Object description

The Mayfield–Gutsch Estate, now named Mayfield Park, is a historic cottage, gardens and nature preserve in west Austin, Texas on a bluff overlooking Lake Austin. Originally built in the 1870s, the cottage was purchased by former Texas Secretary of State Allison Mayfield in 1909. In 1922, the house passed to Mayfield's daughter, Mary Frances, and her husband, University of Texas professor Milton Gutsch. They expanded the home, adding porches on three sides and, with the help of gardener Esteban Arredondo, greatly developed 2 acres of the property around their home into a botanical garden surrounded by a rock perimeter wall. When Mary Mayfield Gutsch died in 1971, the home and grounds were left to the City of Austin for use as a park. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 29, 1994.