Weed House 4th Street: from Victorian Gothic to Colonial Revival to parking lot.

April 24, 2022 · JRG

The residence of Valentine O. Weed (300 E. 4th Street), location of the murder of Mary Ramey. Earliest photo circa 1900, later re-modeled in the colonial revival style circa 1940, and finally demolished, as a parking lot 1997.

weed house 1900

PICH 00103 Austin History Center.

PICH 02612 Austin History Center.

4th street 1997

300 East 4th Street. 1997.

I took the photo of the location in 1997. For some reason I thought I could wander around the locations of the murders and find…I don’t know what. If I had realized the remnants of the original retaining wall were there I would have taken a brick as a souvenir.

A hotel is currently located on the site.

Theft of Governor's Pants - March Mischief - Police Calls

"Officer Sendry reports that someone entered Gov. Ireland's room last night and stole a pair of pants and one dollar in the pockets." -- 17 MAR 1885. Austin Police Calls. Gov. John Ireland The above incident is the perfect metaphor for…

Mothers and Sons

Unidentified albumen print. One morning before dawn in the summer of 1883, a strange persistent cry echoed through a west Austin neighborhood and caught the attention of two women, Sophia Phillips and Sallie Mack, both of whom lived nearby. They…

The Austin Axe Man -- Chloroform

Once there was a killer in nearby Austin who was still at large. He had chloroformed his victim (rather humanely, I thought) before chopping her head off with an axe. Fear that ‘dat debblish axe-man’ might strike again, in only…

Finding Eula - Oakwood Cemetery

I've often been asked if I know where Eula Phillips is buried and my answer has always been that I don’t know the exact location, just that she was buried in an unmarked grave in the oldest section of Oakwood…

Book review

In spite of already knowing the story, I was nevertheless turning the pages as fast as I could to find out what happened.

Mystery Train to Austin

One-time Austinite Steven Saylor tells the story of the Servant Girl Murders through the eyes of one-time Austinite O. Henry in the novel A Twist At The End. You think you know people, but you don’t. A Twist at The…