National Register Listing

Shipe, Col. Monroe M., House

3816 Ave. G, Austin, TX

The Shipe House was built in 1892 as the residence of Col. Monroe Martin Shipe. Shipe was a prominent Austin businessman and the founder of Hyde Park, the first planned residential suburb in Austin. Not only was this house one of the first homes built in the suburb, but it contains timbers and plank fencing from the old Texas State Fairgrounds which date back to 1875. Shipe combined old with new to create a home that was an exotic combination of several late-Victorian architectural styles, as well as original ideas. In 1900 Hyde Park was a prestigious place to live in Austin, and today is a neighborhood that is actively concerned with historic preservation and restoration. The Shipe House stands as a memorial to the community's history, and is also important as a rather unusual example of period architecture.

The Shipe House is important historically and architecturally. It embodies an interesting period in the history of Austin, and shows an exotic melange of architectural elements of the late-Victorian period—Eastlake, Stick Style, and Swiss Chalet. The house was built by Col. M. M. Shipe (1847-1924) in 1892. Shipe came to Texas from Kansas in 1890 as an agent for the M.K.T. Railroad. He soon created his own railroad, an electric streetcar system which was the first built in Austin and the second in Texas. In addition to founding the Austin Rapid Transit Company, Shipe was also influential in city affairs. He was a leading spirit in advocating a commission form of government, as opposed to the alderman type; Shipe helped promote damming the Colorado River at Austin; and he was one of the chief framers of the commission charter which the city government now uses. Yet he is best known for his real estate venture, Hyde Park. Shipe was the founder of this, the first planned residential suburb in Austin. At the time, the property was a mile north of the city and consisted of 200 acres, including part of the Old State Fairgrounds tract. Shipe lined the streets with hack-berry trees, laid streetcar lines for transportation, erected the first moonlight tower in Austin (listed in the National Register, 1976), and built a school in which he paid the teachers' salaries for the first few years. He appealed to businessmen, artisans, and city and state officials to build in his suburb. One of the notable people who built in the park was Elisabet Ney, an internationally known sculptress. Her castellated home was built in 1892 and is now a museum (entered in the National Register, 1972). Hyde Park soon became a fashionable neighborhood in which to live and play.

One of the first houses Shipe built in Hyde Park, of course, was his own. He bought the land for the Park in 1890 and built his house in 1892. Shipe used both new and old materials, including grandstand timbers from the old State Fairgrounds, That grandstand used to house up to 6,000 spectators for the horse races that took place at the fair every year between 1857 and 1887. In fact, evidence suggests that the grand-stand stood in the same vicinity as the present house. Shipe also used fencing from the fairgrounds for room partitions. An example of new material used in the building of the house was the concrete roof. There was a trend toward using concrete in construction during the late-Victorian period, but Shipe's use of the material for roofing a frame dwelling was quite unusual.

The house went through a few changes after it was built. It began without porches, with only one fireplace, and with an entry through the west side. By 1900, however, the house had all four of its chimneys, porches both upstairs and down, and an entry through the east side as today. In eight years the house had evolved into a finished product, and 1900 was its heyday. Shipe was making his mark in local politics, Hyde Park was flourishing, and the house was filled with frequent parties. Indeed, some of the historic photographs show many people in the yard (photo 1). It was also during this period that Peter Mansbendel (1884-1940), a noted woodcarver from Switzerland, married Shipe's daughter Clotilde. Mansbendel and his spouse then lived in the house from 1911 to 1912. He made quite a name for himself in Texas by carving low-relief portraits of presidents of the University of Texas, and by carving chests, tables, mantelpieces, and decorative panels for homes in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and elsewhere. His best-known works are the doors of the San Jos4 Mission and the Governor's Palace in San Antonio. It is thought that the panels in the front door of the Shipe House were also carved by Mansbendel. In 1924, after M. M. Shipe died, his son Glenn added wire screens to the porches on the south and east elevations on the second floor. Other alterations occurred between 1945 and 1981. Asbestos siding was added to the first-floor exterior, the house was stripped of the balustrade which wrapped around the second-level porch, and the screened porches were enclosed. During this period the house suffered through repeated alterations, and at one time was subdivided into rented rooms. Hyde Park, also, went through a period of decline until the early 19 70s. Flight away from the inner-city suburb, absentee landlord neglect, and the expansion of apartment housing for students at the nearby University of Texas help account for this deterioration. Today, however, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association is strong and a number of restorations have been completed on houses in the neighborhood. The renovation of the Shipe House is part of this continuing effort. The present owners are restoring the house to the condition it was in around the turn of the century.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.