Meet the Dynamic Duo Behind Some of Bouldin Creek's Most Unique Properties
Spaller Glover is renovating the South Austin area one historic home at a time.
BY Ali Montag
In Bouldin Creek, near the end of West Mary, a small church sits hidden. It's been a long time since the congregation of Faith Baptist Mission Church began service there in 1935, the one-story church built to match the surrounding bungalows. But as the property changed hands and the zip code around South Congress Avenue boomed, the church fell into disrepair. The wood began to rot. The foundation became unstable.
Today, it's getting a new life. In early 2020, the church—and the luxury home it will soon be transformed into—became the project of design-build team Ivan Spaller and Priscilla Glover of Spaller Glover, a pair known for their historic renovations in Bouldin Creek. On Mary Street alone, they've restored a 1890s Victorian, refurbished a Depression-era home into a whimsical cottage, and re-envisioned a 1940s Roman Catholic church as an honest-to-goodness castle. "We try to save as many houses as we can," Glover says.
The pair describe their style as storybook revivalist, inspired by European travel and the illustrated pages of children's books: For instance, the Bouldin castle's stacked limestone walls, crenellated roof, and 32-foot turret evoke a medieval fortress. Two houses down, a sloping roofline and fachwerk exterior make for a cottage reminiscent of 19th-century Germany. The three-story Victorian, with a pitched roofline and orate trim, is a relic of a bygone era in Marlin, Texas. The original 1890 frame was transported 110 miles to Austin and rebuilt piece by piece.
Against the neighborhood's recent proliferation of large, minimalist homes with white exteriors and crisp black trim—call it the "modern farmhouse"—Spaller and Glover's quirky rooflines and intricate facades stand out. The pair began their first design-build project in Austin in 2005. "In a lot of the housing developments in Central Austin, there's a trend toward homes that look very much alike," Glover says. "We're definitely the outlier always. That has given us more recognition now."
At Spaller Glover's current project on West Mary, slated to be complete in late Summer 2021, the church's history will inspire its redesign. The large nave will become a living room, with vaulted ceilings and herringbone white oak floors. A kitchen with white quartz countertops will replace the altar, lit by an 8-foot circular skylight. With white siding, arched windows, and cast-stone columns, the exterior looks much like a church and is designed to last, Spaller says. "A lot of the other houses [in this area] that are being built will be thrown into a dumpster in 50 years," he says. "If you create something that is special, it will be protected."
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