Schulze, Walter, House and Industrial Structure
Why it's listed
At 102 Chicon Street in East Austin stands a late Victorian cottage built around 1906 for Walter Schulze, joined by a covered breezeway to an older one-room brick building. The house is a one-story, wood-frame T-plan on brick piers, with a hipped roof, projecting front gable, fish-scale shingles, turned porch columns and ornate brackets. The brick building, made of Austin common brick on rubble limestone footings, was already present by 1890 and has a low-pitched standing-seam metal roof. The tract once belonged to the American Powder Mills company, which was chartered to manufacture explosives. Schulze bought it in 1902, and he and his wife lived in the house for decades. They ran a neighborhood store nearby that sold groceries, beer, feed, cigars, wood and charcoal, and offered shoe repair and haircuts. The property was listed because of this association and because both buildings remain largely intact examples of their types.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the buildings are significant for their association with Walter Schulze, a well-known East Austin businessman. The house is an excellent, relatively intact example of late Victorian wood-frame vernacular architecture. The attached brick building is described as a pristine example of a nineteenth-century industrial structure.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 86000864, listed April 25, 1986. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 102 Chicon St., Austin |
|---|---|
| County | Travis County |
| Listed | April 25, 1986 |
| Reference number | 86000864 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1800-1899 (Industrial Structure); 1900- (Schulze House) |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian, wood-frame vernacular T-plan cottage |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Physical condition is stated as excellent; current use is residential (rental). |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 30.26649, -97.72454 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 86000864.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q110002322
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.