Angelina Eberly, The Sculpture on Congress Ave.

A seven-foot tall and 2,200-pound bronze sculpture of a woman shooting a cannon stands on Congress Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets.  Her name is Angelina Eberly, and her act hails from the pioneer days of the new Republic.  This statue has been an iconic Austin treasure since Sept. 2004.

The back up a little:  Texas had become an independent country, the Republic of Texas, in 1836. The first president of the Republic of Texas was Sam Houston.  

Houston served as President from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838, and again from December 12, 1841 to December 9, 1844.  He was not permitted to serve consecutive terms.

The interim presidency went to Mirabeau Lamar and in 1839 he established Austin as the capitol of the new Republic.  This didn't sit well with Sam Houston.  

In the middle of the night in 1842 during the second Houston presidency, Sam Houston attempted to forcibly move the capitol from Austin back to Houston.  He sent the Texas Rangers to Austin to steal the government archives,

It was night time, and Angelina Eberly, a local innkeeper, heard a noise.  She discovered the Texas Rangers loading their wagons.

She ran to the center of town - now 6th and Congress - and shot the town cannon.  She missed hitting the Rangers but successfully blew a hole in the old General Land Office three blocks away.  (The new GLO, which was built in 1857, still stands today, unharmed.) The populace was roused from their sleep and the Texas Rangers, who had made it as far as Brushy Creek, were successfully chased down.  The records were apprehended and returned to Austin.  Angelina Eberly had saved Austin as the Capitol of Texas.

The artist Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant is the sculptor for this magnificent piece.  It was donated as a gift to the City by Capital Area Statues, Inc., (CAST), the folks who also brought us the Philosophers' Rock at Barton Springs Pool.  CAST is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the history and culture of Texas through highly original works of monumental sculpture.  

Angelina Eberly, Sculpture on Congress

6th and Congress Ave., Austin, TX  78701

http://www.tshaonline.org/spotlights/198.html

John Bremond, Jr. House (1886-87)

This is one of the homes in the Bremond Block, a family enclave created by two brothers, Eugene and John Bremond, for themselves and their extended family in the late 1800's.  For more information, see the TravelGoat story:  The Bremond Block Story.

Noted for its "Victorian exuberance," this Second Empire home boasts having the first indoor toilet in Austin.  The mansard roof, covered in multi-toned slate shingles,  has elaborate dormers; the decorative cast-iron work is intricately complex.  After the State Capitol, it is the second most popular historic site in Austin.  It is currently  occupied by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association.

Noted master builder George Fiegel needs to be honored for the many lovely Victorian homes built both on the Bremond Block and elsewhere in Austin.  He built this outstanding home in 1886-87.

John Bremond, Jr. purchased this property as an empty lot in 1864, two years before Eugene bought the adjacent property.  Since his elder brother Eugene had left the family's mercantile business to start a banking business, it was John, Jr.'s responsibility to run the store.  This home is proof of his success as a businessman.

A sad part of this story:  John's adored wife, Hallie Robertson, died in 1887 just as the house was being completed.  But a happy part of the story is that heir daughter Hallie married 'the boy next door' in 1915 and continued to live next to her father's house for another half century.

John Bremond, Jr. House

Tel: none

700 Guadalupe, Austin, TX  7870

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/ghb2.html      

Occupied by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association

Phillips-Bremond-Houston House (1854)

This beautiful little house has a sweeping front porch under massive shady oak trees.  It was designed and built by master builder Abner Cook, the man responsible for the Governor's Mansion.  The original house, built in the Greek Revival style, was the home of a prominent doctor, William Phillips.  Eugene Bremond may have lived here as early as 1866, the year he purchased the northern half of the block.  The one-story house was later expanded with a rear addition in 1872 in an Italianate style.

The house was the home of Eugene Bremond and his wife Mary Amelia Robinson.  Unfortunately,  Mary died in that year -- the same year that the house was expanded.   Eugene remarried in 1874 and moved his family to a new home, then sold this house to his older brother John Bremond, Jr. in 1906.

Soon after John acquired the property, the house was leased out to a young man named Hale Houston.  Hale in turn fell in love with and married John's daughter, Hallie, and so the house continued to be occupied by a Bremond for the next half century.

