DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official Texas Historical Commission marker has to say about the Splitrock house — the Burns-Klein House — out on what's now Wooldridge Drive in Travis County. Now, if you ever want to find a house that's watched Austin grow up around it while barely changing its own expression, you could do worse than this one. It all starts in 1891, when a Scottish immigrant by the name of Thomas F.
Burns bought three and three-quarter acres along the west bank of Shoal Creek — land that had been part of the Jones and Sedwick property. Thomas knew his way around stone. He'd know it by trade.
By 1900, the census had him down as a stone cutter and the owner of a marble shop, and property records, along with lumber stamped right there with the name Sutor and Co., date the house itself to around 1892. That's a man who built things to last. Thomas hadn't done all this alone, mind you.
He'd married Arbanna J. Nelson back in 1876, right there in Travis County, and by the time 1900 rolled around, he and Arbanna and six children were all living under that roof together. Six children in a one-and-a-half-story frame house — a vernacular center passage dwelling, they call it — three rooms on each side of a central hallway, with stairs climbing up to attic bedrooms tucked behind dormers.
The east side of the house faced toward the city, and that was the front. Made sense then. The city was out that direction, and that's where you looked.
Thomas kept building on that homestead too. In 1901 he added another acre. And his son Frank C.
Burns carried the family trade forward, running the Capitol City Marble Co. over at 211 West 6th Street. Stone cutting was in the blood. Then in 1911, Thomas Burns sold the property — the whole thing — to a man named Hippolyt Dittlinger, who was the owner of Dittlinger Roller Mills down in New Braunfels.
Now Dittlinger himself didn't move in. Instead, his niece Anita Dittlinger Quinlan and her husband James set up home there beginning in 1912, raising three children on that bluff above Shoal Creek. They stayed through thick and thin for twenty-seven years, right up until 1939, when the Quinlans packed up and moved to Fredericksburg.
Before they left, they subdivided the land surrounding the house into eight city lots on the east side of Splitrock Avenue — a street that would later be renamed Wooldridge Drive. The neighborhood was becoming Pemberton Heights, and with that, something quietly shifted: the west side of the house, which had been the back, became the official front. The city had reorganized itself around this old house, and the house just turned to meet it.
In 1945, Anita sold the property to Joe H. Klein, Jr., and his wife, Jayne Linville Klein — and that's how the house earned the second half of its name. Out on that scenic bluff, centuries-old live oaks still stand watch over the place.
The largest of them is a registered tree with the city of Austin — which is no small distinction in a city that loves its trees. And the house itself? Largely unaltered.
Still that same center passage frame dwelling Thomas Burns raised up around 1892, now sitting quiet while the city has pushed out far beyond what was once a rural creek-side homestead. Thomas Burns cut marble for a living. He knew what it meant to shape something that outlasts you.
Turns out, so did the house he built.
What the marker says
In 1891, Thomas F. Burns bought 3 ¾ acres of the Jones and Sedwick property along the west bank of Shoal Creek. Burns, a Scottish immigrant, married Arbanna J. Nelson in Travis County in 1876. Property records and lumber marked “Sutor & Co.” Date his house to circa 1892. Thomas, Arbanna and six children lived here in 1900. Thomas was listed as a stone cutter and owner of a marble shop. He added an additional acre to his homestead in 1901. Thomas’ son, Frank C. Burns, owned the Capitol City Marble Co. at 211 W. 6th Street. In 1911, Thomas Burns sold the property to Hippolyt Dittlinger, owner of Dittlinger Roller Mills in New Braunfels. His niece, Anita Dittlinger Quinlan, and her husband, James, lived here with their three children from 1912-39. In 1939, the Quinlans moved to Fredericksburg and subdivided land surrounding the house into eight city lots on the east side of Splitrock Avenue (later Wooldridge Drive). In 1945, Anita sold the property to Joe H. Klein, Jr., and his wife, Jayne Linville Klein. The 1 ½-story frame house is a vernacular center passage dwelling, designed with three rooms on each side of the hallway. Stairs provided access to the attic and dormer bedrooms. Originally, the east side of the house, looking toward the city, was the front. When Splitrock Avenue became a designated street in Pemberton Heights, primary access was reversed and the west side became the front. The scenic property on a bluff above the creek includes numerous centuries-old live oak trees, the largest of which is a city of Austin registered tree. The house has remained largely unaltered, even as the city has expanded far beyond its once-rural setting.