San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site

The Villa de Austin Townsite Interpretive area seeks to evoke the look and feel of a sample of the village to give visitors—particularly school, scout and youth groups—a hands-on learning experience. Based on archival and archeological evidence and precedent historic architecture from similar eras and areas, staff architects from the Texas Historical Commission have drawn a plan for four log and two frame structures that represent the appearance of one town lot in about 1830.

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This was a large project with a tight schedule, so while I would have loved to build all of the structures, the customer brought in several log and timber builders from different parts of the country.

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I was proud to build the Farmers Hotel and The Kitchen. Both buildings were hand-hewn inside and out, using traditional methods. The Farmers Hotel was built with half-dovetail notches, while The Kitchen featured V-notches.