Phillips-Bremond-Houston House

Tel: none

706 Guadalupe St., Austin, TX  78701

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/ghb2.html      

private residence/office

The Bremond Block Story

In the 1840's this block, which is just a short walk from Congress Ave., was still a wild place -- there was mortal danger from Indians.  But by 1866 it was becoming a residential neighborhood.  Austin is rightfully proud of it:  it is a rare example of a Victorian-era neighborhood still intact, beautifully landscaped with lush planting and giant live oaks.  Interested architecture buffs can find a few more homes from this glorious era in the neighborhood blocks just west of the Bremond Block.

The story of the Bremond family goes something like this. 

The Bremond patriarch, John Bremond, Sr., was a successful merchant with a store on East 6th Street. It was one of the earliest stores in Austin and he was tremendously successful.  The west side of Congress Ave. was being developed:  The new  Governor's Mansion was built there in 1856 and Gov. Elisha Pease invited John Bremond, Sr. to come see the Fourth of July fireworks from its balcony the year it was completed. 

Mr. Bremond, Sr. also enjoyed the company of his neighbor, close friend and fellow merchant  John Robinson, Sr.  Their success and friendship was the basis for two important developments:  marriage and banking.  Three children of the one family married three children of the other.  And where the younger Bremond son, John Jr., kept up the family merchant business, the eldest son, Eugene, developed one of its natural offshoots:  banking.

It was common practice at the time for retailers to extend credit terms to customers.  Eugene took this to the next step by creating the Bremond Bank (which became State National, then Capital National).  The Hirshfeld Bank was created during this same time period, and the bank officers of both helped to fill out this beautiful neighborhood with their wealth and taste for lovely homes.  Some of these banker's homes were later demolished to create banking facilities for customers -- parking garages and drive-thru banks.  The Bremond Block is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eugene had a vision of a family compound.  His brother already owned an empty lot at the corner of 7th St. and Guadalupe when Eugene joined him.  Homes on this block eventually housed Eugene's children, his mother, his brother, four younger sisters, and numerous neices and nephews.  By 1876, the local newspaper reported that one-twentieth of the city's taxes were paid by the Bremond family -- and in 1876 the most glorious homes were not even built yet on this block.

All of the properties in the Bremond Historical District are now either private homes or offices.  The stories of each of the houses help to trace the family members as they matured and passed on their inheritance.  For more details, see the individual listings of the Bremond Block houses.

Bremond Block Historic District

Tel: none

Location: the block bounded by W. 7th St., W. 8th St. Guadalupe and San Antonio

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/ghb2.html

private residence/office

Bremond Block Homes: Stories of four more of the properties

(1) Eugene Bremond House

404 W. 7th St., Austin, TX  78701

This Italianate house was built in 1873.  In 1874, Eugene Bremond paid $15,000 for both the house and the empty lot next door to the east.

In 1872, Eugene Bremond was a widower with four young children to care for.  He married again in 1874, this time to Augusta Palm.  He moved his children and new bride to this house on the southwest corner of the block.  Eugene and August had two more children, so all together the Eugene Bremond family had six children.

It was said that the alley behind the house was often closed off at either end so that the children and their cousins could play there.  A traveling vegetable cart made daily stops there at the alley, and Eugene  made those purchases for his mother and wife.

(2) Pauline Bremond Robinson and Catherine Robinson House (1891)

705 San Antonio St., Austin, TX  78701

Across the alley, just to the north of Eugene's house, later lived Eugene's sister Pauline.  She had six children and a seventh on the way when her husband, Alfred Robinson, died in 1885.  Eugene had this house built for her in 1891.

It was updated in 1905 with columns and a second floor gallery in the Colonial Revival style.  Later, Pauline bequeathed the home to her maiden daughter Catherine who continued to live there until 1961.  

(3) Walter Bremond House (1887-1888)

711 San Antonio, Austin,TX  78701

At first this was the home of a sister of Eugene Bremond, Josephine Bremond Crosby, who lived there briefly with her husband Josiah.  In 1887, Eugene decided to remodel it.  Local master builder George Fiegel was hired to add one and a half stories to the stone house, transforming it into a fashionable Second Empire home.

It was a wedding gift from Eugene to his son, Walter, and his bride Mary Anderson.

