Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Bldg.

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what I know about this corner of Austin history. Frank Brown, born in 1833 and gone by 1913, was a veteran Travis County official and historian, and in 1886 he put up a building right here. That's the seed of this whole story.

Then, in 1898, the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company came along, bought the structure, and restyled it. They brought in architect A. O.

Watson, who gave it an ornate façade, the kind of front that says we have arrived and we intend to stay. And stay they did. You see, before this building existed, S.T. and T. had been bouncing around the city in rented quarters at various sites, no real home to speak of.

This building changed that. It became the city's first telephone building, a fixed address for a technology that was just beginning to weave itself into everyday life. The building passed through time, and by 1922 the John L.

Martin family had taken ownership. They held onto it, all the way through 1976. One family, one building, watching the decades go by.

Not a bad run for something Frank Brown set in motion back in 1886.

What the marker says

Veteran Travis County official and historian Frank Brown (1833-1913) erected this structure in 1886. Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company bought and restyles the building in 1898. Architect A. O. Watson designed the ornate façade, Previously in rented quarters at various sites, S.T. & T. occupied this as the city’s first telephone building. The John L. Martin family owned the structure from 1922 to 1976. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark- 1977