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The
George Washington Littlefield Building 601
Congress Avenue, Austin
Year: 1910
Style: Beaux
Arts
Architect: C. H. Page, Jr.
(with considerable coaching from George
Littlefield) |
The
Gilded Name high above Congress Avenue
TE photo, August 2010 |
Foundations
and Pre-construction Facts In
1839 Edwin Waller (the namesake of Waller County) used the juncture of 6th
Street and Congress Avenue as the zero-stone for Austin’s
basic grid of streets. The NE corner of this intersection, notorious for a succession
of saloons and gambling houses, was purchased by George
Littlefield in 1910.
Littlefield
erected his eight-story building (adding a ninth by enclosing a roof-garden) to
house his American National Bank and to provide Austin
with much-needed office space. Littlefield’s
bank had previously been across the alley in the Driskill
Hotel. |
Littlefield
Building
TE photo, August 2010 |
Details,
Anecdotes and Trivia
After completion, the building was (briefly) the tallest building between New
Orleans and San Francisco. (After 1906, it was considerably higher than almost
every building in San Francisco.) |
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The upper floors of
the building housed over 300 offices – and chilled water from an underground spring
was piped throughout the building.
Lyndon Baines Johnson was a tenant
of the building in 1935 when he headed the Texas chapter of the National Youth
Administration.
The bank lobby held six murals depicting ranch life – the
source of Mr.
Littlefield’s wealth. In addition to the murals – two huge bronze doors with
bas-relief scenes of the Yellow House Ranch were cast by Tiffany’s and installed
in 1911. They were removed in 1960 and donated to the University of Texas. The
last report on the doors was in 1975 when they were put on display in Ashbel Smith
Hall on 7th and Colorado Streets.
The buildings address numerals: 106
E. Sixth and 601 Congress form a numerical palindrome.
As of this writing
(August of 2010) the ground floor of the Littlefield Building is for lease – reflecting
a continuing recession. |
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Mystery
Date
According
to his military tombstone and every written reference, Littlefield
was born in 1842 and died in 1920. His family did enter Texas in 1850, but currently
there's no explanation for the year 1923.
TE
photo, August 2010 |
Littlefield's
Military Tombstone can be found in front of his grand sarcophagus in Austin's
Oakwood Cemetery
TE
Photo, August 2010 |
For
Lease
TE
photo, August 2010 |
The Littlefield Clock still keeps accurate time.
TE photo, August 2010 |
SCARBROUGH
BUILDING The
Remodeled Scarbrough Building once competed with the Littlefield Building for
Austin's Tallest. George
Littlefield won the friendly competetion by enclosing a rooftop garden - thereby
adding a ninth floor and beating the Scarbrough by one. |
Scarbrough
Building - 905 Congress
TE photo, August 2010 |
The
Scarbrough Building's Deco Fascade
TE photo, August 2010 |
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