General Land Office Building

Completed in 1857 at the southeast corner of the Texas State Capitol grounds in Austin, the General Land Office Building is the city’s oldest surviving state government office building and the first there known to have been designed by a university-trained architect, Christoph Conrad Stremme. Its Rundbogenstil design, with arched openings, parapets, and stuccoed limestone walls resembling cut stone, gives it the appearance of a small castle. It served as Texas’s land office until 1917, employed William Sidney Porter before he became O. Henry, later housed Texas heritage museums, and after restoration from 1989 to 1992 became the Capitol Visitors Center.

Austin, Texas · United States