Our Austin Story
Great Cities Tell Great Stories
Interpreting Austin’s Historic Squares and Congress Avenue
Fermata Inc. PO 5485 Austin, TX 78763 www.fermatainc.com
Our Austin Story
Great Cities Tell Great Stories Stories
Photo 1 (cover). Republic Square
Photo 2. Austin skyline, Colorado River looking west toward Drake Bridge
Fermata Inc. Ted Lee Eubanks, CIP, CHI PO 5485 Austin, TX 78763 www.fermatainc.com i
Our Austin Story
Table of Contents Our Austin Story Introduction
1 1
The Interpretive Narrative Introduction
3 4
Austin’s Historic Squares Brush Square Brush Square - Cattle, Cotton, and Commerce Brush Square - The Cowboy Culture Brush Square - Austin’s New Deal Brush Square - Powerful Women Republic Square Republic Square - Austin Origins Republic Square - Austin’s Mexico Republic Square - Spirit of the Square Wooldridge Square
15 16 17 18 18
Wooldridge Square - Soul of the City Wooldridge Square - Winds of Change Wooldridge Square - Keep Austin Weird Hamilton Square Austin’s Congress Avenue Vibrant Connections Vibrant Connection - Riverside Vibrant Connection - The River Walk Vibrant Connection - Fifth Street
5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 14
Interpretive Node - Sixth Street Vibrant Connection - Ninth Street Vibrant Connection - Eleventh Street
20 21 22 23 28 31 32 32
Recommendations 1. Our Austin Story Interpretive Network 2. Traditional Interpretive Enhancements Interpretive Panels Style Guide Maps Pamphlet (rack piece) Itineraries Passport Audio/Video Public Art 3. Digital Enhancements 4. Programming and Engagement
35 35 36 36 37 38 38 38 38 39 39 40 41
Photo 3. W. T. Wroe’s leather factory located at 421-423 Congress Avenue
5. Physical Enhancements South Congress Congress Avenue Bridge The Austin River Walk The Fifth Street Vibrant Connection The Sixth Street Interpretive Node The Ninth Street Vibrant Connection The Eleventh Street Vibrant Connection 6. Affinity Trails 7. Heritage Planning Districts (HPDs) Proposed Downtown HPDs 8. Community Engagement 9. Community Benefits Benefits to Residents Benefits from Tourism
41 42 42 42 43 43 43 43 43 45 47 47 47 48 49
Public Outreach Austin City Council Downtown Austin Alliance Austin Parks and Recreation Department Our Austin Story Steering Committee Downtown Austin Alliance Austin Parks and Recreation Department Additional Members Contributors
52 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53
References
55
Endnotes
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Photo Captions & Credits
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Addenda
59 59
Interpretive Planning Our Austin Story
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Our Austin Story "A great city may be seen as the construction of w ords as w ell as stone..." - Yi-F u T uan Introduction
A
ustin began with a bang. In 18381, Republic of Texas President-elect Mirabeau Lamar accepted an invitation from his friend, Jacob Harrell, to hunt in Central Texas. Harrell had established a trading post, Waterloo, on the Colorado River near the mouth of Shoal Creek. During the trip, Lamar shot a buffalo at what became the corner of Congress Avenue and the Avenue Hotel. Lamar slayed more than the bison. During this trip, Lamar would remark that “this should be the seat of future Empire.” With those words, Lamar ended President Sam Houston’s hope of the capital remaining in 2 his namesake.
Photo 4. American bison
L amar slayed more than the bison. During this trip, L amar w ould remark that "this should be the seat of future Empire." With those w ords, L amar ended President Sam Houston's hope of the capital remaining in his namesake. 1
Our Austin Story
Lamar took office several months after the hunt. The Texas Congress appointed a site-selection commission to locate a site (someplace other than Houston) for a new permanent capital. They chose a place on the western frontier, specifically Harrell’s Waterloo. Lamar chose Judge Edwin Waller to survey the site, sell lots, and erect public buildings for the new state capital in Austin. Although the state purchased more than 7,000 acres, Waller narrowed his plan to the one section of land, 640 acres, that fronted the Colorado River between two creeks that were eventually named Shoal and Waller. Waller designed a fourteen-block grid bisected by a broad north-south thoroughfare, Congress Avenue, running up from the river to the capitol. Waller’s design included one central square and four smaller, secondary squares. Decades passed before the four squares were officially named. At first, the squares were named Brush, Hamilton (now First Baptist Church), Bell (now Wooldridge), and Hemphill (now Republic).3 Of the original four squares, only three remain: Brush, Republic, and Wooldridge.
