The Spring House

The Spring House

Written by Karen R. Thompson Monday, 07 January 2008

Within a decade of the founding of Williamson County in 1848, an unknown pioneer family built a house at a small spring that flowed into Brushy Creek.

To be more precise, they built the house over the spring, and it became known as Spring House.

The two-story house, built of native limestone, was very unusual. Small windows probably served as gun portholes in case of trouble with American Indians. Only a decade had passed since seven people were killed by Comanches near present-day Taylor, and problems with Indians were not uncommon even after the Civil War.

A fireplace provided the house with heat and a place for cooking. A unique corner sink was used for washing, and the wood for the steps came from the old Running Brushy schoolhouse. Eventually, the home became part of the Avery family’s ranch, which is now the subdivision known as Avery Ranch. In 1969, upon his return from service in the Army, Charles N. Avery III meticulously made a small scale model of the structure, which he still has.

Through the years, the Spring House fell into disrepair and the roof almost fell in. Helen Avery Phinney’s husband, Robert “Bob” Phinney, the retired director of the IRS in Austin, took on rebuilding the house.

Afterward, it made a nice weekend retreat until a fire was set that almost ruined the house. Today, the Spring House sits alone on part of an Avery Ranch greenbelt.

At about the same time the Spring House was built — the 1840s — another home was constructed a short distance down Brushy Creek. The houses seem to be related, if only by decade of construction. For instance, both builders used on-site mud to bind the rocks. That is one reason both houses did not stand the test of time. This second structure — called the Wilbarger House — fell down many years ago. John Wesley Wilbarger wrote the book Indian Depredations in Texas, published in 1889. He lived along Brushy Creek west of Round Rock and is buried in Round Rock Cemetery.

These structures remind us of the rural and primitive living conditions in this part of Texas in the 1840s. Life was anything but easy for these pioneer families.