Site of the Official Residence of Mirabeau B. Lamar

Austin itself was Lamar's idea: at his suggestion the new capital was built on the frontier beside the Colorado and occupied in October 1839. His call for schools endowed with public lands produced the act of January 26, 1839, setting aside land for public schools and two universities, and earned him the name "Father of Texas Education." His line "Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy" became, in Latin, the University of Texas motto. His government took in $1,083,661 and spent $4,855,213, and its redbacks sank in value. He sent the Santa Fe expedition without congressional approval.

What the plaque says

Site of the Official Residence of Mirabeau B. Lamar, 1798-1859 President of the Republic of Texas, 1838-1841. The building was constructed in 1840 and destroyed by fire in March, 1847. Since 1882 the site has been occcupied by Saint Mary's Academy.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — 0.5 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.9 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.9 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.

More markers nearby

• Site of John Bremond & Company — steps away
• Organization of First Protestant Worship in Austin — steps away
• Original Site of First Methodist Church of Austin — steps away
• O. Henry — steps away