Ruffini, Frederick E., 1851-1885

F. E. (Frederick Ernst) Ruffini, an architect based in Austin, Texas, was born in 1851 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents, Ernst Frederick Ruffini and Adelheit (Adelaide) Riehme, immigrated from Kamenz, Germany to Chicago in 1848 and then settled in Cleveland. Ruffini was apprenticed to an architect in Cleveland and worked in Indianapolis, New York, Boston, and Chicago before moving to Austin, Texas in 1877. He entered into a partnership with Jasper N. Preston which lasted two years; he then worked on his own. Ruffini designed courthouses and jails, commercial and public buildings, and residences which were built throughout Texas. Extant examples of Ruffini's designs throughout Texas include the Old Blanco County Courthouse in Blanco, the Collin County Jail in McKinney, and the Millett Opera House (now the Austin Club) in Austin. His best known works in Austin (no longer standing) included the Hancock Building and the Old Main Building at the University of Texas. The west wing was the only portion of the Main Building that was completed before Ruffini died in Austin in November 1885. He was married to Elise (Lizzie) Weitz who died a month before he did. They were survived by three children.

Although the Ruffini brothers are sometimes identified as Italians, culturally they were Germans. Italian ancestors had emigrated to Kamenz, in what is now Germany, about five hundred years before the brothers were born.

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