He also designed the west wing of the original main building of the University of Texas at Austin (since demolished) and the first state penitentiary in Huntsville.
[3] in 1839, when Cook arrived in the Republic of Texas at the port of Velasco, the government was planning to move to the new capitol city of Austin.
[5] During this time there was little building construction in Austin, so he entered the finished lumber business in 1840 with Jacob Higgins and established a partnership based in Bastrop.
Ward, who like Cook, was trained and experienced as a builder-architect, had lost one arm and one leg in separate artillery tragedies and was no longer able to fully implement construction plans.
At that time a journeyman carpenter in Austin could expect to earn about $500 per year, while the superintendent job paid Cook twice that in annual salary.
Built facing the old structure, he erected the new building on the northeast corner of Lavaca and Bois d'Arc streets, where the first service convened on August 24, 1851.
He formed a partnership with Lamar Moore to manufacture brick, which earned a reputation for quality and supplied the claddings for many buildings in Austin in the early 1850s.
Meanwhile, in 1853, Cook returned to the finished lumber business when he acquired a one-third interest in a sawmill from Hiram Chapin and Kener Keener in Bastrop County.
While Cook had sold his brick to other builders, he also constructed the brick-clad Methodist Church in Austin at the corner of Mulberry and Brazos streets.
By engaging in the brick and finished lumber businesses, he secured access to high-quality construction supplies for his own building contracts.
Cook then designed and built three large Greek Revival homes in Austin which still stand: Woodlawn (1853),[11] the Texas Governor's Mansion (1855), and the Neill-Cochran House (1855).