HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Moore-Flack House

Austin, Travis County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Local contractor Charles Funk built this house for John M. and Estelle Moore in 1887 at a cost of $2,000. At that time John M. Moore (1853-1902), a former Texas legislator and district attorney, was secretary of state for Governor Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross. Laura A. E. (Metz) Flack (1836-1933) purchased the house in 1901, and in the 1920s modified the original Victorian design with the addition of a two-story neo-classical revival porch. A prominent Austin businesswoman who owned a number of buildings on Congress Avenue, Flack lived here with her family until her death. The house remained in her family for another forty years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Contractor Charles Funk built this house in 1887 for John M. Moore—a former legislator and district attorney then serving as secretary of state under Governor Sul Ross—at a cost of $2,000. In 1901 it was bought by Laura A. E. Flack, a prominent Austin businesswoman who owned several buildings on Congress Avenue and who in the 1920s added a two-story neoclassical porch to the original Victorian design. Flack lived here until her death in 1933, and the house stayed in her family for another forty years.

Why it matters

The home preserves the story of a woman of independent business standing in Gilded Age Austin, a reminder that women shaped the city's commercial life well before they could vote.

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Related people

  • · John M. Moore
  • · Laura A. E. Flack
  • · Charles Funk

Themes & tags

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