(4) Pierre Bremond Home (1898)

402 W. 7th St., Austin, TX  78701

One of the youngest of Eugene's children, Pierre married a socialite from St. Louis, Nina Abadie, and this lovely house was built on the empty lot that Eugene had purchased back in 1874.  

By this time, master builder George Fiegel had been engaged to build numerous homes for the Bremonds.  The Pierre Bremond Home is a subdued Queen Anne style.  It was the last home to be built on the block.

The couple had no children, but were known to be fun-loving with a special affection for dogs and sylish new cars.  Once again the alley was useful, now for a parking place for Pierre's automobiles.

Butler Pitch & Putt Story

Albert Winston Kinser, who went by 'Winston', and his brother John Douglas Kinser, 'Doug', had grown up playing golf.  The Kinser brothers leased property from the City of Austin in 1949 to create their dream:  A 9-hole golf course near downtown Austin known as Butler Park Pitch and Putt.

These were the LBJ years.  In 1948, after serving for twelve years as a United States Representative, LBJ was elected U.S. Senator.  LBJ had four siblings, and one of them was his sister Josefa Johnson.  With an interest in politics, she had worked actively in his recent Senate campaign.

Josefa was a single woman in 1952 after two divorces.  Malcom (Mac) Wallace, an associate of LBJ's working for the United States Department of Agriculture in Texas, was a married man.

Rumors were that Josefa was having affairs with both Mac Wallace and Doug Kinser; and that Doug Kinser was also having an affair with Mac Wallace's wife.  

On 22nd October, 1951, Mac Wallace walked into the clubhouse of the Butler Park Pitch and Putt, pulled out a gun and shot Doug Kinser multiple times in cold blood.  A customer heard the shooting and noted the license plate as the vehicle escaped.  Mac Wallace was apprehended -- the weapon was found in his car as was the blood of his victim.

On February 1st, 1952, Wallace resigned from his government job and was represented in court seventeen days later by LBJ's attorney, John Cofer.   

It might be possible to assume that the motive was jealousy, which was what Cofer claimed in court.  However, the outcome of the trial was so bizarre that other motives come to mind.   

Barr McClellan, a lawyer who worked in Austin for a firm closely linked to LBJ, offers insights beneath the facade in his 2003 book Blood Money and Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K.  Was it possible that Doug Kinser knew about possible wrongdoings of LBJ from conversations with Josefa? McClellan mentions that Doug had asked Josefa to approach her brother to ask for financial help.  LBJ refused, and the implications of blackmail arose. 

During the murder trial, Wallace never testified in his own defense.  

The jury's verdict was "murder with malice afore-thought".  Eleven of the jurors were for the death penalty and the twelfth argued for life in prison.   Judge Charles O. Betts overruled the jury, announced a sentence of five years imprisonment and then suspended the sentence.   Wallace was freed.

History -- or perhaps rumor-- has it that this wasn't the only murder committed by Wallace.  The list of his covert criminal activity goes on to include the possibility that he was one of the gunmen who shot JFK.  His finger prints have been positively identified with those found on a box at the scene of the sniper's nest.  He died at age 49 in a one-car crash in 1971.

Butler Pitch & Putt
201 Lee Barton Dr, Austin, TX

(512) 477-4430 ‎ · butlerparkpitchandputt.com

Capitol Visitor's Center: The Story of O. Henry

William Sidney Porter, the man behind the pen name of O Henry, was born in North Carolina in 1862.  He was a licensed pharmacist when he came to Texas as a young man in 1882.  He was also an avid reader, a bookkeeper, a musician and singer, and had a talent for drawing.

He met his future wife, Athol Estes, on the Capitol grounds during the festivities which marked the placement of the cornerstone of the new Capitol building on March 2, 1885.  She had been selected by her classmates to place souvenirs in the cornerstone, and in that collection she included a locket of her hair.  They married in 1887, although she had already been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Porter worked at the General Land Office (GLO), on the Capitol grounds, from 1887-1891as a draftsman.  Some of his stories bear themes from the days of his work here: Georgia's Ruling and Buried Treasure.  In particular, note the circular staircase and the third floor (unlighted) attic which were instrumental in one of his fictitious stories involving a murder.

