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"O ur beloved home is really a new house wrapped in an old house," says Mary Bledsoe of her restored 1887 Greek Revival house in Smithville, some 40 minutes west of Round Top. Sheltered by a canopy of old magnolias and oaks, the property encompasses an entire block of Smithville's charming downtown district. Bledsoe, an interior designer with a love for architecture, purchased the house in 2020 with husband Trac Bledsoe, a developer in the healthcare real estate industry. The couple have two grown children and recently moved from Austin to Smithville, where they now live full- time. "My husband has been trying to get me out to the country for years, but it just wasn't going to happen until our boys went off at college," she says. Still, Bledsoe had dreamed of restoring a gracious old home like the ones she'd seen in New Orleans, where she lived for a few years and has family. "Trac found the house in Smithville and came home to tell me, 'Mary I found your Garden District house in Texas.' He was right. It was love at first sight." Listed on the Texas National Register of Historic Places, the house was built for Yeager Hill, one of the town's first settlers and a prominent figure; the Hill family established retail commerce along BY REBECCA SHERMAN. PHOTOGRAPHY GARRETT ROWLAND PHOTOGRAPHY. INTERIOR AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN MARY BLEDSOE. A prominent 1887 Greek Revival house in the town of Smithville — 40 minutes west of Round Top — was restored by designer Mary Bledsoe. Would it pass muster with the townsfolk? COUNTRY life 33