These historic squares are the original civic spaces in our city. As such, they are extensions of the community over space and time. If they function true to their civic roles, they can be “the settings where celebrations are held, where social and economic exchanges take place, where friends run into each other, and where cultures mix.” 4 Today, Austin’s squares are being revived. Republic Square has been renovated, a new plan for Wooldridge Square is in development, and attention will soon shift to Brush Square as its revival is considered. Yet, civic spaces, to be successful, require more than design. Civic spaces need people and their histories. Our Austin Story was commissioned by the Downtown Austin Alliance, in partnership with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). It was developed with contributions from a broad diversity of Austin citizens and stakeholders, many of whom shared their stories and perspectives on the past, present, and prospective future of these public spaces. Our Austin Story is a comprehensive interpretive strategy for several of Austin’s most historic public spaces. It focuses on the heritage of Austin’s four historic squares (Brush, Republic Wooldridge, and Hamilton) and Congress Avenue, all of which are central to Austin’s birth and evolution as a growing, thriving city. It documents the stories of the people and places who shaped these important civic spaces and offers an important framework for celebrating, expressing, and growing with respect for Austin’s diverse heritage.
Our Austin Story was commissioned by the Downtown Austin Alliance, in partnership with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). It was developed with contributions from a broad diversity of Austin citizens and stakeholders, many of whom shared their stories and perspectives on the past, present and prospective future of these public spaces.
The interpretive narratives within Our Austin Story will help visitors and resident alike better understand Austin’s present by acknowledging Austin’s past. Our Austin Story is more than a historical exercise, though. Our Austin Story will help Austin embrace the past in a way that brings meaning to the present and illumination to the future.
Photo 5. Cordova Map of Austin 1872
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The Interpretive Narrative Through narrative w e understand the w orld and our place in it.
Photo 6. Austin skyline and the Union Pacific Railroad bridge
...people have a need to feel oriented, to know where they are, not just in terms of a compass and not just in terms of geography, but in terms of their culture and history... {people need} to be informed about where they're coming from and to have some glimpse towards a hopeful future... -James Howard Kunstler 3
Our Austin Story
Introduction
P
lace alone is devoid of meaning. We come to understand place through lived experiences. And, our understanding of our place, our community, is best expressed though historical narrative. Narrative is introduced into our lives with our first breaths. Parents begin telling children stories at the earliest age. The concept of story, of narrative, is a fundamental component in human communication.
The obvious way to defend against becoming nowhere is to be somewhere.
Planning, especially the types of planning undertaken by communities, is based on place. Tourism planning is focused on specific places that people can visit and experience. Park planning concerns the development of places where people can recreate. Community planning considers the places where people live and work. All begin and end with place. Narratives are used in planning to connect new with old and to foster a sense of identity, pride, and civic awareness. Through this process, the planner and community carefully construct a thematic framework overlaying place and time. The result is a written document, the subjective narrative, that shapes and informs the more objective plan. The narrative provides a rationale and context for the planning effort. Without this rationale, planning efforts can be seen as an imposition or a threat. Absent a context, efforts such as historic preservation are viewed as little more than regulation. Narrative inquiry gives community members an active role in constructing and communicating their own viewpoints and perspectives. The narrative also identifies those values and attributes that distinguish the community (park, tourism destination) from those with which it competes or compares. The obvious way to defend against becoming nowhere is to be somewhere. In other words, the best way to “activate� a place that is nowhere is to make it somewhere.
Photo 7. St. Mary Cathedral
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Austin’s Historic Squares
Photo 8. Wooldridge Square band performance May 1, 1938
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ustin’s historic squares date to the earliest days of our city. Edwin Waller began designing the new capital city as soon as he arrived at the site along the Colorado River on May 23, 18395. On August 1, 1839, the new Republic of Texas sold the first parcels of land within the proposed capital city. These parcels were auctioned under “some live oak trees on the 6 north side of a public square….” Waller reserved four city blocks for four public squares. Three of these squares remain: Brush, Republic, and Wooldridge. These squares are not the oldest parklands in Texas. In 1729, King Philip V of Spain reserved the land around San Antonio’s San Pedro Springs for public use. However, the City of San Antonio did not dedicate the springs as a city park until 18587 Austin’s historic squares represent the original parkland designated for and by the Republic (and, by extension, the State) of Texas.
