J.W. & Cornelia Rice Scarbrough House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, when a man makes his mark in a city, sometimes the city marks him right back. John William Scarbrough was a prominent Austin merchant, and in 1920 he commissioned architect Edwin C.

Kreisle to design a home worthy of that standing. Kreisle answered the call with something that still turns heads today. Italian Renaissance revival style, if you please.

Two stories of stucco rising up with a slate-shingle roof, a deep overhanging cornice, and an arched pediment crowning the front entry like a signature at the bottom of a very fine letter. And then there are the iron gates and railings. Those were the work of Weigl Ironworks, right there in Austin, and the marker calls them outstanding focal points, which is the kind of understatement that polite company uses when something is genuinely spectacular.

John William and his wife Cornelia, born a Rice before she became a Scarbrough, made this house their home and kept it that way for the rest of their lives. He passed in 1960. She followed in 1974.

Between them, they filled that Italian Renaissance house on an Austin street with a life long enough to watch a whole century reshape the city around them. The house is still standing. The gates are still there.

Weigl's ironwork hasn't budged an inch.

What the marker says

This Italian Renaissance revival-style home was designed in 1920 by architect Edwin C. Kreisle for the family of prominent Austin merchant John William Scarbrough. Scarbrough and his wife, Cornelia (Rice), resided in the home until their deaths in 1960 and 1974. The two-story stucco house features a slate-shingle roof, a deep overhanging cornice and an arched pediment over the front entry. Dramatic iron gates and railings by Austin’s Weigl Ironworks are also outstanding focal points of the home.