Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Bldg.
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Veteran Travis County official and historian Frank Brown (1833-1913) erected this structure in 1886. Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company bought and restyles the building in 1898. Architect A. O. Watson designed the ornate façade, Previously in rented quarters at various sites, S.T. & T. occupied this as the city’s first telephone building. The John L. Martin family owned the structure from 1922 to 1976. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark- 1977
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Travis County official and historian Frank Brown built this ornate structure in 1886, and the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company bought and restyled it in 1898 with a façade by architect A. O. Watson. It served as Austin's first dedicated telephone building, housing the company that was wiring the city for a new age of communication. The John L. Martin family later owned the building from 1922 to 1976.
Why it matters
The building marks the arrival of the telephone in Austin, part of the communications revolution that transformed American life at the turn of the century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Frank Brown
- · A. O. Watson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sixth Street
Austin, TX
Laid out as Pecan Street on Edwin Waller's 1839 plan for the new capital, this thoroughfare drew a diverse population and grew into a commercial heart of nineteenth-century Austin. Its flat ground and safe distance from the flood-prone Colorado River made it ideal for shops, saloons, stables, and lumber yards, often with owners living above their businesses. Renamed Sixth Street in 1884, it accumulated Austin's largest concentration of Victorian commercial architecture, and restoration efforts begun in the 1960s revived the district.
Driskill Hotel
Austin, TX
Cattle king Col. Jesse L. Driskill, who drove his fortune up from the open range after moving to Austin in 1869, built this grand hotel in 1885–86 and opened it at Christmas 1886 as the finest in the Southwest. Brick dressed in limestone, it boasted three monumental entrances—one the largest arched doorway in Texas—a separate "Ladies' Entrance," and busts of Driskill and his rancher sons crowning the arches. The colonel personally chose its rich furnishings before leasing the hotel out.
Sampson Building
Austin, TX
Master builder Abner Cook completed this structure in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, to house the general merchandise store of George W. Sampson and Abram Henricks. After Henricks died in 1865, Sampson kept an office here and leased out the rest for other commercial and professional tenants. Its Italianate arched windows and fine stonework have watched over the street while the building stayed in the Sampson family for well over a century.
Norwood Tower
Austin, TX
When it opened in 1929, the Norwood Tower was the tallest building in downtown Austin apart from the State Capitol. Developer Ollie O. Norwood hired the firm of Giesecke and Harris to design a Gothic Revival office tower of pre-cast concrete, dressed with a rose window, tracery, finials, and gargoyles. Its tenants ranged from drugstores and doctors to firms like Brown & Root, and former Governor Dan Moody kept his law office there; the top floors even held apartments.