Site of Haynie-Cook House Plaque

Beneath the towering Westgate, a focal point of downtown Austin, imagine a grand home that once graced this very spot. The Site of Haynie-Cook House Plaque commemorates a structure lost to time, a testament to Austin’s vibrant past. This unassuming marker tells a tale of ambition, misfortune, and the ever-changing landscape of a city on the rise. In 1852, a prominent Austin architect, Abner Cook, designed and built a magnificent home for Dr. Samuel Garner Haynie. Haynie, a four-time mayor of Austin, envisioned a residence befitting his stature. Cook, simultaneously working on the 1852-1854 Texas State Capitol building, crafted a Federal-style house with Greek Revival elements. Its most striking feature was a two-story portico, adorned with elegant fluted Ionic columns and sturdy Doric piers. Sadly, Haynie’s financial woes forced him to sell the house shortly after its completion. Ironically, the buyer was none other than the architect himself, Abner Cook. By 1860, the Cook family had moved into the home, where they resided until Cook’s widow, Eliza, sold the property to former Austin Mayor Leander Brown in 1885. Brown then subdivided and sold the block in 1889. The Haynie-Cook House, remarkably, was rolled on logs to the southern part of the block. From 1910 to 1953, Fanny M. Andrews operated a shop within its walls, a far cry from its mayoral beginnings. The northern half of the block found a new owner in businessman Joseph Nalle around 1903. His son, Ernest, built a home on the site and lived there until World War I. From 1914 to 1920, Nelson Philips, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, resided in this new house. Upon Nalle’s return in 1953, both the Haynie-Cook House and the Nalle-Sharp house met their demise, making way for progress. The Lumberman’s Association then acquired the property, where they erected the Westgate, a residential office high-rise, in 1962. The Site of Haynie-Cook House Plaque stands as a reminder of what once was, a symbol of Austin’s continuous evolution. While the grand home is gone, its story lives on, a silent narrative whispered through the plaque to those who pause and listen.