McFaddin-Ward House

The McFaddin-Ward House was completed in 1906 as a Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion designed by Henry Conrad Mauer, a local architect trained at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. It was built for Colonel W. C. Averill and his wife Di, W. P. H. McFaddin's sister. After a few months the Averills traded houses with the McFaddins, who moved in during early January 1907. Mauer paired local materials with the most advanced electrical, heating and plumbing systems of the time.

The family's money came from cattle, rice farming and milling, commercial real estate and trapping, and it grew after Spindletop in 1901, because W. P. H. McFaddin held part interest in the land where oil was found. His daughter Mamie married Carroll Ward in 1919, and the couple moved in with her parents and lived there their whole lives. The family lived in the house for 75 years, and the museum says there were few changes to the house or its decor after 1950. Mamie kept a diary of social events, spending and daily routine, and the family saved photographs, invoices and receipts.

Tours start at the Visitor Center, 1906 Calder Avenue, and are free. The house tour covers three floors, is for ages 8 and up and includes stairs. The carriage house and garden tour suits all ages. Reserve online if you can. Bags are not allowed in the house, though free lockers are available, and personal photography is permitted indoors and out.