Designed by Bob Wetmore in 2015, our Belle Hill Residence is a beautiful 10,000 square foot home boasting incredible views of downtown Austin, while providing a private retreat on its six stunning acres. While this transitional contemporary estate offers all the modern luxuries of today's lifestyle, we recently discovered that the Belle Hill Residence is a home with quite a local history behind it! Thanks to Darin Walker, of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty, we know a little bit about the history of this beautiful property.
With its hilltop location, expansive views, and lovingly preserved historic landscape, the estate is a rare and evocative survival of early twentieth-century West Lake Hills dating back to 1870 when the property was part of a larger community known as Belle Hill.
"Originally we thought the property was part of the Bulian Dairy but found it wasn't. It was originally a post-civil war black freedmen community and part of a larger 56-acre tract that had a blacksmith shop, bar, store, livery stable, cemetery, and had a makeshift hospital during the smallpox epidemic of 1912." Darin Walker
The land associated with the community stretched from Bee Cave Road into what is known today as Las Lomas and included a store, bar, blacksmith shop, livery stable, and a one-acre cemetery. Beginning in 1929, the prized hilltop known for its views of the city became an out-of-town retreat owned by a series of important members of the old Eanes and Austin communities.
Working together with Schatz Homes and Blair Burton Interiors, Bob crafted a timeless design on this estate which has historically offered an escape from the hustle and bustle of Austin. Belle Hill provides privacy, solitude, and beauty that are reminiscent of a bygone era. The six-acre property’s tennis court, water towers, cisterns, windmills, and barns are architectural touchstones representing a storied piece of West Lake Hills history.