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To place the historic squares within a historical context, consider the following dates: • 1839 - Waller’s original plan for Austin • 27 December 1839 - Special Act of Congress of the Republic of Texas creating the City of Austin • 1840/41 - construction of the French Legation building, the oldest wood-frame structure in Austin • 1875 - Governor Pease conveys land along Shoal Creek to City (Pease Park) • 1881 - establishment of the University of Texas • 1885 - completion of the Texas State Capitol • 1918 - deeding of Barton Springs to the city Austin is rooted to these original civic spaces. Although the squares have undergone numerous transformations and misuses, they remain among the most important civic spaces in Austin. The squares, therefore, are ideal spaces for revealing and interpreting Our Austin Story.
The story of the squares is the story of Austin. The people and events we profile in this interpretive strategy reflect a heritage shared by all who call Austin their home. Although these squares are located in the center of downtown Austin, the stories they tell are not limited by geography. For example, the African-American churches that originated at Wooldridge Square continue in East Austin. The Mexican cuisine that began around Republic Square flourishes in countless restaurants throughout the city. The squares are located downtown, but then so are many of the people who visit Austin. These squares offer the city an opportunity to reach countless visitors who otherwise leave Austin knowing little about the city’s heritage.
The Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) came to Austin in 1871, with its main tracks running on Pine (now Fifth) Street directly in front of the square. Maps show the square continuing to be used for freight in those years. Little remains of the rail line, although the Railroad House still stands on East Fifth Street, formerly housing Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant. The Railroad House accommodated passengers traveling to other railroads as well as four stagecoach lines.9 The property eventually evolved into the Alliance Cotton Yard, continuing its use as a storage area for cotton. In 1916, however, the city committed to the creation of a park at this site. In 1908, the city reasserted the public’s ownership of the square.10 In 1916, the city began work to develop Brush Square into a formal park.11
The same logic and rationale applies to Congress Avenue. In a figurative sense, Congress Avenue is the “Main Street of Texas,” while in a literal sense Congress Avenue is the main street of Austin. Much of what has transpired in Texas, at least politically, has played out on Congress Avenue. Yet, it is important to separate Austin the city from Texas the state. Congress Avenue, for most of its length, is within the City of Austin. The story of Congress Avenue, therefore, is largely the story of Austin. Additionally, the storylines that are identified in this report interconnect. The storylines connect to many specific places and civic spaces within our community. The narrative connections that are identified in this report, in a way, define physical connections (extant or not) within the community. In this way, the Congress Avenue narratives point to novel ways of planning both the avenue as well as the streets to which it connects.
Brush Square Brush Square, like Republic and Wooldridge, struggled in its early years to find a purpose. During the Civil War, Seba Bogart Brush stored cotton and other merchandise on the property. Brush traded in cotton, and during the Civil War he made a small fortune shipping cotton to the Union. The city named the square for Brush after his untimely death at the age of 47.8
Photo 9. Brush Square Cattle brought Austin’s next economic boom. A dramatic increase in demand for beef and hides following the Civil War inspired drovers to push herds of longhorns from South Texas to railheads in Kansas. Tens of thousands of longhorns were driven annually through Austin and across the Colorado River at crossings such as the current location of Longhorn Dam and Shoal Creek on their way to the Chisholm Trail.12 The era of the trail ride lasted only a few decades, but for that period few places better fit the description of a “cow town” than Austin. And, the cowboys brought more than longhorns with them as they rode through town. They brought a uniquely American culture. This cowboy culture
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It w ould be very interesting to speculate on what the human imagination is going to do with a frontierless w orld where it must seek its inspiration in uniformity rather than variety, in sameness rather than contrast, in safety rather than peril, in probing the harmless nuances of the known rather than the thundering uncertainties of unknown seas or continents. The dreamers, the poets, and the philosophers are after all but instruments which make vocal and articulate the hopes and aspirations and the fears of a people.
Brush Square is connected to the longhorn legacy through the writer William Sidney Porter, better known as O. Henry. He lived and worked a variety of jobs in Austin in the late 1800’s. A number of his short stories (such as The Last Troubadour) were set in this region and dealt with the cowboy and with western culture. O. Henry lived in the William Sidney Porter House or O. Henry House between 1893 and 1895. The City of Austin had the house moved from its original location at 308 East Fourth Street to its current location at Brush Square in 1934. The house is now home to the O. Henry Museum, managed and operated by PARD. The influence of the Great Plains and cowboy culture is also seen in the works of Austin writers and academicians such as Andy Adams, Elmer Kelton, J. Frank Dobie, and Walter Prescott Webb. Additional examples of this influence include the music of Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, and the Dixie Chicks, to name a few.
