DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little color on the side. This is the story of the Scarbrough Building, right here in Travis County. Now, Emerson Monroe Scarbrough was born in Alabama in 1846, and after his service in the Civil War, he made his way to Texas.
Settled in Milam County, set himself up as a merchant, and by all accounts did pretty well for himself. But a man with that kind of ambition wasn't going to stay put for long. In 1893, he opened a branch of his business — Scarbrough and Hicks — right on Congress Avenue in Austin.
One year later, 1894, he moved it one block north. You get the feeling he was always looking just a little further up the road. Then came 1910.
Now that's the year Emerson Monroe Scarbrough did something Austin hadn't seen before. On that prominent corner — adjacent to where he'd been doing business — he completed the city's very first skyscraper. Austin's first.
Designed in the Chicago style, no less, by Fort Worth architects Sanguinet and Staats. A Texas merchant, an Alabama upbringing, a Chicago style, and a Fort Worth design team — that building was a collaboration before collaboration was fashionable. But the story didn't stop there.
Come 1930 and 1931, the building got a second act. Wyatt C. Hedrick, Inc. and Edwin Kreisle came in and enlarged it, redesigned it, gave it those sweeping Art Deco elements that were all the rage at the time.
So what you had was Austin's first skyscraper, dressed up in the future. Scarbrough had been an early leader in modern merchandising — the marker says so plainly — and that building reflected every bit of that forward lean. But 1983 came around, and Scarbrough's closed its downtown location.
Emerson Monroe Scarbrough himself had passed in 1925, so he didn't see that day. What he left behind, though, was a corner of Austin that still carries his name — and a building that went from the city's boldest new thing to a piece of its permanent story.
What the marker says
Scarbrough Building Alabama native Emerson Monroe Scarbrough (1846-1925) came to Texas following service in the Civil War and settled in Milam County, where he was a successful merchant. He opened a branch of his business, Scarbrough and Hicks, on Congress Avenue in 1893, moving one block north in 1894. In 1910, on this adjacent, prominent corner, he completed Austin's first skyscraper. His new building was designed in the Chicago style by Fort Worth architects Sanguinet and Staats. It was enlarged and redesigned with Art Deco elements in 1930-31 by Wyatt C. Hedrick, Inc. and Edwin Kreisle. An early leader in modern merchandising, Scarbrough's closed this downtown location in 1983. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002