{"nrhp_refnum":"74002093","name":"McKinney Homestead","other_names":["McKinney House and Mill Complex District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"SW of Austin between TX 71 and U.S. 183","address_restricted":false,"city":"Austin","county":"Travis County","state":"TX","lat":30.18908128700005,"lon":-97.72063206729574,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-10-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Agriculture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Engineering","Black","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A district of ruins and archeological remains southwest of Austin, Travis County, Texas, on Onion Creek near McKinney Falls, consisting of Thomas F. McKinney's burned two-story limestone house, two stone cisterns and a mill, built in the 1850s.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the site is significant for its association with Thomas F. McKinney, a Texas colonist, merchant and financier of the Texas revolution who later served in the legislature. It is also noted for its agriculture, industry, engineering, commerce, political and architectural associations, including the first flour mill in the area. Archeological work shows substantial deposits remain that could reveal how the homestead functioned.","narrative":"Southwest of Austin, on the north bank of Onion Creek near McKinney Falls, lie the ruins of a mid-nineteenth-century homestead and mill. The district includes a two-story cut-limestone house that burned in the early twentieth century, two stone cisterns south of the house, and the remains of a mill cut into limestone bedrock, with a millrace, dam footings and machinery mounts. Thomas F. McKinney, born in Kentucky in 1801, came to Texas as one of Stephen F. Austin's early colonists. His firm, McKinney and Williams, supplied men, money and ships to the Texas cause during the revolution. He later served in the legislature and moved to Onion Creek around 1850 to 1852, where enslaved labor built his house, stone fences and the area's first flour mill. The Civil War and cotton speculation ruined him. Archeological digs in 1974 revealed intact foundations, a wheel pit with turbine parts, and large unexcavated deposits. The ruins were stabilized in 1976.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The house burned in the early twentieth century and is in ruins, with about 40% standing at the time of nomination. Its walls were stabilized in 1976 and the district lies within McKinney Falls State Park, which opened in 1976. It is owned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.283808-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/5/9736/40973605/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/74002093.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002093/813b421b21-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74002093/813b421b21-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McKinney_homestead_ruins_2007.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:McKinney_homestead_ruins_2007.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973605","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney_Homestead","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6801972"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/travis-county/mckinney-homestead-74002093/"}