{"nrhp_refnum":"83003171","name":"Round Rock Post Office and William M. Owen House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Chisholm Trail and Emanuel St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Round Rock","county":"Williamson County","state":"TX","lat":30.515411482000047,"lon":-97.69025037299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-07-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-building limestone complex at the corner of Chisholm Trail Road and Emanuel Street in Round Rock, Texas: the first permanent post office (about 1853) and the adjoining two-story William M. Owen House (about 1870).","why_significant":"The nomination argues the buildings are intact examples of mid-19th-century Texas vernacular stone architecture. They reflect the early history of Round Rock as a stagecoach and cattle-trail trading town before the railroad bypassed it in 1874. The post office was built by first postmaster Thomas C. Oatts.","narrative":"Two limestone buildings at the corner of Chisholm Trail Road and Emanuel Street in Round Rock preserve the look of the town before the railroad arrived. The one-room post office, built in 1853 by first postmaster Thomas C. Oatts, has load-bearing rubble walls, a stone-slab floor from nearby Brushy Creek and an open pine-rafter ceiling. Beside it stands the larger, two-story Owen House, built about 1870 of cut and coursed local limestone with a symmetrical front and double-level wood galleries. The complex sits on the old Austin-Georgetown-Dallas road, where stagecoaches ran and Longhorn cattle crossed Brushy Creek nearby. Residents and merchants here saw cattle drivers stop to trade. Round Rock prospered until the International and Great Northern Railroad bypassed it in 1874 and a new town grew to the south. The buildings are listed as intact examples of simple Texas stone vernacular construction, with the post office porch removed about 1950 for street widening.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Middle nineteenth-century Texas vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Both buildings were restored and were in use in late 1981: the house was leased to doctors for offices and the post office was offered for commercial lease. The two-story gallery on the house is a recent restoration.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.346963-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/9739/40973994/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/83003171.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003171/e1c7c60321-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003171/e1c7c60321-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Darrylpearson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Round-rock-tx2017-4(owen-house).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Darrylpearson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Round-rock-tx2017-4(owen-house).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973994","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002613"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/williamson-county/round-rock-post-office-and-william-m-owen-house-83003171/"}