the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas. He established a pharmaceutical business and a medical practice on Congress Avenue and was elected mayor of Austin in 1843. In 1848, Robertson purchased a large tract of land from Alphonse Dubois de Saligny [fr], one-half mile east of the city center (which included a home that is now known as The French Legation).^[29] He and his son, George L. Robertson, began actively subdividing the property and selling lots. This region, which includes the Southgate–Lewis House, became known as Robertson Hill.^[17] Robertson is now buried in Oakwood Cemetery, two blocks from the Southgate–Lewis House.

John Southgate

John Southgate was a bookbinder and publisher in Austin, Texas,^[19][20] with a business at 1008 Congress Avenue, located next door to Charles Lundberg's Bakery near the Texas State Capitol. Southgate had more than thirty years of experience working in both England and the United States in establishments such as Daniel Appleton & Company (now Appleton-Century-Crofts). In the late 1800s, the Austin American-Statesman made numerous positive remarks about the work of John Southgate, such as "Mr. John Southgate has just completed an 850-page ledger, which is a beautiful specimen of the bookbinder's art. It is handsomely bound, and in finish and workmanship cannot be excelled anywhere." (April 12, 1988, Page 3) and "The Statesman commends Mr. Southgate as an honest, faithful man, and one whose business engagements will be punctiliously complied with." (April 29, 1884, Page 4).^{[citation needed]} Southgate eventually associated with the Eugene Von Boeckmann Publishing Company.^[30]

Robert C. Lambie

Contracted by John Southgate, Robert C. Lambie built the house in 1888, along with his stonemason Francis Fischer. Known for his woodwork, Lambie's work on the Southgate–Lewis Home is mentioned in the State of Texas Legislature: "the Southgate–Lewis Home at the corner of East 12th and Comal Streets in Austin .... [contains] one of the finest staircases in all of Austin".^[6]

His other works include the first engineering building and the Old Main Building^[31] of the UT Austin,^[32][33][34] the Elisabet Ney Museum,^[35] and the Hays County Courthouse.^[36]

Wesley H. Passon

Wesley H. Passon (1864–1933) was a Black educator who contributed to the preservation of African American history, most notably through a summary of the history of the African American population in Austin, Texas. In 1894, Passon was elected principal of the school in Wheatville, which was the first Black community associated with Austin after the Civil War, located just west of The University of Texas at Austin.^[37] The community of Wheatville was founded in 1867 by James Wheat, a former slave from Arkansas.^[38] The location that was once Wheatville (between 24th and 26th streets, Rio Grande Street to Shoal Creek) is now primarily student housing and contains the majority of all of the sororities and fraternities at The University of Texas at Austin. Passon went on to serve as principal of many other early schools of Austin, Texas, such as Blackshear School, which "opened in 1891 to provide free public education to African American children in the community."^[39] He was the principal of West Austin School, Clarksville School, Olive Street School, and Gregory Town. Two journals record the daily affairs of the West Austin School and the Clarksville School from 1908 to 1918.^[40]

In 1907, Passon provided a comprehensive historical record of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Austin,^[41] which became an essential resource for scholars. In September 2000, the City of Austin, Texas, Historic Resources Survey of East Austin stated that "One of the most important secondary sources obtained for historical research in East Austin was the 1907 Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) ... [book] ... compiled by historian W. H. Passon: The Historical and Biographical Souvenir and Program of the 25th Anniversary of Metropolitan AME Church, Austin, Texas 1882-1907".^[17][42]

Books

Ada Simond used the Lewis family and the Southgate-Lewis House as inspiration for a series of children's books relating to Black history in East Austin. The series included six books entitled Let's Pretend: Mae Dee and Her Family (beginning with Let's Pretend: Mae Dee and Her Family Go to Town in 1977),^[43] in which she told historically accurate stories of Black families living in Austin in the early 1900s. These books are "narrated by Mae Dee Lewis, whom Simond identified as a childhood friend."^[44] The series was named "Outstanding Publication on a History Subject" by the Texas Historical Commission in 1979.