The people are going to miss the frontier more than w ords can express. For four centuries they heard its call, listened to its promises, and bet their lives and fortunes on its outcome.
Austin remained a cow town well into the 20th century. Ironically, Austin needed the Great Depression to finally get beyond its hardscrabble beginnings. The Great Depression brought the New Deal, and the New Deal brought Austin a whirlwind of public works projects including dams, streets, bridges, and parks. Austin Fire Station #1, at the northwest corner of Brush Square, is one of those New Deal projects. Still a working fire station, the Austin Fire Museum is also located within this building.
It calls no more...
In the final dramatic scene in John Wayne’s The Alamo, a woman walks away from the fort and into the sunset with her young daughter on the back of a mule. That woman is Susanna Dickinson. She survived the Battle of the Alamo and carried the news of its fall to Sam Houston. With
- Walter Prescott Webb in The Great Frontier 7
would influence not only Austin but eventually the world. This influence is seen today in food (barbeque), clothing (boots, jeans, hats), music, and the arts. As for the cattle business, today Texas produces about 20% of the nation’s beef cattle and ranks #1 in the country in the value of cattle raised.
Our Austin Story
Photo 10. Cotton Exchange Houston’s defeat of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto less than two months later, Texas would win its independence. And, of course, the new Republic of Texas would need a new capital, and thus the birth of Austin. Susanna Dickinson’s home has moved to Brush Square and renovated as the Susanna Dickinson Museum.
Brush Square - Cattle, Cotton, and Commerce Brush Square spent its first decades as a void. No one came, and nothing happened. Voids will be filled, and Seba Bogart Brush took advantage of this empty public space to store cotton and other merchandise. Brush, like many Texans, traded in cotton during the Civil War. Steamship owners Mifflin Kenedy and Richard King (not to mention San Antonio’s George Washington Brackenridge) are additional examples of Texans who greatly profited from the trade.13
Brush made a small fortune shipping cotton to foreign markets (and even the Union) by first moving the cotton through Mexico. At least two of Brush’s hired ships ran the Union Blockade in the Gulf of Mexico. He shipped most of Austin’s cotton through Bagdad (Mexico) to Havana (Cuba), then to New York and Liverpool.14 His ventures during the Civil War were successful and brought much-needed funds back to the farmers in Austin. The city named the square in 1888 to honor Brush after his untimely death at the age of 47.15 Commerce remained the main theme for Brush Square with the arrival of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1871. The line’s main tracks ran down the center of Pine (now Fifth) Street directly in front of the square. Maps show the square continuing to be used for freight in those years. Little remains of the H&TC. However, one of the buildings that serviced the rail line still exists. The Old Depot Hotel was Austin’s first railroad station, built in 1871-1872. Also
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Photo 11. Longhorn known as the Railroad House, it still stands on East Fifth Street between Red River and Neches. In recent years, it housed Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant, which closed in 2017 when the owner sold the property. At the time it was built, it accommodated passengers traveling to other railroads and four stagecoach lines.
Cortez brought cattle to the New World, and Americanstyled ranching evolved from these beginnings in Mexico. Cattle originally brought to Texas by the Spanish often escaped into the thick brush of South Texas. Over time, a breed of cattle, the longhorn, proliferated in the thorn16 scrub between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers.
Brush Square The Cowboy Culture
Cowboys still needed to drive these “free” cattle north to markets. After the Civil War, the increased demand for beef in the East enticed men to gather herds and push them north to the railheads in Kansas. Herds of longhorns often passed through and by Austin after the Civil War. Drovers needed to push the herds across the Colorado River, and popular crossings in Austin included the mouth of Shoal Creek (Waterloo) and the current
The words “Cowboy” and “Texas” are synonymous. The American cowboy began in Texas, and the influence of the culture remains with us today. However, the American cowboy has a decidedly Mexican origin. The American cowboy, truth be told, is Tex-Mex.
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location of the Longhorn Dam. Townspeople would interact with these cowboys as they came to town to buy supplies or visit the bars. With the invention of barbed wire and the American wind mill, trail riding came to an end. Ranching, the large-scale raising of beef cattle within the confines of private land, unknown in America prior to the Civil War, dominates the 17 Texas landscape still. Texas cowboys shaped the cowboy culture. Texas cowboys were Mexican, Mexican-American, AfricanAmerican, and Anglo. Each ethnic group brought its own influences. The hardships of the lifestyle eventually bled these influences into one. Writers such as O. Henry helped popularized this culture (although O. Henry also wrote about New York and other aspects of American life), and American television and movies helped spread the Texas cowboy culture around the world. The cowboy culture in Austin can be seen in the food, music, art, literature, clothing (boots, jeans, hats), and celebrations (such as the rodeo).
