DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you want to talk about buildings that have stood the test of time in Austin, let me point you toward something special — the Sampson Building. Completed in 1860 by a man named Abner Cook, and they don't call him a master builder for nothing.
That title was earned. Cook put together a structure that was Italianate in style — arched windows, fine stonework — the kind of craftsmanship that makes you slow down and actually look at a building instead of just walking past it. When it was done, the first tenants were George W.
Sampson and a man named Abram Henricks, who ran a general merchandise store right there on the ground floor. Now, George Sampson was born in 1825, and he'd live until 1883 — long enough to see his name become synonymous with this building in ways he probably couldn't have imagined when he first unlocked those doors. Henricks, though — well, Henricks didn't get that kind of time.
He died in 1865, and after that, Sampson kept an office in the building and leased out the rest for commercial and professional enterprises. He became, in a sense, the keeper of it. And here's the part that really lands — that building stayed in the Sampson family for more than one hundred years.
Not one decade. Not two. More than a century.
Abner Cook built something in 1860 that a family didn't let go of for over a hundred years. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.
What the marker says
Completed in 1860 by master builder Abner Cook, this structure first housed the general merchandise store of George W. Sampson (1825-1883) and Abram Henricks. After Henrick's death in 1865, Sampson maintained an office here, and leased the remainder of the building for other commercial and professional enterprises. The Italianate structure, which features arched windows and fine stonework, has remained in the Sampson family for more than 100 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982