Located at Rio Grande and what was North Street (now 15th), the Byrne-Reed House perched on the northernmost boundary of the original city plan. Edmund and Ellen Sneed Byrne purchased the property on October 10, 1905, from William Bohn, partner in Bohn Brothers Department Store on Congress Avenue and an entrepreneur who also bought and sold Austin real estate during this period. The deed lists the original address as 1404 Rio Grande and notes "improvements" on the property, likely referring to a small house on the back portion of the lot reflected in the 1900 Sanborn fire insurance map.
The Byrnes constructed a larger house on the lot in 1906 or 1907, designed by architect Charles H. Page, and moved from Fairview Park, a community just south of the Colorado River, perhaps to be closer to the University of Texas where their children Grace and Thomas both attended school.