Not in Austin Anymore
Barr Mansion transports visitors back in time.
Words by Jessi Devenyns Photos by Shelby Bella and Cody Herring
One could easily imagine themselves miles outside of town and a century away when crunching down the gravel pathway that skirts the sweeping lawns encompassing the Mansion. A stately pecan tree droops under the weight of generations of memories, and the house observes the steady increase of traffic and visitors, a fixture from a time when cotton was king and Austin city limit was miles away.
Constructed in 1898, Barr Mansion was the family home of William Braxton Barr whose family uprooted from Virginia following rumors of Texas wealth and prosperity. The young Barr named the newly-established township “Sprinkle,” according to current owner Melanie McAfee, as a tip of the hat to his grandfather, Captain Erasmus Frederick Sprinkle, who brought the family to Central Texas.
Though some of the links to the past are faded, others are colorfully plastered onto its walls. Painted a sun-bleached white with bay windows and breezy porches running the length of the house, Melanie has carefully restored Barr Mansion with historic integrity. When she purchased the home in 1981 from the Barr family, she remembers “I thought I would just renovate it and sell it, [but] then I fell in love with the house and didn’t want to let it go.”
With the addition of some elbow grease and support from friends and family, Melanie managed to refurbish and refurnish the house in the East Lake Victorian style in which it was built.
The first step across the home’s threshold reveals a staircase crafted out of curly pine, its intricacy accented by the boldly stenciled, sage-green wall paper that is a replica of the original wall covering that can still be found in the cupboard under the stairs. Victorian details dominate the whole house whose pine floorboards creak softly under foot while passing through the 2,000 square foot home. Coal fireplaces and vaulted ceilings remain as evidence of the prominence of the Barr family in generations past.
Melanie put such care into the fine period details that when her sister-in-law inquired if she could get married in the house, it seemed only natural. It wasn’t long until one wedding turned into two turned into three and then became an accidental business for her.
In the first few years, Melanie herself was cooking the dishes in the detached kitchen as dozens of brides walked down the aisle in the mansion’s corridors. “For a long time we [catered] the weddings in the little lean-to building that was just a tiny bitty kitchen. And we would literally wash dishes in a bus tub in the backyard with my son in a bassinet,” she remembers.
Nearly 40 years later, the choreography and the landscape of the property has evolved. Now preparatory operations have moved into the carriage house while weddings take place in a ballroom that is a reconstructed 18th century barn made from trees that were alive when Christopher Columbus landed on our shores. Meals are still made on site, but there is an elaborate menu to select from that incorporates organically-grown vegetables harvested from the seven acres of garden on the seven plus acre property.
The mansion itself is no longer Melanie’s home. However, it continues to serve as her office where she spends her days helming her business and surveying the verdant grounds in a rhythm that echoes the lives of the home’s former enterprising inhabitants.
Did You Know?
Barr Mansion now operates as an events venue and is available for rental year round. Parties are catered by on-site chefs, guests have free reign to wine, dine, and be merry at the three buildings on the grounds of the historic property.
A Little Bit of History
The original 18th century barn burned down in early 2010 and was replaced by another one built in resemblance to architecture from the same time period. Although the barns were originally from New York, Melanie had the barn raised and thatched by experts from Birmingham, England.
Contact:
(512) 926-6907
10463 Sprinkle Road
barrmansion.com