Brush Square Austin’s New Deal Austin remained a cow town well into the 20th century. Austin needed the Great Depression to finally get beyond its hardscrabble beginnings. The Great Depression brought the New Deal, and the New Deal brought Austin a whirlwind of public works projects including dams, streets, bridges, and parks. Austin benefited from a team of powerful politicians that ensured that the city benefited from the New Deal programs. The city was represented in the United States House of Representatives by Congressman James P. “Buck” Buchanan of Brenham until 1937. Buchanan served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, through which every spending bill had to pass. When Buchanan died of a heart attack in early 1937, he was replaced by freshman Lyndon B. Johnson. Tom Miller, the pro-New Deal mayor of Austin, served the city through the Depression. Walter E. Long, head of
Photo 12. Work Progress Administration the Austin Chamber of Commerce, worked closely with Mayor Miller and Congressman Johnson during those years. The result? Consider this one example. By 1936, Austin had received over $6 million in PWA (Public Works Administration) funds, more than any city in Texas. Before the New Deal came to an end, the federal government would spend a total of $1.4 billion in the state of Texas, more than all but three states. Texas and Austin today would be hard to imagine without the public works investments made during the years of the Great Depression. Tens of thousands of Texas men and women were employed by New Deal programs such as the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) or worked for local businesses on projects funded by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), and the PWA (Public Works Administration).18 Here are a few of the better known New Deal projects from Austin: • Deep Eddy, Emma Long, Rosewood, Parque Zaragoza, Big Stacy, and Zilker parks • Tom Miller, Buchanan, and Mansfield dams • House Park Football Stadium and gymnasium • Dormitories at UT, as well as the UT Tower
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• Several bridges over Shoal and Waller creeks • Schools such as Matthews Elementary, Becker Elementary, Russell Lee Elementary, and Zavala Elementary • U.S. Federal Courthouse • Original Austin City Hall • Rosewood, Santa Rita, and Chalmers Courts • Central Fire Station No. 1. The New Deal connection at Brush Square is Central Fire Station No. 1. The station, built as a New Deal project in 1938, also houses the Austin Fire Museum. We recommend the installation of interpretive panels at this location that will introduce visitors to the New Deal and its impact on Austin.
Women are fools to be bothered with housew ork. L ook at me; I sleep in a hammock which requires no making up. I break an egg and sip it raw. I make lemonade in a glass, and then rinse it, and my housew ork is done for the day. - Elizabet Ney African-American and Tejano women have been instrumental in pushing for women’s rights in Austin. For example, the Chicana Research and Learning Center, the first research and service project in the nation founded and run by and for Mexican-American women, opened in 1974 at the University of Texas.
Photo 13. Austin Fire Station
Brush Square Powerful Women Powerful, influential, and opinionated women have shaped Austin from its beginning. Susanna Dickinson survived the Alamo. Angelina Eberly heroically preserved Austin’s position as the state capital by blasting a few holes in the General Land Office, keeping Sam Houston’s soldiers from scurrying back to Houston with the state archives. In 1928, Minnie Fisher Cunningham became the first woman from Texas to run for the U.S. Senate, announcing her campaign from the Wooldridge Square bandstand. Austin currently (in 2017) has a femaledominated city council (7 out of 10 members are female). Travis County has a female-dominated commissioners court (including the county judge), a female county sheriff, and a female-dominated Texas House delegation.
