HistoricSiteMarkers
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Granger House and The Perch

Austin, Travis County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Austin architect Charles Granger (1913-1966) designed the two-story garage and apartment structure at the rear of this lot in 1938. “The Perch” features a stucco façade and a continuous band of unadorned steel windows, and is a rare austin example of residential international style architecture. Granger married Marjorie Dodge in 1946, and when an existing Victorian-era home was removed from the lot, granger designed a larger home for his growing family, which would eventually include four children. The midcentury modern house was completed ca. 1951 and incorporates a lower rear level built into a hillside. Exterior elements include a façade of unpainted corrugated asbestos panels and a glass rear elevation.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Austin architect Charles Granger designed "The Perch," a two-story garage-and-apartment at the rear of this lot, in 1938, giving it a stucco façade and a continuous band of plain steel windows in a rare local example of residential International Style. After marrying in 1946, Granger designed a larger midcentury-modern home for his growing family, completed around 1951, that stepped down a hillside and featured corrugated asbestos panels and a glass rear wall. Together the buildings trace the architect's own evolving modernist vision.

Why it matters

It documents the arrival of European modernist architecture in Texas through the work and home of a single mid-century designer.

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Related people

  • · Charles Granger
  • · Marjorie Dodge Granger

Themes & tags

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