2.0 - C14H-2025-0022 - Stedman-Graves House, 1701 San Gabriel St — original pdf

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ZONING CHANGE REVIEW SHEET CASE NUMBER: C14H-2025-0022 HLC DATE: August 6, 2025 PC DATE: CC Date: APPLICANT: Shana Feste & Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (owner-initiated) HISTORIC NAME: Stedman-Graves House WATERSHED: Shoal Creek ADDRESS OF PROPOSED ZONING CHANGE: 1701 San Gabriel Street, Austin, TX 78701 ZONING CHANGE: SF-3 to SF-3-H COUNCIL DISTRICT: 9 STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Grant the proposed zoning change from family residence (SF-3) to family residence-historic combining district (SF-3-H) zoning. QUALIFICATIONS FOR LANDMARK DESIGNATION: architecture and historical associations. HISTORIC LANDMARK COMMISSION ACTION: PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION: CITY COUNCIL ACTION: CASE MANAGER: Austin Lukes, 512-978-0766 NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATIONS: Austin Independent School District, Austin Neighborhoods Council, City of Austin Downtown Commission, Downtown Austin Alliance, Downtown Austin Neighborhood Assn. (DANA), Friends of Austin Neighborhoods, Historic Austin Neighborhood Association, Homeless Neighborhood Association, Judges Hill Neighborhood Association, Preservation Austin, Shoal Creek Conservancy DEPARTMENT COMMENTS: The 2025 Downtown Austin Historic Resource Survey recommends the store building as eligible for designation as contributing resource to both a local Judges Hill historic district and a Judges Hill National Register historic district. BASIS FOR RECOMMENDATION: The historic zoning application summarizes the Stedman-Graves house’s architectural significance and historical associations with the Stedman and Graves families, as well as to its local architect as follows: The 1927 Stedman-Graves House merits historic landmark status for its architectural design by prominent Austin architect Edwin Kreisle as a representative of the Colonial Georgian Revival style, and for its importance to the City of Austin as the home of prominent lawyer and judge, Ireland Graves, and of his wife Mary Stedman Graves, who was extremely active in the civic life of Austin. The home continues to serve as a residence in a neighborhood where homes are increasingly utilized as businesses. The Judges Hill Neighborhood Association supports the inclusion of this home into any future City of Austin and/or National Register Historic Districts.1 § 25-2-352(3)(c)(i) Architecture. The property embodies the distinguishing characteristics of a recognized architectural style, type, or method of construction; exemplifies technological innovation in design or construction; displays high artistic value in representing ethnic or folk art, architecture, or construction; 1 Allen, Phoebe. “1927 Home of Mary Stedman & Judge Ireland Graves, 1701 San Gabriel Street in Judges Hill.” 2025. represents a rare example of an architectural style in the city; serves as an outstanding example of the work of an architect, builder, or artisan who significantly contributed to the development of the city, state, or nation; possesses cultural, historical, or architectural value as a particularly fine or unique example of a utilitarian or vernacular structure; or represents an architectural curiosity or one-of-a-kind building. The home at 1701 San Gabriel in the Judges Hill neighborhood of Austin, was designed by prominent Austin architect Edwin C. Kreisle in the Colonial Georgian Revival style for Judge Ireland Graves and his wife, Mary Stedman Graves, in 1927. The home features several hallmarks of this style including a gable roof, rectangular plan, three prominent dormers on the front elevation, classical front porch, and brick exterior walls. The house is two stories along with an attic and basement. Its exterior is mostly painted brick, with the prominent gable ends covered in plaster. The outside appearance has been maintained almost entirely in its original configuration, with some modifications to window sizes and porches to accommodate inhabitants' needs. A detached garage was likely added around 1946. Further information about the architect, Edwin Clinton Kreisle, is provided in the application narrative: Well-known architect Edwin Kreisle, a native of Austin, was the grandson of pioneer merchant of musical instruments and furniture, Matthew Kreisle (1831-1882) and his Prussian wife Sophie, who came to Austin from Hanover, Germany in the 1870s. Edwin received a degree in engineering from Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria, Illinois in 1907. In the 1909-10 City Directory, Edwin is listed as a schoolteacher, and in 1910-11 as a math teacher. Concurrently, he studied architecture through an International Correspondence School course, finishing in 1911, the year he opened his architectural practice in Austin. He is listed in the 1912-13 City Directory as an architect. He worked with three firms during his almost 60-year career: Kleuser & Kreisle, Edwin C. Kreisle, and Kreisle & Brooks. Kreisle designed more than 1,000 Austin residences and numerous stores, churches, schools - including Fulmore Junior High School, and public buildings whose character matched the neighborhoods they served. Kreisle was co-architect with Kuehne and Brooks for one of the first federally funded public housing project in the United States, “USA Public Housing Project #1” — the 1938-39 Chalmers Courts in East Austin, which featured 86 units constructed for white families (now largely demolished), thanks to the efforts of FDR, LBJ and Mayor Tom Miller. [Two other sites in the project included Rosewood Courts for African American families (Page & Southerland) and Santa Rita Courts (Giesecke & Harris, & Kuehne) for Mexican American families. