Emma West Flats

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, when attorney Robert G. West passed away in 1904, he left behind a widow, a family, and a problem that needed solving.

Emma Grant West, born in 1865, had four children to look after and a future to figure out. So she did what a determined woman does: she built something. Right here on these flats that would one day carry her name.

Contractors Fischer and Lambie put up the brick edifice in 1905, and it was no modest affair. One apartment on each floor, and servants' quarters tucked down in the basement. It was designed from the ground up to bring in rental income, to keep a family on its feet after the man of the house was gone.

Emma West, born in 1865, would live all the way to 1952, and I'd say the building she raised had something to do with that kind of staying power. Then in 1925, she sold the property. The buyer was a woman named Miss Katie Gannaway, an Austin schoolteacher, born in 1890.

The building passed from one capable woman's hands to another's. Katie Gannaway, who would live until 1967, kept that tradition going. Years later, attorney Byron Lockhart and his wife Nina took on the work of restoration, bringing the old brick structure back in 1973.

A widow's plan, built in brick, outlasted nearly everyone who touched it. That's the Emma West Flats for you.

What the marker says

After attorney Robert G. West (1860-1904) died, his widow Emma Grant West (1865-1952) had this structure built to provide rental income for support of their four childern. Erected by contractors Fischer & Lambie in 1905, the brick edifice had one aparment on each floor, with servants' quarters in the basement. In 1925 Mrs.West sold the rental property to Miss Katie Gannaway (1890-1967), an Austin teacher. It was restored by attorney Byron Lockhart and his wife Nina in 1973. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976