The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 191

Book Reviews

has made his selections with care. The examples are arranged
in historical order, and come down to the middle of the present
century. Among the latest are 1953 factory buildings and a
Gropius community project. Earlier are illustrations of a Swedish
log house, of old stone barns, meeting houses, churches, taverns,
Georgian residences, and so forth. The editor has written archi-
tectually informative notes for each cut. The illustrations them-
selves have been well reproduced, and the book is a pleasant one
to pore over.
This publication was made possible by a grant-in-aid from
the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission which
supported the research, the writing, and the printing of this
work.
Before it is too late, architects, photographers, and historians
should survey the old buildings of Texas and compile a work of
the kind. Dickson furnishes the model to follow.
FULMER MOOD
The University of Texas
Minor and Major Mansions in Early Austin. By August Watkins
Harris. Austin (Von Boeckmann-Jones Company), 1955.
Pp. 39. Illustrations, floor plans. $25.00. Limited edition of
150 copies, each numbered and signed by the author, and
distributed by him.
The distinctive, indigenous architecture of Austin is rapidly
disappearing, as month by month the old-time stone residences
and business blocks are torn down to make space for the steel
and concrete structures of our own era. The amount of demoli-
tion that has occurred in Austin, even since 1950, is saddening
to contemplate. A few years more, and the special charm and
peculiar characteristics of Austin's local styles will have all but
vanished.
The city is fortunate, however, in that among her residents
she counts August Watkins Harris, a native of the place, a
trained architect, and an experienced reconstructor of the old
stone houses of the district. Still more fortunate for Austin is
it that Mr. Harris undertook to make sketches and write descrip-
tions of fourteen of the old structures. Thanks to his accomplish-

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