Badu Building facts for kids
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Badu Building
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Badu Building in 2010
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 Badu Building
Location in Texas
Badu Building
Location in the United States
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| Location | 601 Bessemer Avenue Llano, Texas |
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| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1890 |
| Architect | Larramour and Watson |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance |
| NRHP reference No. | 80004139 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | June 6, 1980 |
The Badu Building is a cool old building in Llano, Texas, a town in Texas. It's super important! It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. This means it's a special historical place. It also became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1981. People have called it the Badu House or the Carol Phelan Building. Today, it's a restaurant and a place for parties called Badu 1891.
Two architects, Larramour and Watson, designed the building. It was built in 1890 by a company called Llano Improvement and Furnace. It was first home to the First National Bank. They used strong local granite and red bricks from nearby to build it. The first floor had fancy marble floors and carved wood. This is where bank customers would go. The second floor was for offices.
The company that built it wanted to help Llano grow. But they ran into trouble and went out of business around 1894. A man named N. J. Badu bought the building in 1898. His family owned it for a very long time, until 1980! From 1907 to 1912, another bank, the First State Bank of Llano, rented the building. After the Badu family sold it in 1980, it was used as a bed and breakfast and later as a restaurant.
Who Was N. J. Badu?
N. J. Badu was born in Nancy, France. He studied geology in Europe. Geology is the study of Earth's rocks and soil. After his studies, he moved from France to Mexico. Then he traveled to New Orleans.
He found a job in Paris, Texas, teaching French. He married a woman from that area named Charlie Neal. Later, he tried something new and managed hotels in Dallas and Austin. While in Paris, he heard a lot about the interesting rocks and land in Llano.
The Llano Improvement and Furnace Company hired him. They wanted him to manage a big, fancy hotel called the Algona Hotel. But when the company went out of business, the Algona Hotel closed too. Badu then became a manager at the Driskill Hotel in Austin. Even though he worked in Austin, he kept his home in Llano. He became a full-time mineralogist. A mineralogist studies minerals. He had his laboratory right there in Llano.
