James E. Rudder State Office Building (Austin, Texas) - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Located on 1019 Brazos Street in Austin, TX (southeast of the Texas State Capitol Building), the James Earl Rudder Building (formerly known as the State Office Building) is a steel-frame concrete historical structure erected in 1917 and completed by September. It was constructed to house the offices of various agencies of the state of Texas, including the Agricultural Department, the Texas Highway Department, the Fire Rating Department, and most notably the General Land Office (for which is was primarily designed). It is currently used for the offices of the Secretary of State and got added into the US National Register of Historical Places in 1998.

Designed by Atlee Bernard Ayres, one of Texas' most notable 20th century architects, the building originated out of the need to accommodate a new home for the state's General Land Office. This agency, established in 1836 after Texas' independence from Mexico, has complete control over the state's public lands and contributes to the Permanent School Fund in support of the state's public school system. The General Land Office resided in four prior venues before construction of its new location here.

Since the land office was responsible for holding irreplaceable records -- namely original maps, field notes, and papers pertaining to land grants and sales of properties, as well as all Public Lands records -- the new building was required to be absolutely fireproof. This was accomplished by solely using reinforced concrete for the entire frame and all the floors and only stone or brick for the walls, by erecting steel window frames, and only installing steel furniture throughout the building itself (which was painted to look like mahogany, in order to give the place a less dreary feel to it all).

Rather than constructing a building solely for land office use, officials took this opportunity to make the new venue large enough to relieve overcrowding in other government offices as well. This is how the Agricultural Department moved into the 1st floor, the Texas Highway Department moved to the 2nd floor, the Fire Rating Department occupied the 3rd floor, and the General Land Office occupied the rest of the new structure -- hence the building's name as "State Office Building" rather than just "General Land Office Building".

All these state agencies eventually relocated elsewhere around the city of Austin, up to and including the General Land Office itself (although, as previously mentioned, the building is still in use today as the office of the Secretary of State). While historically still known as the "1918 State Office Building", it was re-dedicated in 1988 in honor of US Army Major General James Earl Rudder (1910-1970) who served as the state's Land Commissioner during the tumultuous 1955-1958 period: he single-handedly reformed and revamped that state office which was under scrutiny for mismanagement and corruption at that time.

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