DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Round Rock, Williamson County, there stands a building that has outlasted just about every purpose a building can serve — and it started doing that back in 1876. That's when it went up, dressed in ashlar-cut limestone on the front, with a stepped parapet and keystone arches in that Victorian style that said, loud and clear, we mean business here.
And Round Rock meant business. The railroad era was good to this town, genuinely prosperous, and right in the middle of all that prosperity, this building took on one of its most celebrated roles. Somewhere around 1887 — the record hedges just a little on that start date — the Round Rock Broom Company moved in and stayed until 1912.
An important local business, the marker calls it, and you'd better believe it earned that description. How do we know? Well, a broom made right inside those limestone walls went to the St.
Louis World's Fair in 1904 and came home wearing a gold medal. A gold medal. For a broom.
Made in Round Rock, Texas. That's not nothing. That is, in fact, something worth stepping back and appreciating.
But here's what makes this building genuinely extraordinary — it didn't stop at brooms. Over the years, those same walls held a general store, a furniture store, a school, a skating rink, and a car repair shop. The building basically said yes to everything Round Rock ever asked of it.
By 1969, it took a man named Roger Burleson, the owner, to look at all that history stacked up in limestone and decide it was worth saving. He preserved the structure that year. And thanks to him, that gold-medal broom factory, that school, that skating rink, that whole layered life of one remarkable building — it's still standing.
What the marker says
Erected in 1876. Victorian-style building has ashlar-cut limestone front with stepped parapet and keystone arches. During prosperous railroad era, housed Round Rock Broom Company (1887?-1912), an important local business. (Broom made here won a gold medal at St. Louis World's Fair, 1904.) Building also housed general store, furniture store, school, skating rink, and car repair shop. Roger Burleson, owner, preserved structure, 1969. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970