Sebastopol House State Historic Site
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Raven
N 29° 34.207 W 097° 58.363
14R E 599505 N 3271592
The Sebastopol House historic site is a Greek Revival style house built in 1854-56 with unreinforced, load-bearing walls of cast-in-place limecrete. It is one of the oldest structures in the state using this building method.
Waymark Code: WMGDR2
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/19/2013
Views: 7
Per the US NATIONAL REGISTER BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Sebastopol is an unusual Greek Revival residence. It is a one-story concrete flat-roofed structure with a square plan partially raised basement and a T-shaped main story with a wide porch filling the base and two sides of the stem of the T. The construction is poured concrete. The flat roof has parapet sides and was lined to form a water reservoir to serve as insulation and to keep the house cool in the summers. The trim is Greek Revival in type. The eight porch columns are squared with molded capitals and bases. There is a simple slat balustrade. The entablature is narrow but developed with architrave and frieze and it supports a box like parapet with horizontal siding. The double doors are glazed and paneled with four lights arranged vertically above one solid panel on each door. The side lights repeat this motif. There is a transom with three wide lights and an additional pane on either side of the door jambs which extend up to the LeFever type architrave with moldings, alcons, and the characteristic swelling of the lower portion of the frame. The windows are also framed with slightly segmentally arched LeFever type architraves. The windows are double hung sash type with nine over nine lights.
Sebastopol, located in Seguin, Texas, was the idea of a Colonel J. W. Young who built the house for his sister, Catherine LeGette. It is an unusual flat-roofed Greek Revival residence and demonstrates an early use of poured concrete. The main level is T-shaped with serve the purpose of cooling the interior of the home.
Young was born in North Carolina in 1811. He lived in Alabama and became involved in southern politics. He was a member of the Alabama Legislature and in 1840 he was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated William Henry Harrison for the presidency.
In 1842 Young moved to Texas and ten years later he hired Henry Erkel, John Wesley Reagan, and Dr. Richard Parks to help him build a house for his sister. Erkel did the walnut woodwork; Reagan was in charge of the "limestone" construction; Parks contributed the formula for poured concrete, for which he later got a patent. When they finished their work, the men named the house Sebastopol for the Russian naval base famous during the Crimean War.
Subsequent owners of Sebastopol have included Joseph Zorn, founder of the town of Zorn, and the Seguin Conservation Society. The house has been the recipient of numerous architectural awards. In 1930, for example, the Department of the Interior gave the house an Award of Merit; in 1964 the Texas State Historical Survey Committee designated Sebastopol a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark."
Copyright Note: the paragraphs above were copied directly from the official Bibliography on file at the US National Register of Historic Places, see:
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