Robert S. Stanley House
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Travis County native Robert S. Stanley (1863-1941), an African-American stonemason and laborer, built this home for his wife Francis and their children in 1895. He later built a stone building on West Mary Street (1927) which his second wife Jennie operated as a general store. The front-gabled vernacular house exhibits Stanley's craftmanship in its rusticate load-bearing and veneer limestone constructino, two-foot thick stone half-basement, and longleaf pine framing and floors. The house remained in the Stanley family for more than a century. Stanley is buried at Austin's Evergreen Cemetery.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert S. Stanley, a Travis County-born African-American stonemason, built this Austin home for his wife Francis and their children in 1895, and later raised a stone store building on West Mary Street that his second wife Jennie ran as a general store. His skill shows in the house's rusticated limestone construction, two-foot-thick half-basement walls, and longleaf pine framing—craftsmanship sturdy enough to keep the home in his family for over a century. Stanley rests at Austin's Evergreen Cemetery.
Why it matters
The house is a rare surviving monument to a Black artisan's craft and enterprise in the post-Reconstruction South, built to last by the very hands it honors.
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Related people
- · Robert S. Stanley
- · Francis Stanley
- · Jennie Stanley
Themes & tags
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