the dawson house: home to my favorite Merit Coffee
a short history overview of a small stone house in a big city
This substack tends to just lean heavily into nostalgia and I’ve grown to love it. I think it’s the healthy kind of nostalgia that makes me really appreciate life despite the tribulations that I’ve gone through to get here. For today’s episode, I wanted to share nostalgia for a time that I was never a part of. I would like to talk about the evolution of one of my favorite coffee shops and the long journey to what it is now: a space where Amber and I engage in riveting conversations fueled by our tried-and-true oat milk lattes. Merit Coffee currently calls this its home, but it used to be another coffee shop named Stonehouse Coffee. Before that, it was abandoned for several years after a title loan company owned it. Before that, it was a couple of other things. I’m sure this building has so many stories to tell; stories that I’ll never know about and memories that it will continue making long after I’m gone, but I hope this stays as an homage to a little building that means nothing to a lot of people, but a whole lot to me.
Dawson Stone House - The Land
As stated in the plaque displayed in the photo above, the Dawson Stone House was built around 1900 by Mary and Nannie Dawson’s brother as part of the South Heights Expansion of Austin. Mary and Nannie, the developers, were responsible for many of the homes that are scatter around south Austin that look similar to the Dawson Stone House.
Before this house arrived to Mary and Nannie Dawson though, it was sold, acquired, and released through a variety of owners before Texas was even a state. It started with Isaac Decker when he was awarded a land grant of one league (4,428.4 acres) on March 17, 1835, by fulfilling the requirements for the grant which included being a married man with a family, settling in the country, and cultivating the land. He later sold part of his land to David Browning to whom he owed a debt. On July 1839, Browning then used the land as collateral on a debt of $40,000 to Henry Adams. Adams later sold the property in 1852 to a John Grumbles for $4,000 who then sold it later that same year to a James E. Bouldin (a prominent figure in Austin, TX who owned most of south Austin).
After several transfers of ownership after Bouldin, the note for the property was then assumed by Mary and Nannie Dawson where they then hired their brother, Nick Dawson, for the construction of the home. They then sold the property in 1908 along with several other blocks of land nearby. On August 29, 1933, James Ponton bought the property and later sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Evans in 1942 where they lived until January 1974. Mrs. Evans then sold the property to William E. Lucas, Capt. USMC who was the present owner at the time when the Dawson Stone House was awarded its designation as a Texas Historical Landmark.
The Dawson Stone House itself is representative of many middle-class homes at the time, being built out of wood and stone from a creek that ran behind the house (present-day West Bouldin Creek). The Historic Marker application states that the house was is disarray for a long while with most of the upkeep being done by the owner of the house, William Lucas, in 1974.1
After this, there isn’t much on the house itself. I couldn’t figure out when Lucas sold his home or if he ever made it into a business as he initially wanted. The Travis County clerk website however does show changes in ownership with the intent of wanting to conduct business.
Business takeover
In 1992, the Dawson Stone House was a place called “Southern Heritage”, which I’m assuming was a clothing store/boutique (??). Nothing really shows up for this online. In 1997, the house then became a hair salon called Senon’s Hair Salon (which interestingly enough, there’s a Senon’s Hair Salon currently on Bee Caves Rd, but it’s unclear whether or not it’s the same person). From 1997 to 2006 there were three owners all using this space at different times as a salon. I guess it was cheaper to keep this place as it initially was intended to be by the first salon owner than invest money to change the interior and repurpose it. In 2006, it was acquired by a business called Stor-n-lock which (I’m assuming) used it as collateral or just general office space since if you look them up now, they are in the storage unit business and this building is definitely not a storage unit type of place.
The Modern Era (aka Google Maps Street View)
The Travis County County website stops showing information after 2006. Based on a November 2007 street view photo (shown above), it’s safe to assume that by this point it was put up for sale judging by that sign in the front. As you can see (and which we will compare to), there is not much going on at this location. The bar next door (Gibson Street Bar) was still an abandoned mechanic shop and the Dawson Stone House seemed to share the same fate.
This next photo from May 2009 shows when LoneStar Title Loans came to be. By this point, images show that the lot had been repaved and there had been a bit of remodeling, specifically in the backlot of the Dawson Stone House. I don’t have many feelings about loan offices (lol), specifically one like LoneStar Titles. I think on one hand, they might help people who desperately need to get back on their feet and have no other options, but for the most part they screw over folks who just need help. Unfortunately, they must have been pretty successful because the last picture (below) of them in business is from April 2015.
The gift of being here now
I’m not entirely sure if this post fulfilled what I had initially intended; I knew that the love I hold in my heart for something like this coffee shop had to be expressed, if not by working there or by photography then by my words - my love through research.
It’s always been beautiful when old buildings are constantly being repurposed for new patrons to enjoy. In my hometown, our downtown was littered with old buildings that are just now being recognized by the city for new life. Of course, many buildings are built with the intention of giving it a specific designation, like a warehouse or grocery store, but with the Dawson Stone House, it’s nice to imagine of all the lives it’s lived and how many people it’s impacted.
Amber and I used to go to a Merit Coffee near our other place. It was downtown with a much more modern build located at the base of a condo complex. The best part of that place were the baristas and how much lovely conversation they had to offer, but it was way too small and crowded most days. It was hard to enjoy being there due to the crowd that it usually attracted, no matter what day of the week it was. At the Dawson Stone House, I’ve had many wonderful moments of being able to immerse myself in novels or my writing - sitting by the bay window of a 100 year old home. Despite the modern amenities that are found inside, if you observe the house enough, small details found in its construction start revealing themselves like gashes on the stones from decades of weathering or the splintering of wood in all the right places.
We love being locals at Merit. We know the baristas and they know us; we drop by before work, for breakfast, and after runs. It’s become a routine with purpose and we’re so lucky to have it. If you got this far, take some time to think about your favorite coffee shop or “old building” and think about its history. Think about where it’s been and what it had to go through to get to you - to be so lucky to be so loved by you.
Merit Coffee as of September 3, 2024 ♡
Texas Historical Commission. [Historic Marker Application: Dawson Stone House], text, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491661/: accessed September 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History