Austin, Texas story
Scarbrough Building
At the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street stands a structure that marked Austin's leap into the modern age. Completed in 1910, the Scarbrough Building was Austin's very fi…
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At the corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street stands a structure that marked Austin's leap into the modern age. Completed in 1910, the Scarbrough Building was Austin's very first skyscraper and the city's first steel-framed high-rise. Standing eight stories and one hundred ten feet tall, it briefly held the proud title of the tallest private building in Texas.
Designed by Sanguinet and Staats in the classic Chicago style, it originally housed the flagship E. M. Scarbrough and Sons department store.
But the building's architectural journey didn't stop there. In 1931, architects Wyatt Hedrick and Edwin Kreisle executed a major renovation, introducing sleek Art Deco elements to the facade. That same year, the department store made history by becoming the first retailer west of the Mississippi River to offer air conditioning to its customers.
Today, as a designated Texas Historic Landmark, the Scarbrough Building stands as a beautiful hybrid of Chicago Style and Art Deco, representing the moment Austin began looking up toward the sky.
Updated June 2026