Reclaiming the Past
How one couple unearthed a unique local treasure–and their own love of history
Most aspiring homeowners are waylaid by surprise discoveries amid the search for the perfect home. But only a lucky few know the distinct pleasure of finding a real diamond in the rough.
Local real estate broker Eileen Gill first spotted a quirky Spanish Colonial Revival–style stucco house in 2011 while driving through Aldridge Place, the neighborhood situated between UT and Hyde Park. She and her husband Kevin Pruitt, an independent filmmaker, were looking to downsize from their Northwest Austin home and were immediately drawn to the streetside flair of the 1920s bungalow—and another intangible element they couldn't quite put their finger on.
Despite the home's damaged interiors, with most of the original architectural details stripped over 65 years by various renters and slipshod remodelers, the couple was won over by the character of the house, its modest size (less than half of their then-current home's square footage) and the neighborhood. It wasn't until after buying the house, however, that they realized what they'd acquired.
Just days after closing on their new house, the couple consulted Austin History Center's property research guide, which traces thousands of houses dating back to the 1800s, hoping to uncover their home's origin. They pinpointed their address and learned that the home was owned in 1928 by a man named Herbert Bohn. Gill, thinking she might have identified their home's original owner, asked a museum docent if she happened to recognize the name, and was met with an astonished reply: "You live in the Bohn house?"
Many Austinites are probably aware of Bohn's local legacy without even realizing it—he's the original owner of the striking Art Moderne house on the corner of 29th Street and North Lamar Boulevard that juts out from the hillside like a ship cresting above Shoal Creek. The couple quickly realized their house wasn't "the Bohn house," but soon ascertained two very interesting pieces of information: First, that the Bohns lived in their Laurel Lane bungalow while waiting for their final family home to be completed, and second, that renowned local architect Hugo Kuehne, the founding dean of the UT School of Architecture, led the bungalow's design. "That's the moment we realized that this house needed to be saved," Pruitt says.
Pruitt and Gill, members of Preservation Austin, now had a vested interest in resisting the "new normal" of Austin's teardown development trends—even though they were dealing with a pitifully stripped-down structure and would have to completely rebuild the interiors. (The only salvageable original details were the front facade's columns and the loblolly pine front door, hidden for years underneath multicolored layers of paint.)
The couple admits they'd never been die-hard fans of traditional architecture or historic decor. Their friends jokingly say their style evolution between their last three homes is the classic Goldilocks story. "We lived in a modern house in 78704 that was too small, then a midcentury house in Northwest Austin that was too big and this house is just right," says Gill.
Now nicknamed "La Casita Que Canta," the house was the catalyst for their altered aesthetic of choice. Pruitt, who always thought the house bore a similarity to the Baker Hotel (also built in 1928) in his hometown of Mineral Wells, designed the master bathroom to look exactly like the hotel's spas with the same hexagonal honed marble subway tiles and sliding pocket doors with frosted windowpanes. And Gill found the living room chandelier and matching brass and bronze sconces at a local estate sale that happened to be another Kuehne-designed house.
The duo has lived in the home for a year and a half now, and they're still fine-tuning their personal mark on its historic timeline. The walls and shelves are slowly filling up with knickknacks and art, sourced from their frequent international travels; the bricked-over back courtyard is blossoming with new beds of Spanish lavender; and they routinely mine treasure troves like the Austin Auction Gallery to add to their growing mélange of eclectic decor. "When you buy a house like this, your love of history really blossoms," Pruitt says. "It makes you think about everything differently."
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