One of Round Rock’s historic landmarks is currently undergoing a refresh.
Restoration of the Palm House – once home to members of a pioneer family that settled locally in the mid-1800s – began in March. It’s scheduled for completion in July.
Work on the project includes:
- New partial structural framing
- New front porch, support columns and an American Disabilities Act-compliant ramp
- New rear deck
- New exterior cedar siding
- Refurbishing all original windows and shutters
- Refurbishing of all interior doors and replacement of entry door
- New shake roof
- New electrical service and lighting
- New heating, ventilation and air conditioning system
- New insulation for flooring and some walls
The project includes up to $500,000 in funding through the City’s Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund.
Where Palm Valley draws its name
Many may know the Palm House as the historic home long located on Main Street, adjacent to what was once the Round Rock Public Library. But it traces its history back to the area known as Palm Valley.
With their six sons, Anders and Anna Palm left their native Sweden for the New World in 1848. Round Rock was incorporated in 1851, and, after her husband died in 1853, Anna Palm and her sons settled where Old Settlers Park would one day be located.
The Palms initially stayed in tents until building a small log cabin about a year after their arrival. In 1873, a son built a wood frame house that became known as the Palm House.
Over a century later, in 1976, it was moved to downtown Round Rock, where it became a museum with an addition used by the Round Rock Chamber. In 2024, it was moved to its present site, just northwest of its original location, on property in Old Settlers Park owned by the Old Settlers Association. Its former downtown location now houses a walkway connecting the City Arts Center to the Round Rock Public Library a block away.
Palm Valley Boulevard and Palm Valley Lutheran Church both draw their names from Anna Palm. Much of the Palm land later became Old Settlers Park, and the family is credited with being the catalyst for a wave of Swedish immigration to Central Texas.
The Palm House is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
