Cedar Lawn Historic District - Galveston, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

From the National Register Nomination Form:

"The Cedar Lawn Historic District, Galveston's first fully planned residential community, is two blocks south of Broadway, approximately two miles west of the Galveston central business district. The neighborhood encompasses nine square blocks, which were replatted into a "butterfly" pattern, unique to the Southwestern United States in the 1920s. Cedar Lawn is a distinctive neighborhood of eclectic homes ranging from small speculator-built houses to sprawling architect-design mansions. The dominance of brick facades combined with similar restrictions and consistent landscaping reinforces the neighborhood's cohesiveness. Retaining a high level of historic integrity with no commercial intrusion. Cedar Lawn is one of Galveston's best-preserved residential areas."

"Located west of the central business district. Cedar Lawn is bordered on the east by 45th street, on the north by Avenue L, on the west by 48th street, and on the south by Avenue N. Cedar Lawn is completely isolated from its contiguous surrounding neighborhoods by its curvilinear street network on the grid. Furthermore, all houses face into the enclave, thus the neighborhood turns its back on the rest of Galveston. This private-place ideal reached Texas cities from St. Louis in the first decade of the 20th century. The developers sought to establish a socioeconomically homogeneous pocket with visual order and spatial control, isolating an elite residential neighborhood from the unpredictability of urban real-estate."

"The streetscapes of the neighborhood retain a high degree of integrity. Unlike the crowded fenced yards of Victorian Galveston neighborhoods, here the imposing green lawns grow unobstructed from the street to the foundation plantings around the houses. There are no sidewalks and no traffic signs, reinforcing the dominance of the "community within a community." The curved streets, abundance of mature oak trees, and neighboring location of the houses, creates a shady, cozy feeling very unique to the Circle. A peculiar feature of the streets in Cedar Lawn is that they are graded to drain into the center gutters, rather than gutters at each edge of the street. The center of the district is a round garden."

"The district feature an eclectic mix of architectural styles. Revival style architecture dominates the pre-WWII houses in the district, with Tudor Revival the most predominant style for houses built in the 1930s. Spanish Eclectic, Mission and Prairie-influenced houses are also represented in the district. Modernism and its effects can be seen in the postwar housing designs, with Ranch Style and a few modern and moderne designs finishing out the housing stock. Cedar Lawn Circle was slowly developed over time; this, combined with the mix of styles, imparts a continuity to the neighborhood. The vast majority of houses in the Circle were built before 1951, with the district nearly complete by 1958. These mid-50s houses are generally compatible in scale and setback to the historic houses. One-story, brick facades and low-pitch hipped roofs characterize most of the recent construction in the Circle, and all properties are generally well maintained. Most properties remain unaltered and retain a high degree of integrity."

Street address: Bounded by 45th Street, 48th Street, Avenue L, and Avenue N Galveston, TX USA 77550 County / Borough / Parish: Galveston Year listed: 2002 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1925-1949, 1950-1974 Historic function: Domestic/single dwelling, secondary structure Current function: Domestic/single dwelling, secondary structure Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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