DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Henry H. and Bertha Sterzing Ziller House, right there in Travis County. Now, every good house has a story, and this one starts before the house itself was even a twinkle in anybody's eye. Henry Ziller was born in 1853.
Bertha Sterzing came along in 1857. Both of them — both families, in fact — had made their way to the Austin area from Germany. And in 1876, Henry and Bertha married, bringing those two family lines together under one roof.
Well, almost. They had to find the roof first. That came in 1881, when they purchased this property.
But here's the thing — the land didn't come empty. Records indicate that a residence, built about 1877, already existed on the site when the Zillers bought it. So they weren't starting from scratch.
They were stepping into something already standing, already waiting. For a while, things stayed more or less as they were. But then, about 1891, Henry and Bertha started making their mark — additions, modifications, and the kind of detail work that tells you a family was doing well.
They added elaborate Eastlake ornamentation on the porches. If you know your architectural styles, Eastlake means carved woodwork with a kind of turned, almost geometric flourish — the sort of thing that says, quietly but unmistakably, that the people inside this house had arrived. And Austin was arriving right along with them.
The Ziller House reflects a period of growth and prosperity in the city around the turn of the 20th century. The whole town was stretching and building and becoming something larger than it had been. Bertha didn't live to see all of it.
She passed in 1900. Henry carried on until 1924. And through it all — through those years and the decades that followed — the house stayed in the family.
It wasn't until 1939 that it finally passed out of Ziller hands. Sixty-three years from the day they bought it to the day it left the family name. Not a bad run for a house that was already standing when they showed up.
What the marker says
Henry H. and Bertha Sterzing Ziller House Henry (1853-1924) and Bertha (1857-1900) Ziller, both members of families who came to the Austin area from Germany, married in 1876 and purchased this property in 1881. Records indicate that a residence, built about 1877, already existed on the site. About 1891, the Zillers began making additions and modifications to the house, including the elaborate Eastlake ornamentation on the porches. Reflecting a period of growth and prosperity in Austin around the turn of the 20th century, the Ziller House remained in the family until 1939. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001