Scarbrough Building
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Scarbrough Building Alabama native Emerson Monroe Scarbrough (1846-1925) came to Texas following service in the Civil War and settled in Milam County, where he was a successful merchant. He opened a branch of his business, Scarbrough and Hicks, on Congress Avenue in 1893, moving one block north in 1894. In 1910, on this adjacent, prominent corner, he completed Austin's first skyscraper. His new building was designed in the Chicago style by Fort Worth architects Sanguinet and Staats. It was enlarged and redesigned with Art Deco elements in 1930-31 by Wyatt C. Hedrick, Inc. and Edwin Kreisle. An early leader in modern merchandising, Scarbrough's closed this downtown location in 1983. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Alabama-born Civil War veteran Emerson Monroe Scarbrough built a mercantile fortune before opening his store on Austin's Congress Avenue in the 1890s. In 1910 he crowned this corner with the city's first skyscraper, designed in the Chicago style and later reworked with Art Deco flourishes in the early 1930s. A pioneer of modern merchandising, Scarbrough's anchored downtown Austin retail until 1983.
Why it matters
The Scarbrough Building marks the rise of the modern department store and the vertical, big-city commercial ambition that reshaped Texas downtowns in the early 1900s.
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Related people
- · Emerson Monroe Scarbrough
Themes & tags
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