The GLO was a place where land sharks could come to search for records with errors and exploit them for financial gain and speculation.  This was both a legal and profitable business.  Porter himself found a sliver of unclaimed land and was able to buy and sell it for profit.

When his job terminated at the GLO, he worked from 1891-1894 at the First National Bank of Austin.   He left to move to Houston and to pursue his writing. Sadly, his wife died in 1897 of tuberculosis, leaving him to care for their daughter Margaret.

Porter's employment at the bank now came under fire.  He was convicted of embezzlement in 1898, and was forced to serve about 3 years in prison as a prison pharmacist.  The head prison guard who befriended him was named Orrin Henry at the Ohio State Federal Penitentiary.  His sentence was reduced and he was released early.

Porter reunited with his daughter Margaret, moved to NYC and began his prolific period of writing prose.  He wrote 300 stories there.  He achieved international fame during his lifetime and is credited with defining the literary art form of the short story.

He never wrote a story that wasn't eventually published, and he claimed to have never rewritten a story.  He was typically paid half in advance for a writing assignment, and often would have to be hounded by his editors when they became desperate to have him write the second half of the story.  

He died at age 47 in 1910.  He was penniless.

Capitol Visitor's Center
112 E 11th St, Austin, TX

(512) 305-8400 ‎ · tspb.state.tx.us

Driskill Hotel

The Driskill Hotel was built by cattle baron Jesse Driskill in 1886.  Ever since, the Driskill has set exemplified Texas-style elegance in Austin.  Many governors of Texas have held their inaugural balls here.

The history of the hotel is interesting.  It was forced to close just 5 months after opening when half of the staff was hired by a Galveston hotel.  It re-opened again in the fall of that same year, but Jesse Driskill was about to encounter financial devastation when an exceptionally cold winter killed over 3,000 head of his cattle.  He was forced to sell the hotel in May of 1888.  He died of a stroke two years later in 1890.  Although he did not live to enjoy the Driskill Hotel to its fullest, he is still revered as the creator of this gloriously elegant lifestyle.

In 1895 the hotel was acquired by another cattle baron - Major George W. Littlefield.  The Driskill, already remarkable for modern amenities when it was constructed in 1886, was now renovated to include steam heating, electric fans, electric lighting and many more private baths.  Littlefield sold the hotel at a loss in 1903.

The hotel had an artesian well which became popular in 1909 as a healing spa for women, complete with traveling psychic healers and medicine men who set up shop in the hotel.

The Maximilian Room contains eight famous Austrian gold leaf-framed mirrors that once belonged to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.  These was luckily found in a San Antonio antique shop and purchased for the Driskill in 1930.

Two restaurants are part of the hotel:  The famous Driskill Grill and 1886 Cafe & Bakery.  It was in the dining room of the 1886 Cafe that Lyndon Baines Johnson met his future wife Lady Bird for their first date in 1934.  Both in 1960 and 1964, LBJ waited here to watch the returns of the presidential elections.  During his presidential years, LBJ continued to have a reserved suite on the 5th floor of the Driskill.

When remodeling efforts stalled in 1969, the hotel was temporarily closed but was considered for demolition.  Citizens were able to have it named a historic landmark to save it from destruction.  Through their fundraising efforts, these citizens became the interim owners of the hotel until it was sold again in 1973. Once again the hotel was remodeled and restored to its 'glory days.'  Subsequent major renovations came in 1980, 1983, 1990, 1996, and in 2008.

Driskill Hotel

(512) 474-5911

604 Brazos St.,  Austin, Texas  78701  

http://www.driskillhotel.com/

Elisabet Ney Museum

Elisabet Ney (1833–1907) was a German immigrant and an artist who was already accomplished as a sculptor during her years as a young woman in Germany.  There she sculpted the busts, from life, of famous personages and became integrated into their societies.  She met and fell in love with Edmund Montgomery, a young Scotsman. Edmund was a scholar, scientist and physician. Early in 1863, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Elisabet and Edmund were both beautiful, brilliant, and rebellious against the norm of social conventions in their time.   They married in November of 1863, although Elisabet kept her maiden name and was known as "Miss Ney" for her entire life.  Together they emigrated from Germany to America. They arrived in America in 1871, and moved to Texas in 1873.

