The Lamar Room

The one room that can stir the Rebel in all of us is the basement. If ever there is a space that clandestine meeting would have been held during the planning of the Texas Republic, this room could have been it had it been around during that era.

How did it become the Lamar Room???

Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar,2nd President of the Republic of Texas, gives Johns Small a Land Grant (HEADRIGHT) of 1280 acres of land of Survey #183 section 3 on Oct 11, 1841, in reward for serving under the Republic of Texas.

Debbie Gracy, the current owner, purchased the property from Howard Calder, the great-great grandson of Mirabeau B. Lamar!

This room has been named in honor of the great men and women whose courage and spirit created a country called The Republic of Texas from 1836-1845.


What is so special about this room??

It has been a determined mission from the start to keep this space from becoming a storage room for mechanical equipment and has required a team effort to deal with code compliance issues and restoration issues. When faced with the code issue of being 6 inches short in height, the answer was..Lets just excavate 6 inches!

Firstly, the wall is inscribed with 1875; the beams are from very old cedar taken in the area. Based on the size of the exposed cedar beams, it is apparent that the Cedar Tree was alive and well in Texas prior to independence. There are many stories of how the cedar invaded our hill country and these cedar beams can shed some light on at least when they did not arrive in Texas! It is our hope that a dining experience in this Private space will not only spark a debate about the origin of the cedar tree but inspire people to be inquisitive of the history of the great State of Texas.

We hired the services of a designer to help create an authentic feel of what this space could of looked like during this era.

Proposal from the Designer (July 15, 2008)
“The goal is to create an atmosphere of a clandestine Rebel meeting room in the 19th century Texas Root Cellar. As much as possible every aspect of the rustic nature of the space will be maintained and little if any post era items eliminated or very well concealed. Great attention must be given to everything incorporated into the design and must be contemporary to Mirabeau Lamar’s era.”

Why the “Great Wall” of Phillip Manor?

When complete the Great Wall of Phillip Manor Square will surround an acre of gardens. It is our desire to avoid a “commercial” atmosphere in the garden and to create the feel of a Secret Garden. One of the garden elements will be a water feature that can be viewed while taking a stroll in the gardens as well as from a window table in the main dining room or from an outside porch dining space. The plant selection will highlight the change of seasons.
To accomplish the feel of a Secret Garden we had to come up with a solution of how to fashion an intimate space and disguise the fact that Phillip Manor Square has been encroached upon by noisy Highway 87. Click on images and position the photo where you can see the front door entrance in the middle of your screen.

Old photos of Phillip Manor reflect a time in South Main Street’s history when walls were not required to create a peaceful setting. The task was to build a wall that did not create the feel of a barrier but one that would compliment the Grand Old Hotel and initiate a curiosity to explore what exists behind the wall.
The limestone was quarried in Sisterdale and the technique (the beveling) was the same used by master stone masons during original era of Phillip Manor. All stones were hand beveled using hammer and chisel.

The Sun Room is Returning!

I am sure, for most, the removal of the Sun Room (room with the big glass windows) set off alarm bells so we will address that issue. Firstly, the Sunroom was dismantled, not demolished. It is our goal to re-use as much of the original wood as possible to include the windows with the old cylinder style glass. Although it s façade looked sturdy, the decision was made to investigate for structural integrity. The beams in the ceiling that supported the weight of the upstairs porch were far from adequate. The outside wall was not engineered as a structural wall and it needed to be as it supported the weight of the upstairs balcony.. We had a soil sample done so the structural engineer could determine the sub-surface structure of the soil to help him determine what footing he needed thrown to support the structure. We also had a concrete breakage test done on all the piers in the buildings to determine that they were code complainant and again structurally strong even if they only had superficial weight on them. The original beams used in the pier and beam foundation were salvaged and will be re-milled and used in trim and finish out work as they were long leaf yellow pine which is no longer harvested.

Re-pointing the Stone Walls

Re-pointing is an arduous process where all of the old mortar holding the stones together is chiseled out by hand and then replaced with new mortar. Our craftsman spent weeks removing the old plaster and in some areas sheetrock that covered the rock walls on the interior (except what will be the lobby) they then re-pointed the interior walls then moved on to the outside where they repeated the process on all of the exterior walls. This was a necessary process as the old mortar had almost become powder and re-pointing and replacing the crumbled rocks has insured Phillip Manor can be around for another 150 years!

When the old plaster was removed we could see the structural changes add-ons etc. from the past and learned much more about the buildings construction history. We also replaced lintels over several doorways (new stones) and used original stones from a stone lined pit that was built in the 19th century to replace crumbling stones in different sections of the walls.

We had no idea how beautiful the old stonework was until we removed the plaster. Gaining a new appreciation in the old craftsmanship we decided to leave the stone exposed on the interior walls so visitors will be able to see the century’s old masonry skills and gained an appreciation for the old techniques of the past. It is fascinating to see the different quarry styles in the stonework as well as the architectural changes that emerged in the re-pointing process. The oldest room, which possibly dates back to 1851, used field stones where later additions used cut stones.

We uncovered what was once an old window from the original one room house (now the lobby) as well as the old lines of the back wall of the original structure. This opens up the question “Was there an existing structure prior to the Phillips arrival?”

Restoration Phase

The full restoration of one of Boerne's most historical buildings is underway. We are restoring the Manor from top to bottom and take pride in the responsibility that we have in preserving the historic structure. Phillip Manor Square is not just a commercial shell it is a Grand Old Mansion that will be shared with the public and for this period in Phillip Manor's history we are privileged to be her curator. The attention to detail in the restoration could be compared to that of taking a fine antique and restoring it while keeping as much of the natural patina and pieces that are possible. When Phillip Manor re-emerges in spring 2009 it will be another stage in the centuries old evolution of a historic building that has reflected the personalities and vision of its proprietors.
The photos in this posting are an example of how we are going about the restoration. This series of photos show the reconstruction of the original kitchen entrance. The old entrance was hidden by additions done in the 20th century. When we peeled back the 20th century attachment we discovered the 19th century entrance. Once exposed we also discovered that the wall had deteriorated and it was a structural rock wall that helped support the second story of the 1903 north wing addition. We dismantled the wall and used original stones to reconstruct the entrance.