The land where Tarrytown currently exists was originally a estate known as
Woodlawn, containing a mansion designed in 1853 by master builder
Abner H. Cook (who also designed the
Texas Governor's Mansion) for
Texas State
Comptroller, James Shaw. Shaw sold the estate to Texas governor
Elisha M. Pease and his wife Lucadia Christiane Niles Pease in 1857. In 1916, Governor Pease's daughter, Julia, and grandson Niles Graham joined Graham's cousin Murray subdivided most of the estate's land and formed the Enfield Realty and Home Building Company, which developed much of the neighborhoods in
Old West Austin, including Old Enfield,
Pemberton Heights, and
Bryker Woods. The company's secretary, Paul Crusemann, married Pease's granddaughter, Carrie Margaret Graham, who became a partner and co-developer of the firm. The first phase of the Tarrytown development, named for the family's summer retreat in
Tarrytown, New York, opened on November 4, 1934, with several additional phases opening in the following years. Tarrytown caught the eye of the national media when animal rights activist Jeanne Crusemann Daniels, great-granddaughter of Governor Pease, inherited the Tarrytown Shopping Center in 1999 and imposed bans on the sale of animal products or items deemed harmful to animals. The ethically-minded restrictions led some tenants, including the popular burger restaurant Holiday House, to close their doors and over time, and they made way for companies more aligned with her vision of protecting animals from needless harm. ==Education==