In Texas, the couple lived together for 19 years on an 1100 acre plantation, named Liendo, near Hempstead, Texas.  Here they aspired to live an idyllic existence away from the influence of society - but farming wasn't easy and they suffered repeated financial losses.   Elisabet had given up sculpture for motherhood.  She and Edmund had two children; one child died of diphtheria soon after arriving in Texas.   The second child, Lorne, was rebellious toward his mother.  

In 1892, Elisabet Ney was ready for a change.  The plantation had become too isolated; she longed to return to her earlier work creating sculpture and to the companionship of society.  She built for herself a neo-classical home in Hyde Park, a rural neighborhood of Austin, naming it Formosa, where she lived and worked for 14 years until her death in 1907.  Although at times she was utterly broke (at one point she entered a notice in the newspaper:  "To my creditors: - Please don’t bother to send me any bills. I have no money.  — Elisabet Ney, Sculptor") she finally secured the commission to create three sculptures for the Texas Legislature.  

Once in Austin, she became the center of a salon of cultured friends and visitors.  Young artists made pilgrimages here, and a social invitation to Formosa was held in high esteem.   Conversations were passionate, and from the guests at these gatherings emerged the ideas and energy to create a number of Texas arts institutions that survive to this day.  

At her death, the Austin Daily Statesman wrote: “She had so many friends. It was the woman, quite as much as the artist, that enamored herself to hundreds of warm friends and admirers.”  She is buried beside her husband at Liendo.


Elisabet Ney Museum

(512)458-2255

304 E. 44th St.  Austin, TX 78751

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/elisabetney/

Wednesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, Sunday noon - 5:00 pm; closed Mon., Tues.

Free

The French Legation Museum

This is the oldest surviving wood frame house in Austin, and it is owned and operated as a public museum by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who also oversee the Alamo in San Antonio.

It's an amazing glimpse back into pioneer days in Austin, but in this case a relatively civilized "pioneer day."

The man responsible for its design and construction was Dubois de Saligny, the Secretary from the French Legation in Washington, D.C., who came to Austin in September of 1840.

The house, built in 1840-1841, was furnished by his servants with furniture and provisions "worthy of a foreign dignitary's residence."  However - and here is the astonishing fact - Monsieur de Saligny may never have lived in the house.

To the local Austin population in 1840, many aspects of the man were found objectionable.  They did not believe that he was a Count, or in fact that his name was actually more than Monsieur Dubois.  He was accused of using counterfeit money at one point and of not paying his bills.  He was renowned for showing his contempt for the living conditions he experienced in downtown Austin.  

Simply put,  he was not a popular man.  

His popularity, or lack of it, culminated in a conflict with local innkeeper Richard Bullock.  Mr. Bullock was accustomed to letting his several pigs roam freely through the town, and after a bit of rummaging in the vicinity of Monsieur Dubois' residence, those pigs were eventually killed by Monsieur Dubois' man-servant.

Due to Dubois' generally disdained presence and questionable activities, the locals naturally sided with the local innkeeper.

Finally, James Mayfield, the Texas Secretary of State, requested that Dubois be recalled back to Washington.  The man left town, never to return, and therefore probably never inhabited this lovely home, the French Legation, located on a bluff overlooking central Austin.

In 1847, Dr. Joseph W. Robertson bought the property.  After his dream of using it as a school for girls had to be abandoned, he moved his family into the house as their residence.  He and his wife went on to raise eleven children there, the last child (born in 1850 in the house) continuing residence there until her death in 1940.  The property during all of this time was known as "Robertson Hill."

The exterior kitchen, a free-standing building behind the main house, features many items of cookware and tableware from the mid-1800's, with an unusual emphasis on period French culinary preferences and implements.  

After all had come and gone, Dubois' main legacy to Austin seems to be the French servants that he left behind when he vacated the state.  As a result, Austin now had its first  French bakery.  Perhaps this began to mend Austin's contempt for the man and his foreign ways, for the residence which he probably never lived in is in fact called The French Legation.


The French Legation Museum

(512) 472-8180

802 San Marcos St.  Austin, TX 78702

http://www.frenchlegationmuseum.org

Tuesday through Sunday, from 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Admission fees.

