Image: O’Connell Architecture
Built in 1929, the Miller-Long House at 813 Park Boulevard is an extremely visible architectural treasure of the Hancock Neighborhood in Central Austin, designed in the charmingly whimsical 20th-century Tudor Revival style that feels torn from an old children’s book — and in keeping with the darker side of fairy tales, the home is slowly crumbling like stale gingerbread, having sat unoccupied since 1986.
Photo by James Rambin
But the historic residence finally turned its page this year, with a push for the home’s historic recognition both local and national starting earlier this summer courtesy of new owner Chris Oakland, a real estate investor (and native Austinite) who purchased the property after it hit the market in 2020 and is now planning to restore the structure with help from local preservation studio O’Connell Architecture. After securing local landmark status, the firm has now submitted the home to the Texas Historical Commission for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, with the application to be considered (and almost certainly approved without a second thought) at the State Board of Review’s meeting early next year on January 14.
A view of the Miller-Long House looking south from Park Boulevard. Photo by James Rambin
That’s great news, since the Miller-Long House is probably twice as historically significant as some of the stuff we landmark around here — if those names ring a bell, it’s because the home was owned during different periods of the 20th century by Tom Miller and Emma Long, two past civic figures who are probably familiar to current Austinites since lots of things around town are named after them.
A view of the house shortly after its construction in 1929. Image: Austin History Center
Originally part of the adjacent Commodore Perry Estate — which has recently seen a conversion into one of the city’s most luxurious resort hotels, if you’re in the market to spend yacht-style money — local businessman Tom Miller bought the Park Boulevard property and built his home here in 1929. Miller would soon be elected Austin’s mayor during two separate terms, from 1933 to 1949, and again from 1955 until 1961 — presiding over Austin during some of its most significant years of growth, and securing federal funds for numerous public works projects that still shape the city.
In 1950, the Miller family sold the property to Emma Long, a trailblazing figure in Austin politics as the first woman elected to city council in the late 1940s, known for her civil rights advocacy including support for housing desegregation. Considering the intense historical pedigree of its residents, it’s really just a nice little bonus that the Miller-Long House itself is gorgeous, instantly catching the eye with its steeply-pitched roof and arched doorway — you’ll note that the application for historic status keeps coming back to that whole fairytale thing for good reason:
The site is large, at 14,426 square feet, and the house sits back from the street. The home has many distinctive features and finishes indicative of the Tudor Revival style of architecture…Some of these character-defining features include asymmetrical forms and a dominant front gable, a steeply pitched roof, patterned brickwork, notable chimneys crowned with chimney pots and groupings of tall narrow windows with multi-pane glazing. Similar architectural features are often depicted in fairy tales like Hansel & Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood, lending a storybook feel to the buildings.
The house’s exaggerated roof and gables, Medieval inspired oversized front door, multi-pane casement windows authenticate the house as a definitive example of storybook, late 1920s Tudor Revival architecture…Many of the Tudor Revival examples in the neighborhood are squatty and hug the landscape horizontally while Miller-Long House towers over the neighboring homes as if stretching to touch the clouds. The arch above the door mirrors those of the attic windows, also lending a vertical feel to the house. The chimney on the west elevation appears to tilt slightly and the windows in the chimney itself, add a sense of overall whimsy and eccentricity to the design.
— National Register Application, O’Connell Architecture
An interior view of the home’s current condition. Image: O’Connell Architecture
Another interior look at the home, with lots of interesting details intact. Image: O’Connell Architecture
The compound’s Tudor-style garage is also historically significant and will be restored. Image: O’Connell Architecture
We don’t have a full picture yet of how the home will be restored by its new owners, but it appears the goal is to keep the structure residential in use, with the new historic designations providing tax credits for historically-compliant restoration work:
While the home has been unoccupied since 1986, its present owners (who purchased the property in 2020) say they are committed to restoration and preservation. With the help of O’Connell Architecture, the owners plan to make sensitive restorations to a number of deteriorating features. Present owners will also steward the secondary garage, notable for its unusually refined style that takes inspiration from the home’s steeply roofed, fairy-tale aesthetic.
After sitting empty for 36 years, it’ll be a storybook ending for this building if the owners place it on the market after its restoration — no matter what its future holds, we’re thrilled to see this icon of the neighborhood returned to its former glory.
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