In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a palatial, oil-boom-era mansion in Beaumont, Texas.
Oak and beveled glass front doors with fleur de lis patterns provide decorative contrast to the dominate white-painted cypress and yellow pine exterior of the McFaddin-Ward House. Its stately presence is due to the pairs of double, fluted columns with ionic capitals flanking the entryway portico. Supporting a second level of wide porches are one-story, smooth, round columns. Cornices distinguish third-floor windows. A square widow’s walk surrounded by a railing with square columns sits at the very top of the mansion. McFaddin-Ward House
In 1906, architect Henry Conrad Mauer designed and completed an immense and extravagant home for the highly successful McFaddin family. The McFaddins’s fortune was made in agriculture, livestock, oil, and real estate. Mauer aimed for an exterior presentation of southern colonial style, influenced greatly by beaux arts as well as Greek revival. A variety of design periods are represented in the interior.
The main-floor plan at the McFaddin-Ward mansion is Gregorian. This style entails a wide central hall through which visitors access large square rooms, such as the parlor and dining room. Columns are a dominant architectural theme on the exterior and throughout the interior.
Deena Bouknight
Author
A 30-plus-year writer-journalist, Deena C. Bouknight works from her Western North Carolina mountain cottage and has contributed articles on food culture, travel, people, and more to local, regional, national, and international publications. She has written three novels, including the only historical fiction about the East Coast’s worst earthquake. Her website is DeenaBouknightWriting.com
