Conn, Adrian Edwards, House - Blanco, TX
N 30° 05.821 W 098° 25.368
14R E 555616 N 3329675
The Adrian Edwards Conn House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and may be the oldest house in Blanco, TX. It is located on the southwest corner of 3rd and Main Streets.
Waymark Code: WMM24X
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/06/2014
Views: 7
Today, it is part of the Uptown Blanco Arts and Entertainment Complex. There is a 1966 Texas Historical Marker attached to the house that provides a teaser of information, an example of how difficult it can be to find information about this house:
Built before 1873, with walls 16 in. thick.
Has hand-dug well, rock-walled cellar and underground cistern.
--
Of all places, the Atlas of the Texas Historical Commission comes through with a very thorough description of the home. (
visit link)
The oldest part of the Adrian Edwards Conn House in Blanco Texas, is a one-and-a-half-story structure of large hand-cut rock laid as random ashlar. The profile of the old section is that of the traditional modified salt-box of the region. There is a full width three-bay front porch under an overshoot roof with simple posts with hewn corners. The front elevation has a central door with three-light transom and two windows. There are two rooms on the first story, the principal room and a second narrower kitchen room at the rear with a fireplace in the dividing wall. There is a second story finished loft room.
A frame addition forms an ell at the rear of the stone house and, stylistically, appears to have been built at about the turn of the century. This rear addition has its own attach wide gallery with turned posts and slat railing.
The windows of the original portion are of the six-over six, light double-hung sash type and the door and the windows have semi-pediment lintels. The loft window on the south was once a door which led to an exterior stair. The interior stair is a later addition when the exterior stair was removed.
There is an old windmill with a tank and a cistern with a hand pump on the property. The building has received some moderate restoration: cleaning of the property, removal of back screen porch and removal of the second-story window, and concrete slab porch footing.
The Adrian Edwards Conn House is a hand-cut rock one-and-a-half-story residence typical of the German pioneer buildings in the Texas Hill Country. The records of Blanco were destroyed in 1872 and the actual date of construction and original occupant are unknown. The house is believed to be the oldest structure in Blanco and the Chamber of Commerce, who now leases the property, is planning to purchase the restored building and continue to adaptively use it as their offices.
The Conn House was at one time the home of a grist mill operator and then an office and home for the area's only doctor. The first occupant known to have lived in the house was a Mr. A. Capt who sold the property to Dr. T.G. Edwards in 1873. Dr. Edwards lived there until 1882, when he turned the property over to his son, Dr. G.A. Edwards and his wife Adrian Robinson Edwards. The son died in 1940 and his wife later married Lee Conn, who died in 1947. Mrs. Adrian Edwards Conn lived in the house a total of 78 years until her death in 1960.