Kappa Kappa Gamma House - Austin, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 16.965 W 097° 44.369
14R E 621232 N 3350789
The Kappa Kappa Gamma House is a three-story brick house with a double-height entry portico supported by tall Ionic columns and wrought iron detail work.
Waymark Code: WM10XPH
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/07/2019
Views: 4
National Park System Listing"The Kappa Kappa Gamma House, designed in the eclectic period revival style popular in the interwar years, is the work of Birdsall P. Briscoe, a highly regarded Texas architect known primarily for his work in upscale residential suburbs in Houston. Completed in 1939, the Kappa House is one Briscoes very few projects completed outside of Houston. The house embodies the distinctive characteristics of Briscoes blending of period revival styles as he interpreted them for a fraternal organization. Not only does the design project the refined and dignified image so desired by such an organization, but the interior plan also reflects the unique needs of private sorority business, as well as the housing of a relatively large number of members.
Chapter houses such as this one played an important early role in womens higher education at The University of Texas at Austin. Not only did they play an important social and cultural role in the students character development, increasingly seen as an important and supplementary component to higher education, but they also filled a very basic housing need for women students during a time when the university could not. The Kappa Kappa Gamma House was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1989 and a City of Austin Historic Landmark in 2009."