{"nrhp_refnum":"85002300","name":"Robinson-Macken House","other_names":["White,Dolce &amp","Barr,Architects"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"702 Rio Grande St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Austin","county":"Travis County","state":"TX","lat":30.280264531000057,"lon":-97.74910681599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-story wood-frame Second Empire residence at 702 Rio Grande Street, Austin, Texas, built in 1876 for John Henry Robinson by the firm Campbell and Deats.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is one of the few surviving wood-frame Second Empire dwellings in Texas, retaining its detailing despite alterations and a short move. It is also tied to two Austin families, the Robinsons (merchants and civic figures) and the Mackens (contractors and bankers). It illustrates the work of a local carpentry and building firm.","narrative":"Built in 1876 at 702 Rio Grande Street in Austin, this two-and-one-half-story frame house was constructed for John Henry Robinson, an English-born merchant and city councilman. The firm Campbell and Deats built it in the Second Empire style, with a concave mansard roof of scalloped shingles, bracketed cornices, bay windows, double front doors and a Graham gable. Few wood-frame examples of the style survive in Texas. Between 1909 and 1912 the house was moved about fifty feet north so Robinson's son Eugene could build a new home on the original site. A kitchen wing was added around 1900. The Macken family bought the house in 1928; Joe Macken was an excavation contractor and his children worked in Austin banking, and they lived there until 1983. The house was then rehabilitated as architects' offices, with later porches removed and a modern stairhall added at the rear.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Campbell and Deats, Austin, Texas","architectural_style":"Second Empire","criteria":[],"status_note":"Rehabilitated after a 1983 sale and converted to architects' offices; condition listed as excellent and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.283148-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/9736/40973679/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/85002300.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002300/8298d10a64-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002300/8298d10a64-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robinson_macken_house_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:Robinson_macken_house_2007.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973679","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Macken_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7352967"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/travis-county/robinson-macken-house-85002300/"}