Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Headquarters Building
416 W. 12th St., Austin, TXThe Delta Kappa Gamma Building was built in 1956 as the international office of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an organization founded in 1929 to improve women's opportunities in the field of education. Organized by twelve women in Austin, Texas, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society expanded to all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Canada to include a membership of 72,021 women by 1960. The Delta Kappa Gamma Building continues to serve its original function today. The building is nominated under Criterion A in the area of Education, as the international headquarters of a significant organization that supports the role of women in education through scholarship and fellowship programs. It is also nominated under Criterion C as an excellent local example of postwar modem design by the Austin firm Kuehne, Brooks and Barr, incorporating aspects of the International Style in its primary facade, functionalist commercial office design in its planning, and a more traditional residential aesthetic in its interior design and finishes.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.