Houses

Red House

2207 Rio Grande , Austin, TX 78705

This wood frame and brick veneer structure was originally constructed with a carriage house and wrap-around porch by D. K. Newsum circa 1935. Previously the land was part of the Louis Horst plantation. Stella Davis Hardin made the building her home, and in 1937 purchased the house and began a women's boarding house. Renovations by the Hardin family continued over the decades, including the addition in 1943 of a side porch, the 1955 addition of the red brick veneer enclosure of the porch, as well as a two-story addition to the rear along with the centering of the front entrance. Today, the Hardin House still operates in Mrs. Hardin's former home, and is referred to by its generations of residents as "Red House." There are eighteen bedrooms with varied floor plans typically housing forty-two residents, a large living room, a workout room, study den, computer room, two kitchenettes, one laundry room, one housemother apartment, and a swimming pool and landscaped courtyard shared with the Red Annex next door. (See also room descriptions.)