M. M. Long's Livery Stable & Opera House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. This is the story of M. M.

Long's Livery Stable and Opera House, Travis County, Texas. Now, when M. M.

Long packed up his family and moved here from Bastrop in the early 1860s, he wasn't just looking for a change of scenery. He was a man with a plan, and that plan had two floors. The first floor, ground level, dirt and hay and the smell of horses, served as the livery stable for Long's stage line, running coaches from Austin all the way out to Burnet and Lampasas.

That is not a short ride, friend. But while the horses were stomping around down below, something altogether different was happening upstairs. M.

M. Long was running an opera house on the second floor. Public meetings, concerts, the kind of thing that makes a town feel like a town.

Now, if that combination strikes you as a little surprising, well, this building was just getting started. By 1866, that same second story was home to a Federal courtroom. From concert hall to court of law, and the building didn't even blink.

Then 1900 rolls around, and an Odd Fellows hall moves in upstairs. Through the years, the rest of the building kept busy too, and I mean busy. A publishing company.

A saloon. A billiard parlor. Tobacco, drug, jewelry, and dry goods stores.

This one centrally located building wore more hats than most towns twice its size. Horses on the first floor, opera on the second, a courtroom, a lodge, a saloon, a pool cue propped in the corner somewhere. M.

M. Long built something that outlasted every single thing he put inside it.

What the marker says

When M. M. Long and his family moved here from Bastrop in the early 1860s, the first floor served as the livery stable for Long's Austin to Burnet and Lampasas stage line. On the second floor, Long ran an opera house which was used for public meetings and concerts, In 1866 a Federal courtroom and in 1900 an Odd Fellows hall occupied the second story. Through the years a publishing company, a saloon and a billiard parlor, tobacco, drug, jewelry, and dry goods stores have used this centrally located building. (1979)