Completed in 1857, the Old Land Office Building was constructed to house the General Land Office of Texas, the state agency responsible for maintaining land grant records, surveys, and titles dating back to the Republic and Spanish colonial periods. Designed by German-trained architect Christoph Conrad Stremme in a Second Empire style with round-arch detailing, the limestone structure served as the state's primary land records office for roughly sixty years, until operations moved to a new building in 1917; author William Sidney Porter (O. Henry) famously clerked there in the late 1880s. After the Land Office vacated, the building took on a different civic and commemorative function: from 1919 until the late twentieth century it served as a museum space used by Confederate heritage organizations, including the Texas Confederate Woman's Home Association, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who used the building to display historical relics and memorabilia. Following restoration completed in 1992, the building was repurposed again, now functioning as the Texas Capitol Visitors Center, providing exhibits and orientation for visitors to the Capitol grounds, alongside a Texas Department of Transportation travel information center. Designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, the building today combines museum, visitor-service, and event functions on the Capitol grounds in downtown Austin.