Hirshfeld Honeymoon Cottage & Bremond Block

In 1873, Henry Hirshfeld and his wife Jennie built the one story cottage here on West 9th Street.  It is known as the "Honeymoon Cottage" although it was never used for a honeymoon for any of the Hirshfeld family.  Henry and Jennie had eight children, and as they continued to live in the large Victorian home next door they must have leased out this cottage at times.  Perhaps this is when it became known as a "Honeymoon Cottage."  History suggests that Jennie Hirshfeld enjoyed this house very much:  She let a year go by after her new house was completed before she agreed to leave this little house and move into her new one.

Henry Hirshfeld was a German Jewish immigrant who came to Austin after the Civil War.  He began his career as a peddler, then as a merchant with a store at the corner of 6th St. and Congress Avenue.  He eventually started the Hirshfeld Bank which later became Austin National Bank.  The large Victorian Hirshfeld house which stands next to the cottage, built in 1885, marks the vast distance that his profession and social standing had grown from his early days as a peddler.

These two houses can help to tell the story of how rapidly Austin was changing in the mid-1800's.  While Hirshfeld's career went from street peddler to banker in a very short time, so did Austin change from dust and scruff to a fine State Capitol.

To backtrack a bit, a little Texas history is needed.  Texas became free from Mexico in 1836 and it encouraged settlers to come here with a generous land grant program. Then in 1845, in order to unload $10 million of debt that the Republic had accrued, it made a deal to become a state of the United States.

Historical records show that around the year 1842 this area of Austin was undeveloped and dangerous.  Three children were attacked and abducted by hostile Indians on the sloping hill near what is now known as the Bremond Block, just a block or two from this Honeymoon Cottage.  But the neighborhood was changing as new state government was growing and the economy was changing in Austin.

In 1853, Austin built its first State Capitol building on the grounds just north of 11th Street and Congress Avenue. The Governor's Mansion was built at the corner of 11th and Colorado Streets in 1856.  By 1870 Austin had a population of 5,000 and this area was becoming a residential neighborhood.   

In 1872, Eugene Bremond, another prominent merchant, moved into his first house at 8th and Guadalupe (see the Bremond Block Story).  

Now in 1873, Henry Hirshfeld built this little cottage here on 9th Street.  Bremond and Hirshfeld, both originally merchants and later bankers, established a toe-hold in what would become a prestigious neighborhood surrounding the Governor of Texas.  It was to become a neighborhood of bankers.

The City continued to change rapidly.  By 1874 an elegant chateau was being built by Harvey and Catherine North at the corner of 7th St. and San Antonio, just 2 blocks southwest from the Hirshfeld cottage.  The original Capitol Building burned to the ground in 1881, and plans for a new one were hurried up.  The University of Texas was founded in 1883.  

It was in this time of great growth that Henry Hirshfeld built his second and prestigious new home in 1885 next to the "Honeymoon" cottage.  The sense of competition in homes must have been growing.  The beautiful John Bremond, Jr. house at 7th Street and Guadalupe was completed in 1887 - it had the first indoor toilet in Austin.  The new pink granite Texas State Capitol building was completed, just a few blocks away on the Capitol grounds, in 1888. 

Henry Hirshfeld helped to establish the Austin National Bank in 1890.  By 1898, the Bremond Block was completely built with lovely homes and occupied by the many Bremond relatives.  A descendent of the Bremonds continued to live on her family's block until 1961. Similarly, the Hirshfeld House was occupied by the descendents of Henry Hirshfeld, the last one living there until 1973.

Hirshfeld Honeymoon Cottage

The interior is not open to the public.

307 W. 9th St., Austin, TX  78701

Littlefield Building

A story about Major Littlefield and the Littlefield Building:

George Washington Littlefield (1842-1920) was a Texas cattleman, banker and member of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas.  He made numerous contributions to Austin and the University.  

Littlefield served in the Civil War.  At the Battle of Mossy Creek in Tennessee he was severely wounded.  He was promoted to Major as he lay on the snow-covered ground.  He remained unconscious for three weeks and was kept alive with morphine and brandy.  His body servant, a slave from his childhood who had insisted on accompanying him to the war front, nursed him back to health.  He had married Alice Tillar during the war, and now returned to Texas to manage his family's farm.  Due to his war injury, he was on crutches for three years.  Natural disasters made those same years financially perilous, and he was nearly bankrupt by 1871.  He sold all of his and his brother's remaining cattle which yielded enough to discharge his debts, after which he had $3,600 remaining.  He set out to start all over again.