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 ended segregation in housing.] Edwin Kreisle also designed 15 fire stations, including the 1938 Streamline Moderne style Austin Fire Station #1 as part of the federal Public Works Administration (PWA), and the 1932 UT campus station near MLK & Nueces. Kreisle and Wyatt Hedrick were hired in 1931 to remodel the Scarbrough Building with an Art Deco facade. He designed the Colonial Revival clubhouse for the Lions Club Municipal Golf Course in 1930. His houses were known for their quality; many were prestigious, built for community leaders and businessmen. He is credited with introducing to Central Texas the concept of the attached garage as an integral part of the structure. § 25-2-352(3)(c)(ii) Historical Associations. The property has long-standing significant associations with persons, groups, institutions, businesses, or events of historical importance that contributed significantly to the history of the city, state, or nation or represents a significant portrayal of the cultural practices or the way of life of a definable group of people in a historic time. In addition to the connections to the architect Edwin Kreisle described in the section above, the historic zoning application goes on to state that: Kreisle was featured as one of the notable architects in Texas in 1940 in Texas Architecture, and in a 1986 publication Austin: Its Architects and Architecture (1836-1986) he is listed among the distinguished architects in Austin’s history. He was a charter member of the Austin Lion’s Club, a member of the Austin Masonic Lodge #12, the Scottish Rite Bodies, the Ben Hut Shrine, and active in St. David’s Episcopal Church. There are also connections explored in the application regarding the initial inhabitants of the property, as well as their families’ role in the growth and development of Austin in the first half of the 20th Century: Ireland Graves was a lecturer in the UT Law School in the late Teens and Twenties. His portrait hangs in the faculty research room at the law school. He founded his own law firm - Graves, Dougherty, Gee, Herron, Moody & Garwood - and became involved with local, state, and national professional and civic organizations. He served as vice president of the Austin Chamber of Commerce in 1921, on the Austin School Board (1922-24), as a director of Austin National Bank and of Austin Savings and Loan Association, a president of the Kiwanis Club, and president of the UT Ex-Students Association in the 1930s. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, University Methodist Church, and the Travis County Bar Association as well as a fellow of the American Bar Association for more than 50 years, having joined in 1917. Mary Stedman Graves was born in Fort Worth and grew up in Palestine. She attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia and graduated from UT in 1907. In Austin she was a leading civic worker for more than 50 years. She was an organizer and charter member of the Austin Branch of the American Association of University Women, a member of Colonial Dames, a charter member of Open Forum, and member of Austin Woman’s Club, Heritage Club of Austin, English Speaking Union of Austin, Woman’s Parliament, the Alumnae Association of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Austin Law Wives Club, Foster Parent, and Save the Children Federation, and served as a director of Planned Parenthood of Austin. The application also addresses the historical associations that extend to their couple’s daughter and son-in- law: In 1946 Ireland Graves founded the Graves-Doughery law firm with his son-in-law Robert Henderson Dougherty III. Dougherty was involved in a number of important cases over the years, most notably the Tidelands case – a legal battle between the State of Texas and the federal government over rights to offshore oil. He served as President of the Texas State Bar Association in 1979-80. Chrys had a strong belief in the rule of law as an alternative to violence. Accordingly, he served as state president of the United World Federalists in the late 1940s. He also had a strong belief in the importance of making legal services available to everyone, not just those privileged enough to be able to pay for them. He focused his attention on expanding legal services for the poor, urging lawyers to devote time to pro bono work. In recognition of these efforts, the State of Texas Bar Association established the J. Chrys Dougherty Legal Services Award in his honor. PARCEL NO.: 0211010409 LEGAL DESCRIPTION: W 90 FT OF S 137 FT OF OLT 16 DIVISION E ESTIMATED ANNUAL TAX EXEMPTION: AISD $4,780.47 COA $4,804.11 TC $3,464.72 TC Health $1,086.04 Total $14,135.34 APPRAISED VALUE: $2,611,487 (Land: $1,199,435; Improvement: $1,412,052) PRESENT USE: Residence DATE BUILT/PERIOD OF SIGNIFICANCE: 1927; 1927-1938 INTEGRITY/ALTERATIONS: Medium-to-high. Previous to the Graves family owning the property, there was another house on site, and it has not been determined whether this was demolished or incorporated into the 1927 building. Around this time, the property’s address in city directories switched from a listing associated with West 17th Street to being listed with San Gabriel Street numbering, indicating an alteration to what was considered the front of the property. Around 2020, a previous owner replaced some windows with vinyl units. These have been replaced by the current owner with aluminum- clad wood windows with divided lites. Screened porches on the first and second floor have been enclosed and wood windows installed on exterior walls to maintain some transparency. Minor site work has also occurred since the current owner purchased the property. PRESENT OWNERS: Shana Feste & Brian Kavanaugh-Jones ORIGINAL OWNER(S): Ireland & Mary Stedman Graves OTHER HISTORICAL DESIGNATIONS: None Photos Application photos of exterior viewed from San Gabriel Street Application photos from the corner of San Gabriel & West 17th Street Image from 1992 auction flyer