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On January 21, 2017, up to 50,000 people (as reported by the Austin American-Statesman) joined in Austin’s Women’s March, a national demonstration for women’s rights. Marching down Congress Avenue from the capitol, it took marchers over two hours to complete a 1-mile loop. This march represents one of the largest demonstrations in Austin history, exemplifying the dominant role of women in our community.19 Austin Women • Austin Women’s Association for Suffrage • Blanton, Annie Webb • Carpenter, Liz • Crenshaw, Roberta • Cunningham, Minnie Fisher • Current Austin city council • Current county sheriff • Current Travis County commission • Current Travis County House delegation • Delaco, Wilhelmina
Photo 14. Susanna Dickinson
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Dickinson, Susanna Dixie Chicks Driscoll, Clara Duren, Almetris Marsh Eberly, Angelina Fish, Janet Fontaine, Melvina (Viney) Garza, Delia Kirk, Willie Mae Hoffman, Margaret Ivins, Mollie Johnson, Lady Bird Joplin, Janis Jordan, Barbara Long, Emma McBee, Sue McCallum, Jane Murchison, Mahala Morton, Azie Taylor Ney, Elizabet Richards, Ann Searight, Mary Moore Strayhorn, Carole Keeton Washington, Myrtle White, Mattie B. Haywood Women’s March
Republic Square Edwin Waller’s original design of Austin consisted of a grid with a central square (Capitol Square) and four smaller, secondary “public squares.” In 1888, the squares were named Brush, Hamilton (now First Baptist Church), Bell (now Wooldridge), and Hemphill 20 (now Republic). By 1905, the neighborhood to the west and south of Republic Square was largely identified with Austin’s Mexican population. Three “Mexican” churches were established within a block or two of the square, including Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. For many years, locals would call this square “Guadalupe Square” 21 or “Mexican Square.” Celebrations such as 16 de septiembre were held in Guadalupe Square in those early years. The celebration commemorates the day in 1810 that Father Hidalgo
Photo 15. Republic Square
launched the Mexican War of Independence against Spain. These festivals continued until the late 1920’s when Tejanos and their celebrations shifted to East Austin as a result, in part, of the City Plan of 1928. Mexican culture is the soul of Republic Square and a critical component of that culture is food. Austin’s Mexican food began in the kitchens of Mexicans and Tejanos who lived around the square. Families in the neighborhood made tamales and Mexican candies to sell along Congress Avenue. These kitchens were the beginnings of the industry that helped shape the Mexican cuisine that still thrives in Austin. Although the original city plan set aside public land, the city and its residents quickly found other ways to use these spaces. For example, between 1950 and mid 1970s, Republic Square was used as a parking lot. Returning Republic Square to its original purpose began in 1976 as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration. The current name, Republic Square, was chosen in tribute to the Republic of Texas.
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Most recently, the Downtown Austin Alliance, the Austin Parks Foundation, and the Austin Parks and Recreation Department have joined to give Republic Square a dramatic makeover. The civic space that you experience today is a reflection of the spirit and intent of Edwin Waller’s original inspiration.
Photo 16. Auction Oaks
Republic Square Austin Origins On January 24, 1839 the Republic of Texas directed President Mirabeau Lamar to select a site for the capital. Lamar chose the small settlement of Waterloo on the north bank of the Colorado River as the site for what would become Austin. In May 1839 Judge Edwin Waller laid out a plan for the new capital city. The “Waller Plan” encompassed a square mile, 14 city blocks by 14 city blocks, between Waller Creek on the east and Shoal Creek on the west. On August 1, 1839 Waller (working for the Republic of Texas) held the first auction of city lots under a small grove of live oaks in what we now call Republic Square. Funds from this sale were used to begin the construction of government buildings in the new capital.22
Republic Square Austin’s Mexico Photo 17. Republic Square 1869
Austin's original Mexican and Tejano community once enveloped Republic Square. This neighborhood known as "Mexico" stretched from Congress Avenue to Shoal Creek and from West 1st Street to West 7th Street. 13
Our Austin Story
Austin’s original Mexican and Tejano community once enveloped Republic Square. This neighborhood known as “Mexico” stretched from Congress Avenue to Shoal Creek and from West 1st Street to West 7th Street. By the 1880s, the park was so popular that nearby residents hosted concerts and dances, church fundraisers, and the annual celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day (16 de septiembre) here. In 1907, the Catholic diocese built Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and a parochial school at the corner of West 5th Street and Guadalupe Street facing Republic Square. Thereafter, the square was known as “Guadalupe Park” among local residents.
People of color, including Mexicans and Tejanos, began settling east Austin after the Civil War. The growth of that community began to attract people away from the “Mexico” neighborhood. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, for example, moved east in 1926. The City Plan of 1928 continued this movement through institutional racial segregation and pressuring people of color to continue moving east of East Avenue (now I-35). The plan recommended that city services (schools, roads, utilities) be denied to people of color unless they lived within the “Negro District.” By the end of the Great Depression, the residents of “Mexico” had moved east with their stores, churches, foods, and fiestas. Today some Tejanos now residing east of I-35 can trace their lineage to Guadalupe Park and the “Mexico” neighborhood.
Republic Square Spirit of the Square Mexican culture is the soul of Republic Square and a critical component of that culture is food. Austin’s Mexican food began in the kitchens of Mexicans and Tejanos who lived around the square. Families in the neighborhood made tamales and Mexican candies to sell along Congress Avenue. These kitchens were the beginnings of the industry that helped shape the Mexican cuisine that still thrives in Austin. Local residents worked in spinach-packing plants and canning factories located near the square. Children played in the square as their parents worked in these factories preparing foods for the national market. Walker’s Austex Chili Company provided jobs to local Mexicans and Tejanos. Austin’s food tradition of various Mexican kitchens, restaurants, and markets continues today.