Littlefield continued to engage in various business activities and by 1881, just ten years after 'starting all over again,' he sold one of his assets, the LIT Ranch, for $248,000.  Littlefield said that he had made "far more money than he had ever expected to have."  He was 39 years old.    

He moved to Austin in 1883 and accepted a position on the board of Eugene Bremond's State National Bank.

In 1890, he established the American National Bank in the Driskill Hotel.  Littlefield owned the bank from 1895 to 1903 and served as its president until 1918.  He moved the bank into his own building, the Littlefield Building, in 1912.

The Littlefield Building was Austin's first skyscraper and, in 1912, it was described on a postcard as the "Financial Center" of Austin.  It was designed in the Beaux Arts style by local architect C. H. Page, Jr..  The roof-top garden was an elegant retreat for high-society.

There is an interesting story about the height of the building.  It was at first built as an 8-story building with a roof-top garden.  Major Littlefield engaged in a friendly competition with the 8-story Scarbrough Building on the opposite corner, and when that building was completed he removed the roof-top garden and added an extra floor.  The Littlefield Building remained the tallest building in Austin for another 19 years.  Major Littlefield decorated the lobby with oil paintings of scenes from his ranches. The doors of the bank, which also depicted ranch scenes, were bronze, cast by the Tiffany Company of New York.   His bank offered a separate ladie's banking department with female tellers and an elegant waiting room furnished in solid mahogany.

As a banker, Littlefield was said to have been masterful in sizing up new loans.  One cowboy said that  Littlefield "could look in your eye and tell you what you was up to."

Through the bank, Major Littlefield gained interests in a number of businesses, in particular the Driskill Hotel.  Littlefield owned the hotel from 1895-1903, during which time he installed the hotel's first electric lighting system.

Littlefield Building

601 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701 

Long Center

The Palmer Auditorium, built in 1959, was emblematic of the 1950's.   It was futuristic.  The decor was 50's-modern, and the building was a round shape with a giant domed roof covered with multi-tinted aluminum sheets that looked like copper.  Next to the round dome was a big cube:  This held the giant stage and the fly space above the stage.   Altogether, it was an architectural icon on the Austin landscape.

Austin had a plan to create a new Palmer Auditorium and they built a brand new Palmer Events Center just west of the original building.  Then, in 2005, the original Palmer was disassembled to create the Long Center.  Over 90% of the Palmer's materials were recycled somewhere, and over 60% were recycled at the Long Center, which was completed in 2008.

The "Ring of Saturn" is the old Palmer perimeter.  On the grass out front sits a circle of frosted glass - this was the previous dome's center keystone and skylight.  At night they illuminate it with colored lights from below.  The pendant ceiling fixtures found currently in the Rollins' Lobby are from the original 1950's Palmer.  The multi-colored metal sheets are the Palmer's old aluminum roof. They can be seen on the exterior facade, inside the elevators, and as art on the walls in the lobbies.  The stage of the Palmer, one of the largest in Texas, was lowered 10 feet to increase the fly space above.  Finally, the lovely grey Italian marble that you see around the bathrooms sinks was saved from the Palmer's toilet stall walls.

Long Center

(512) 457-5100

701 W. Riverside Drive, Austin, TX  78704

http://www.thelongcenter.org/

Tours: Wednesdays at 11am and 12 noon

Texas State Capitol

The previous Texas State Capitol building, at this same location, burned down in 1881.  The new building designed by architect Elijah E. Myers was completed in 1888.

The contractor hired to do the job was Mattheas Schnell of Chicago. He was paid with three million acres of land in the Texas Panhandle.  A special railroad line was built to carry the pink granite from Granite Mountain, near Marble Falls, to downtown Austin.  The stone was donated for free.  Stonecutters were hired and brought over from Scotland.  Limestone was also used in the construction, and the roof is made of 85,000 square feet of copper.  

