Gilfillan House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, in Austin, Texas, there stands a two-story brick house that has a little bit of everything in it, and that right there is part of what makes it worth pullin over for. The year is 1905.

William L. Gilfillan, one of the founders and directors of the Austin National Bank, is commissioning himself a home. And he's not calling in just anybody to design it.

He's calling in Charles H. Page, Jr., one of the prominent architects Austin had to offer. Page gets to work, and what comes out the other side is something you might have trouble categorizing.

Is it Mission Revival? Is it Prairie School? Well, it's both, and that mix of popular pre-World War I styles gives the place a character you don't quite see coming.

Two stories of brick, standing there like it knows exactly what it is. Gilfillan passed in 1932, but the house had already found its next chapter before that. In 1931, a Swedish stonemason and contractor by the name of Julius G.

Knape purchased the home. A man who worked in stone buying a house built in brick. There's a poetry in that, even if nobody planned it that way.

The Gilfillan House has been carrying these stories in its walls ever since, designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1981. Some houses just accumulate history the way good wood takes a stain, deep and lasting.

What the marker says

This residence was constructed in 1905 for William L. Gilfillan (d.1932), one of the founders and directors of the Austin National Bank. Designed by the prominent Austin architect Charles H. Page, Jr., the two-story brick home reflects a mixture of popular pre-World War I architectural styles, including Mission Revival and the Prairie School. In 1931 the home was purchased by Julius G. Knape, a Swedish stonemason and contractor. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981