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 find yourself two blocks from the Texas State Capitol in Austin, you might start picturing grand political ambitions, power brokers, backroom deals — the machinery of a growing state. But the story the marker's got to tell is a quieter one, and maybe more honest for it.
This is the story of a house, and the family that called it home. Built about 1870, the Radkey House is what the marker calls a typical post-Civil War Austin dwelling. Cypress wood, solid and simple — the kind of structure that doesn't announce itself but doesn't apologize either.
It was home to Bernard Radkey, born in 1846, a merchant and metalsmith by trade, a city alderman — that's councilman — by civic duty. A man working with his hands and serving his neighbors, two blocks from the seat of Texas government. Bernard didn't get as many years as a man deserves.
He died in 1883, and the marker notes it plainly as an early death. His wife, Mary Cummings Radkey, born in 1851, outlived him by more than a decade before she too was gone, in 1896. But here's where the story takes a turn that a lot of grand buildings never get — the heirs held on.
They enlarged the place, they occupied it, they kept it in the family all the way to 1973. More than a hundred years from when that cypress was first cut and fitted together. Then, in 1974, the Franklin Savings and Loan Association moved the house and restored it.
A merchant's home, a councilman's refuge, a family's anchor across generations — still standing. Some things, it turns out, are worth the trouble of saving.
What the marker says
A typical post-Civil War Austin dwelling, built about 1870 two blocks from the State Capitol for merchant and metalsmith Bernard Radkey (1846-83) and his wife, Mary Cummings Radkey (1851-96). Structure is of cypress wood. Radkey served as a city alderman (councilman) until just prior to his early death. Heirs enlarged and occupied the home until 1973. It was moved here and restored in 1974 by the Franklin Savings and Loan Association.