The grand scale was achieved quickly and economically using cast iron for structural elements like the massive supportive columns and stairs.  The decorative oak millwork came from Michigan, the exterior dome from Belgium.  The floors, originally tile, were replaced with beautiful terrazzo in the mid-1900's.  The dramatic interior dome is 218 feet high with a floor design of six decorative seals summarizing the history of Texas. The exterior height of the dome is 311 feet - which is seven feet higher than the nation's Capitol in Washington D.C..  It is the largest state Capitol in the United States.

The Goddess of Liberty crowns the peak.  The original Goddess of Liberty was placed on the capitol dome in four pieces in February 1888. It stood nearly 16 feet tall and weighed an estimated 2,000 pounds and was made of zinc.  It was replaced with an aluminum duplicate in 1986.

By the 1950's, there was already a great amount of overcrowding:  Lobbies and hallways were used as offices, typing pools and dining areas.  Finally, construction began in 1990 to extend the Capitol offices by excavating on the northern grounds.  This now houses a subterranean office plaza with over 600,000 s.f. under the Capitol grounds which includes a cafeteria, a gift shop, and generous sculptural skylights that transform it into a bright and friendly mall.

Texas State Capitol
Tel: 512-463-0063

11th St. and Congress Ave.  Austin, TX 78701

http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/SPB/Capitol/TexCap.htm

Tours are generally 45 minutes in length and are available during the following times: Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Saturday, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm, Sunday, Noon - 3:30 pm.  Capitol tours are conducted daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter. Reservations for groups of 10 or more should be made in advance by calling 512.305.8400.

The Mastodon Discovery

The Colorado River used to flood Austin a lot - even way before there was an "Austin."   Geologists have discovered six terraces of the Colorado River in the area, each underlain by alluvium (soil or sediments deposited by a river) up to forty feet thick.

In January of 1985, excavations related to the construction of the building at 301 Congress Ave. in Austin, TX resulted in an amazing discovery.  

At an elevation that is currently 40 feet above the Colorado River (Lady Bird Town Lake), an alluvial deposit was encountered.  This terrace is known as the First Street Terrace.  It contained fauna dating back to the Pleistocene Era.  Another 18 feet below this surface, mastodon bones were found with other bone fossils.  The archeologists involved named this The Avenue Site, and the remarkable fossil specimens that were found are on display in the back of the ground floor lobby area at 301 Congress Ave.

Next door at 315 Congress, the basement floor is occupied by a Jazz Club for live music.  It is appropriately named "The Elephant Room" after the adjacent mastodon bone discovery.

NOTE:  Although little information about this discovery is available on the world wide web, a technical document recording the discovery can be downloaded here:

www.sekj.org/PDF/anzf28/anz28-329-340.pdf 

The Mastodon Fossil Collection
301 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701

Public lobby has display cases, open to the public during normal business hours.

Free.

The Old Nighthawk Restaurant

Harry Akin, originally an actor who went west to California and came back to Austin, opened the Old Nighthawk Restaurant on South Congress at Riverside Drive in 1932.  The structure was an abandoned fruit stand which he converted into a tiny burger restaurant with two booths and eight stools. A hamburger could be bought for 15 cents.

Over time, the Night Hawk became part of a restaurant empire with multiple locations (some branded as a variation in 'The Night Hawk Frisco' restaurants) and selling frozen Night Hawk dinners to grocery stores.  The original location remained the epicenter of much of that activity, and was the darling location for politicians and business people to meet and make deals when Austin was small enough to have just one or two really good restaurants close to downtown.  The menu grew quickly to include steaks; in the 1970's they added liquor.

Mr. Akin inspired his employees, demanding that high quality product be served in his restaurants.  Politically, he  stood up for racial integration and for the employment of women, and became active in the Austin community.  He served as the mayor of Austin from 1967 to 1969. 

Harry Akin died in April of 1976, and the Night Hawk company continued under the leadership of his wife Lela Jane Akin.  Then tragedy struck in 1985,  A fire destroyed the Old Nighthawk Restaurant No. 1 at South Congress and Riverside.  A new, larger, Night Hawk restaurant building was eventually built in its place.  A parking agreement was struck with a neighboring garage, and when that deal fell through, the new Night Hawk had almost no parking facilities.  The restaurant business finally had to close its doors, and the building is currently leased as offices.  

It was the end of an era.

The Old Nighthawk Restaurant

Northwest corner of South Congress at Riverside Dr., Austin, TX 78704