The large Colonial Revival home at 218 East Padre Street was built in 1904 for $4,500 — an above-average price for that time. It was built for a woman — not a common occurrence a century ago. Her name was Mabel Houston Lazear. She was a widow in her mid-twenties with two small children. Taking charge of the construction of her own home was not the only unusual event in her life.
The Cuba Connection
In 1898, the United States had fought the Spanish-American War in Cuba and in the Pacific. During the war, more U.S. soldiers in Cuba had died of tropical diseases such as yellow fever and malaria than from battle wounds. Mabel’s husband, Dr. Jesse William Lazear, had graduated from Columbia University in 1892 and started practicing at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1895. In 1900, he volunteered to go to Cuba to help investigate how yellow fever was transmitted. Mabel bravely joined her husband with their one-year-old son. She was in Cuba for several months until she became pregnant with their second child.
This was not a safe time for the family to be in Cuba. Not only because of the danger of tropical diseases, but also because of political turmoil. Cuba was transitioning from being a Spanish colony to becoming independent and wanted the American military to leave. But the U.S. armed forces stayed on the island even though the war had ended two years earlier.