OTHER AWARDS: Registered Texas Historic Landmark; National Registry of Historic Places

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: Built in 1906, the McFaddin-Ward House is one of the few remaining Beaux Arts Colonial Revival houses in the United States. The style was characterized by an abhorrence of undecorated surface areas and was influenced by the Connecticut House at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The home reflects an era when gala socials were held on wide verandas, musicals presented in music rooms, and formal dinners and teas served. The 12,800 square foot house was designed by Henry Conrad Mauer (1873-1939), of La Grange, and the first formally-trained Beaumont architect. The house has two-story Ionic columns, double wrap around porches, bay windows, a hip roof, cornices, dormers, and classical detailing. Double beveled glass front doors open to a grand staircase lit by a skylight in a home containing its original furnishings of Baroque style furniture, crystal chandeliers, and oriental pottery. Restoration of an 8,000 square foot carriage house completes the estate that reflects the wealth that Spindletop oil brought to Beaumont.

HISTORY OF STRUCTURE: Originally contracted by her aunt and uncle in 1906, Mamie McFaddin Ward's mother and father completed the home at a cost of $30,000. Mamie lived in the house from the age of twelve years of age until her death in 1982.

RESTORATION: The McFaddin-Ward House Corporation was founded upon the death of Mamie McFaddin Ward. The restoration process lasted from 1983 to 1986. The family had altered the house little, but the foundation was stabilized, the exterior scraped and repainted, rotten porch railings replaced, the slate roof repaired, chimneys replaced, and modern climate control installed. Wall finishes of the 1980s were removed and restored to the original colors. Original window coverings were replicated through Scalamandre of New York.