Carl J. Warner, Master Building Craftsman
The Mission Revival house that Carl Warner built at 2232 Goldenrod, now a contributing member of the Oakhurst Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
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Carl Jestes Warner, born in Farragut, Iowa in 1888, was a master craftsman who contributed to some of Texas’ most iconic historic hotels and built his own landmark Spanish Eclectic/Mission Revival style home in Oakhurst in 1930. Reared by his grandparents in Kansas and Indian Territory in Oklahoma, Warner was living in Fort Worth as early as 1911.
Warner always listed himself as a plasterer. By World War I, he worked for Southwestern Plaster Company. He lived in many near south side homes in Fort Worth and in 1924 lived in the Flatiron Building downtown. Even though Fort Worth was his home for 40 years, it was not unusual for Warner to spend significant time in Mineral Wells helping construct the Baker Hotel and the Buccaneer Hotel in Galveston.
Theodore Brasher Baker began building the Mission/Spanish Revival style Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells in 1926. The builder of Dallas’ Baker Hotel and Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas, Baker commissioned well-known ort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick (designer of the 1936 Amon Carter-Riverside High School) to design the building after the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Even though it opened only days after the devastating October 1929 stock market crash, the Baker was successful through the early 1960s attracting movie stars, soldiers from nearby Camp Wolters and everyday citizens who marveled at the 450 rooms and elegant lobby and swimming pool. A project began in 2010 to restore the Baker.
In May 1929, Galveston scion W. L. Moody. Jr. opened his Buccaneer Hotel at 2200 Seawall Boulevard and the beach as part of his National Association Hotel chain. The hotel had 11 floors and 400 rooms. The Buccaneer boasted master interior plaster work (courtesy of Carl Warner) and an exterior Mission style façade. It is possible that Warner had a significant hand in creating one of the most memorable features of the hotel – an oversize plaster panel of legendary buccaneer Jean Lafitte with his sailing ship. The hotel was imploded in 1999.
In 1930, Warner and contractor John F. Wingo began construction on the 1,688 square foot stucco Mission Revival house at 2232 Goldenrod. According to subsequent owner Wacel Harrison, Warner loved the Baker’s lobby and fireplace and duplicated them on a smaller scale for the Goldenrod house. He also used some of the plaster casts used at the Baker on his home. Globe-like light fixtures still in the house are closely designed after larger versions at the Buccaneer.
In 1972, Warner’s widow, Velma, sold the house to Wacel Harrison and her husband. They sold it in 1994 to present owners Simianne and Christopher Hayden.
When Carl Warner died in November 1951, he was working as superintendent in charge of plaster work for Joe Condon’s Plaster Contracting Firm at the Fort Worth National Bank Building then under construction. Carl Warner was also a member of the Masonic Lodge. Joe Condon and Noble T. Norman, a resident of Oakhurst and the longtime principal of Oakhurst Elementary School in the 1940s and 1950s, were two friends who served as pallbearers when Warner was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Warner’s wife Velma and son James survived him.
Warner always listed himself as a plasterer. By World War I, he worked for Southwestern Plaster Company. He lived in many near south side homes in Fort Worth and in 1924 lived in the Flatiron Building downtown. Even though Fort Worth was his home for 40 years, it was not unusual for Warner to spend significant time in Mineral Wells helping construct the Baker Hotel and the Buccaneer Hotel in Galveston.
Theodore Brasher Baker began building the Mission/Spanish Revival style Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells in 1926. The builder of Dallas’ Baker Hotel and Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas, Baker commissioned well-known ort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick (designer of the 1936 Amon Carter-Riverside High School) to design the building after the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Even though it opened only days after the devastating October 1929 stock market crash, the Baker was successful through the early 1960s attracting movie stars, soldiers from nearby Camp Wolters and everyday citizens who marveled at the 450 rooms and elegant lobby and swimming pool. A project began in 2010 to restore the Baker.
In May 1929, Galveston scion W. L. Moody. Jr. opened his Buccaneer Hotel at 2200 Seawall Boulevard and the beach as part of his National Association Hotel chain. The hotel had 11 floors and 400 rooms. The Buccaneer boasted master interior plaster work (courtesy of Carl Warner) and an exterior Mission style façade. It is possible that Warner had a significant hand in creating one of the most memorable features of the hotel – an oversize plaster panel of legendary buccaneer Jean Lafitte with his sailing ship. The hotel was imploded in 1999.
In 1930, Warner and contractor John F. Wingo began construction on the 1,688 square foot stucco Mission Revival house at 2232 Goldenrod. According to subsequent owner Wacel Harrison, Warner loved the Baker’s lobby and fireplace and duplicated them on a smaller scale for the Goldenrod house. He also used some of the plaster casts used at the Baker on his home. Globe-like light fixtures still in the house are closely designed after larger versions at the Buccaneer.
In 1972, Warner’s widow, Velma, sold the house to Wacel Harrison and her husband. They sold it in 1994 to present owners Simianne and Christopher Hayden.
When Carl Warner died in November 1951, he was working as superintendent in charge of plaster work for Joe Condon’s Plaster Contracting Firm at the Fort Worth National Bank Building then under construction. Carl Warner was also a member of the Masonic Lodge. Joe Condon and Noble T. Norman, a resident of Oakhurst and the longtime principal of Oakhurst Elementary School in the 1940s and 1950s, were two friends who served as pallbearers when Warner was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Warner’s wife Velma and son James survived him.