Waxahachie Architecture Guidebook by Margaret Culbertson and Ellen Beasley

Abstract

Reviewed by: Waxahachie Architecture Guidebook by Margaret Culbertson and Ellen Beasley Kenneth Hafertepe Waxahachie Architecture Guidebook. By Margaret Culbertson and Ellen Beasley. (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2021. Pp. 272. Photographs, bibliography, index.) The genre of architectural guidebooks to Texas cities began in the 1970s, a time that saw the expansion of the historic preservation movement across the United States. Many of the earliest were written by architects and sponsored by professional organizations, often local chapters of the American Institute of Architects; these usually focused on prominent and expensive buildings that were designed by architects. Other early guidebooks were written by local historians and historical societies and often focused on the oldest buildings and on the homes of locally prominent individuals. As a result, these books often neglected buildings not designed by architects (or those whose designer was not known) or those used by middle- or working-class people. Buildings associated with African Americans or Mexican Americans were rarely acknowledged, much less discussed. In recent decades, the trend has been toward more comprehensive studies of the built environment of Texas cities. This has reflected more intensive scholarly attention to vernacular architecture—essentially architectural history from the bottom up—and by increasingly sophisticated analyses of architects and their output. This newer approach is exemplified by the Waxahachie Architecture Guidebook. The authors bring their own distinctive skills to the project. Margaret Culbertson, the director of the Powell Library at Bayou Bend Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has previously published Texas Houses Built by the Book: The Use of Published Designs, 1850–1925 (Texas A&M University Press, 1999), which [End Page 148] is the most comprehensive study of the use of architectural pattern books used in the state. Ellen Beasley, an independent scholar, is the co-author, with Stephen Fox, of the Galveston Architecture Guidebook (Galveston Historical Foundation, 1996), and the author of The Alleys and Back Buildings of Galveston: An Architectural and Social History (Texas A&M University Press, 2007), a remarkable study of the vibrancy of people living in a marginalized setting. The present book stands as a model of the new scholarship, combining a sophisticated reading of the formal qualities of each building with intensive research into documentation about each structure as well as possible design sources. They are equally at home discussing the iconic Ellis County Courthouse of 1895 by San Antonio architect J. Riely Gordon, which dominates the town square, and the humblest shotgun houses, occupied by African American families, which were built on what was then the margins of town. The written text is complemented by a good color photograph of each building discussed and often historic photos and details from one of the two bird’s eye views of Waxahachie done in the later nineteenth century. The documentation of each building is undergirded by Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and, for the 1920s and 1930s, the Texas General Contractors Association Monthly Bulletin, a trade publication. These and other sources allow for the identification of architects and contractors of many buildings, most for the first time. Waxahachie is well known for its “gingerbread” Victorian houses, but Culbertson and Beasley demonstrate the rich architecture of Waxahachie from the early twentieth century as well. The layout is visually attractive; in a perfect world the book would have been larger, which would have allowed for larger photos and for a larger font. However, the smaller format increases the portability, and this a book that will be essential for anyone strolling or driving the streets of this historic Texas town. Not every community in Texas possesses the architectural richness of Waxahachie, but many have unstudied buildings and neighborhoods, and this book stands as an excellent model for future studies. Kenneth Hafertepe Baylor University Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association