Woodlawn
a.k.a. Paese Mansion
6 Niles Rd., Austin, TXWoodlawn is one of the most beautiful homes Abner Cook designed. Constructed in 1853, the mansion is contemporaneous with the governor's mansion of 1855, and it demonstrates the same two-story, Greek Revival design.
The first owner of the mansion was James B. Shaw, who emigrated to Texas from Ireland in 1835, and bought several hundred acres in an area west of Austin. He had made plans to marry a New Orleans belle, and he hired Cook to build a mansion for her. Then, half-way through construction, he was jilted, and construction stopped. With his marriage to a Philadelphia girl, however, he ordered work resumed, and Cook finished the mansion in 1853.
Shaw served as a state comptroller in the first Pease ad-ministration until 1856, when his wife and child died, and he moved to Galveston. In 1857, Governor Pease bought the mansion and named it Woodlawn. He named the 365 acres around it Enfield for his Connecticut birthplace, but gradually disposed of all but 3.24 acres in subsequent years.
Members of the Pease family lived at Woodlawn until 1957. Then ex-governor Allan Shivers bought the home, which was comprised of eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two sleeping porches. In addition, the first floor had a stair hall, two parlors, living and dining rooms, a library, bedroom, two kitchens, rear hall, office, and two servant's rooms. Woodwork was dark oak and pine throughout the building.
Shivers left Woodlawn much as it was when Abner Cook built it. A few changes included the addition of a large dining hall in the rear, and an extra room and kitchen on the north side of the house. In 1964, the Texas State Historical Survey Committee marked the house with a Building Medallion.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964.
Bibliography
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.