Round Rock Commercial Historic District

Round Rock's downtown commercial core is a group of about 25 small stone buildings along East Main Street, with one on South Mays Street, built mostly between 1876 and the early 1900s. The town was platted in 1876 as New Round Rock, south of Brushy Creek, to coincide with the southern end of a railroad line, and a building boom produced stone stores, offices, saloons and lodge halls. Load-bearing limestone walls and simply detailed parapets give the street a consistent look that differs from the brick towns elsewhere in Central Texas. Notable examples include the Old Broom Factory, whose maker won a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the Otto Reinke Building, the Masonic Lodge building of 1878, and the Economy Drug Store with its intact early interior. Nelson Hardware has a cast-iron and pressed-tin front dated 1900. Fires and storefront remodeling altered many buildings, yet the district keeps much of its original character and scale.