Andrew J. Palm House
Round Rock, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
With his mother and brothers, Andrew J. Palm (1839-1928) migrated to Texas from Sweden in 1853. They settled about three miles north of Round Rock at Palm Valley, where Palm built this residence about 1873. He purchased the land from Swedish immigration agent S. M. Swenson. Palm hauled cypress and pine from Austin to construct the house. Here he and his wife Carolina (Nelson) (1851-1929) raised their eight children. The structure was moved to Round Rock in 1976. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Andrew J. Palm sailed from Sweden in 1853 with his mother and brothers and settled at Palm Valley, a Swedish community north of Round Rock, on land bought from immigration agent S. M. Swenson. About 1873 he hauled cypress and pine down from Austin to build this house, where he and his wife Carolina raised their eight children. The home was relocated to Round Rock in 1976 and recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Why it matters
The Palm house is a relic of the Swedish immigrant colonies that Swenson helped plant in Central Texas, a reminder that the American frontier was settled by newcomers from across Europe.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Andrew J. Palm
- · Carolina Palm
- · S. M. Swenson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Round Rock
Round Rock, TX
Settlement gathered here in the late 1830s, and by mid-century former Austin mayor Jacob Harrell was selling lots near the Stagecoach Road crossing at Brushy Creek. A post office opened in 1851, and the community soon renamed itself Round Rock for a distinctive limestone ford; immigration from several states and Sweden doubled its population in the 1850s. When the railroad built a new townsite to the east in 1876, "New Town" quickly eclipsed the old settlement, and Round Rock briefly rivaled Austin as a commercial hub before growing, a century later, into one of the nation's fastest-expanding cities.
Palm Valley Lutheran Church
Round Rock, TX
Swedish immigrants led by the Palm family settled this Williamson County valley in the 1850s, and in 1861 Andrew John Nelson and three helpers built a log church that also served as the settlement's first school. The congregation formally organized in 1870, replaced its log meetinghouse, and in 1894 raised the Gothic Revival sanctuary that stands today. Palm Valley remains one of the enduring landmarks of Swedish Lutheran settlement in central Texas.
Fortress Home
Austin, TX
Martin Wieland, a settler from Dessau, Germany, built this sturdy home in the early 1850s on the Central Texas frontier, where it doubled as a place of refuge for neighbors in times of danger. Successive enlargements in 1873 and 1912 show how the household and community grew alongside it. It was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1964.
Hutto Cemetery
Hutto, TX
This burial ground took shape in the late 1880s, when it was known as Elmwood Cemetery, and the earliest marked grave dates to 1887. As ownership passed from family to family, the site filled with the community's story: settlers from distant states and countries, members of fraternal orders, veterans reaching back to the Civil War, and children whose short lives are recorded in stone. In 1950 a newly formed association bought the land and renamed it for the town of Hutto.