{"nrhp_refnum":"70000769","name":"Old Land Office Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"108 E. 11th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Austin","county":"Travis County","state":"TX","lat":30.272430179000025,"lon":-97.73945496299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-08-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Old Land Office Building is a two-story-and-attic stuccoed stone and brick building on the Capitol Grounds at 108 East 11th Street in Austin, Texas. It was designed by Conrad C. Stremme and completed by 1857.","why_significant":"The building was designed as a fireproof home for Texas land records. Texas is the only state that kept control of its public lands, so it has the only state Land Office outside Washington, D.C. The building is also an example of the German Rundbogenstil by a skilled German-trained architect, and the writer O. Henry worked there as a draftsman from 1887 to 1891.","narrative":"Built between 1856 and 1857 on the Capitol Grounds in Austin, the Old Land Office Building was created to protect Texas land records. The first Land Office was considered inadequate and was not fireproof, so the Legislature appropriated $40,000 for a replacement. Conrad C. Stremme, a German-trained architect who had served on the Royal Hanoverian Commission of Public Buildings, designed a fireproof three-story structure with thick rubble stone and brick walls. Its symmetrical form, round-arched openings, crenellated end pavilions and vaulted interior reflect the German Rundbogenstil, which derived from Romanesque and Renaissance sources. Texas kept control of its public lands, and this building housed the maps, field notes and papers on land grants. The writer O. Henry worked here as a draftsman from 1887 to 1891, and one of his short stories is set in the building. It was reroofed and stuccoed in 1932, and later renovations turned the first two floors into a museum of Texas history.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1857)","architect_builder":"Conrad C. Stremme, architect; William Baker and Q. Nichols, contractors","architectural_style":"Rundbogenstil (German-Romanesque)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, unaltered and on its original site; the first two floors are used as a museum of Texas history (Daughters of the Republic of Texas Museum; Museum of the Daughters of the Confederacy).","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.696856-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/9737/40973757/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/70000769.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000769/6c444362c2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000769/6c444362c2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_land_office_building_2006.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_land_office_building_2006.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973757","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Land_Office_Building_(Austin,_Texas)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5531996"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/travis-county/old-land-office-building-70000769/"}