Lawson Residence and Garage
El Paso, Texas

Description: Lawson residence and garage
Other Names: Kerr house; Hair Odyssey, since the mid-1970s
Address: 1712 North Mesa Street, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Type: domestic: home, now commercial
Original Client: Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Milton Lawson
Historic Inventory: El Paso’s Register of Historic Homes in 1982
Date: 1913-1914
Condition: extant

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: one story, 40 feet x 61 feet, 8 inches; faces west
Budget/Cost:

Foundation: stone with concrete coping
Wall Materials: brick, stuccoed
Roofing Materials: originally shingles, now asbestos, with clay tile coping
Other Materials Used: leaded glass; plaster ornament; tile floors on porches and patio
Remodeling and Additions: interior converted to business use

Present Owner: Hair Odyssey
Location of Drawings: El Paso Public Library: (O-12) 9 ink on linen sheets of plans, including side, front and rear elevations, dated September 20, 1913; one sheet (garage) dated December 11, 1913
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 171, view of facade; Bradt 113, front elevation before landscaping

Bibliography: (1) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, Henry Trost: the Prairie School in the Southwest, The Prairie School Review, volume VI, number 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1969), page 31 (exterior photo by June F. Engelbrecht made in 1967)
(2) Harriot Howze Jones-editor, El Paso, a Centennial Portrait (El Paso: El Paso County Historical Society, 1972), page 55 (exterior photograph, description of the house, biographical sketch of L.M. Lawson)
(3) Harriot Howze Jones, Heritage Homes of El Paso: the Lawson House, Pass word volume XIX, number 2 (Summer, 1974), pages 89-91 (description of the house, biographical sketch of L. M. Lawson, exterior photograph on
Page 89)

Remarks: The plans are for a three bedroom home, with glass front bookcases in the living room, and built in cupboards in the dining room and pantry. Jones (in Bibliography item 3, above) wrote that: L.M. Lawson came to El Paso in 1913, while Elephant Butte Dam [in New Mexico].

Lawson was the engineer in charge of the Federal Irrigation Project and the building of Elephant Butte Dam. He was the first chairman of the Water Board of the City of El Paso and served as a commissioner of the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. Few original features are left inside. Dr. John Liddicoat purchased the home for Lawson’s heirs and then sold it to Sonny Corral who has completely renovated it.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990