Photo 18. Austex Chili Company
Photo 19. Sustainable Food Center Farmers Market
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Photo 20. Wooldridge Square looking east
Wooldridge Square Wooldridge Square lay dormant for its first 70 years. Three of Austin’s first churches were built overlooking the square, the handiwork of early Austin civic leaders such as Jacob Fontaine and Swante Palm. Yet, in those early years the square itself remained fallow. Fallow, yet not forgotten. Wooldridge Square is a bowl, a natural amphitheater carved by two springs that once flowed across the square into Little Shoal Creek. Little Shoal Creek, a tributary of Shoal Creek that is aligned with Nueces Street, still flows under that street to its eventual merger with Shoal Creek near West Fourth. It is this natural shape that initially attracted Mayor A.P Wooldridge and supporters to enhance the square for public performances. In 1909, Austin Mayor A.P. Wooldridge, animated by civic pride and backyard boosterism (he lived adjacent to the square), inspired the community to clean up the square (formerly used as a landfill) and construct a bandstand for public engagements. Over the next century, Wooldridge Square would host Booker T. Washington, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, Lyndon Johnson, and scores of Texas political aspirants reaching out to voters from the bandstand. Roy Bedichek, writing in the May 1915 issue of The American City, described the newly enhanced Wooldridge Square;
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There's a little thousanddollar park, comprising but a block, in the center of a rather exclusive residential district of Austin, Texas. It is a sort of auditorium, playground and social center 'all combined ; at one time a political forum, at another a stage for some church festival, at another a playground for throngs of children, or a meeting place for thousands of music lovers to hear free municipal concerts.23
The cultural convulsions of the 1960s reverberated through this square, as well. Civil rights marches often ended at Wooldridge with a flurry of speeches and exhortations. In 1968, a benefit at the square introduced the world to an Austin icon, Jim Franklin’s armadillo. The Keep Austin Weird era would soon begin, and with it came Austin’s transformation into one of America’s great cities. In recent years, Wooldridge Square supporters have begun an effort to restore and revive this civic space. Recently, park advocates began working with PARD to restore the park. In 2012, PARD allocated over $300,000 for the rehabilitation of Wooldridge Square. The square was closed for one year during the rehabilitation. A new irrigation system and pipes for reclaimed water were installed, new trees and new turf were planted, and the 1910 bandstand was restored.
Wooldridge Square Soul of the City In his 1839 Plan of Austin, Edwin Waller designated Block 101, to the immediate south of Wooldridge Square, for churches.24 Three of Austin’s first churches were built on 101: • First (Colored) Baptist Church (1869) • Metropolitan AME (1873) • Gethsemane Lutheran Church (1874) Several of Austin’s early civic leaders were involved in the establishment of these churches. The Reverend Jacob Fontaine would eventually help establish several churches in the region in addition to First (Colored) Baptist. Fontaine also helped convince black voters to support the establishment of the University of Texas in Austin, even though African-Americans would not be allowed to attend the university until 1956. Members of Austin’s black churches were concerned about the education of freed slaves after the end of the Civil War. An estimated 95% of the freed slaves were illiterate. Members of the African Methodist Episcopal Texas Conference opened the Connectional School for the Education of Negro Youth in Texas in Austin on April 4, 1872. The school met in Metropolitan AME, across from Wooldridge Square. The school’s primary goals
were “to train clergymen to preach in black churches and to train teachers to teach in black schools.” In addition, “the school was to educate the newly freed slaves so that they could become responsible citizens.” After operating for five years in Austin, the school moved to Waco to be closer to the major black population centers of the state. In 1881, officials renamed the school for Bishop William Paul Quinn, a Methodist missionary. In 1990, the college relocated for a third time, to Dallas, Texas. Paul Quinn College is the oldest African American liberal arts college in Texas.25, 26,27 Swante Palm served as first secretary of the Gethsemane Lutheran Church, the third church built on Block 101. In 1897, Palm donated his sizable library to the new University of Texas in a gift that increased the size of the university library by more than 60 percent. Both Palm School and Palm Park are named for him. Henry Hirshfeld (1834-1911), a native of Germany, was a prominent Austin merchant and a leader in the city’s Jewish community. Hirshfeld built a cottage across Guadalupe from the First (colored) Baptist Church in 1873, followed by his grand house in 1885. Hirshfeld served as president of the Congregation Beth Israel and was instrumental in the dedication of their first synagogue at East Eleventh and San Jacinto. By the 1920’s, the three Block 101 churches had moved to other locations and were replaced by a new public library, now occupied by the Austin History Center. However, these churches (including Congregation Beth Israel) are still thriving at other locations in Austin.
