Cedar Lawn

In June 1926, the Cedar Lawn Company purchased nine city blocks for residential development. Company officers were W.L. Moody, III, President, W.D. Harden, Vice-President, and Clark W. Thompson, Secretary and Treasurer. The subdivision was designed as an enclave for the Moody family and officials of the Moody companies.

Bounded by avenues L and N and 45th and 48th streets, Cedar Lawn became a distinctive Galveston neighborhood for its architecture and planning design. Thompson wrote in his early plans for Cedar Lawn, "Subdivisions are made and not born. It is rare that without farsighted planning a desirable neighborhood grows up by itself in an American city.

" Cedar Lawn's street plan interrupts the continuity of the city's standard grid, with a circle and two semicircles intersecting to form curves and a central community garden. Houses face away from surrounding streets to emphasize spatial insularity, and Cedar Lawn property owners even own their neighborhood streets.

Original deed restrictions included construction costs, materials, and building setbacks to create a cohesive neighborhood. Cedar, oleander and palm trees planted along the streets and subdivision perimeter enhanced the landscape. Two of the first homes built in Cedar Lawn were for Clark and Libbie Thompson (1927) and W.L. and Edna Moody (1929).

Over forty years, noted architects included Alfred Finn, Donald McKenzie and Robert Smallwood designed homes in Revival styles such as Tudor, Classical, Colonial, Mediterranean, and Italianate, as well as Moderne and Ranch styles. In 2002, Cedar Lawn Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

(2008)