Photo 21. Metropolitan AME in the 1880s Our Austin Story
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Wooldridge Square Winds of Change Wooldridge Square is common grounds, a place within Austin where the issues of the time have been discussed and debated. A common thread that ties many of the issues together is freedom. For example, Booker T. Washington’s tour of Texas came to Austin on September 30, 1911; the famous educator spoke to 5,000 people (a significant percentage of the entire 1910 population of 30,000) from the bandstand in Wooldridge Square that evening.28, 29 Minnie Fisher Cunningham helped organize the National League of Women Voters and became its executive secretary. In 1928, she became the first Texas woman to run for the U.S. Senate, and she announced her campaign from the bandstand in Wooldridge Square. While she lost the state primary, her political influence and role in the women’s suffrage movement was profound.30
Lyndon Johnson began his run for the U.S. Senate in 1948 from Wooldridge Square, as well. His political accomplishments include the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, two of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in modern history.31 The Travis County Courthouse, bordering Wooldridge Square to the north, is named for Heman Marion Sweatt. Sweatt v. Painter is one of the most important civil rights cases in American history. The case, settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of Sweatt in 1950, opened the University of Texas Law School to African-American enrollment. The case would help inform Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that would desegregate all schools in the country, four years later.32 On March 9, 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to the University of Texas and spoke in front of 1,200 people at the Texas Union Ballroom. “Old Man Segregation is on his deathbed,” King said to the crowd. “The only question is how expensive the South is going to make the funeral.” The Tower at the University of Texas is easily seen from Wooldridge Square.33
Photo 22. Heman Sweatt applying at the University of Texas
Photo 23.Travis County Courthouse
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Wooldridge Square Keep Austin Weird Austin began its transformation into one of America’s great cities in an inauspicious way. The Austin of today began with the music of yesterday. On September 29, 1968, local musicians held a benefit at Wooldridge Square. Jim Franklin, a local artist, designed a poster for that event. With the poster, Jim introduced what would become the new Austin’s symbol – the armadillo. With the armadillo, the new Austin had brand.34 In 1970, Eddie Wilson, inspired by Franklin’s art, named his new music venue the Armadillo World Headquarters (AWH). On August 12, 1972, a newly arrived Willie Nelson first appeared at AWH, and he later invited his Nashville friends to join him. With the AWH, the new Austin found a home.35 In 1974, Austin City Limits began its lengthy run, and Eeyore’s Birthday moved to Pease Park from its quiet beginning at Eastwood Park. Clifford Antone opened Antone’s on East Sixth in 1975, accelerating the transformation of Austin into the “Live Music Capital of the World.” Musicians, artists, and an eclectic collection of creatives began to relocate to this odd little community. In 1978, twenty-five-year-old college dropout John Mackey opened SaferWay, and two years later a merger led to the first Whole Foods Store. Whole Foods sold natural 36 foods to Austin’s growing community of creatives. Michael Dell began building and selling personal computers from his dorm room at the University of Texas in 1984 at the age of 19. Remember; in the early days computers were countercultural (Steve Jobs named his company after the Beatles’ label). South by Southwest (SXSW) started in 1987, and by 2,000 Austinites were concerned as to how they might Keep Austin Weird.37 Keep Austin Weird, a term coined by Red Wassenich, is just another way of saying Keep Austin Creative. Austin’s creative community, that which led us out of a whiterocks-and-cedar-trees, hardscrabble existence, can be traced to places such as Wooldridge Square.
Photo 24. Wooldridge Square Poster with Armadillo
Keep Austin Weird, a term coined by Red Wassenich, is just another way of saying Keep Austin Creative. Hamilton Square Hamilton Square, likely named for Austin banker and civic leader Frank Hamilton, is no longer one of Austin’s civic spaces. This space is now occupied by First Baptist Church. Prior to it becoming the home of First Baptist, however, Hamilton Square served as the grounds for Austin’s first high school – Austin High. The naming of this square is obscure. The Hamilton family provided many men who were worthy candidates for this naming. Morgan Hamilton served as a U.S. senator from Texas during Reconstruction. Morgan Hamilton was an “uncompromising Republican,” an abolitionist, and had opposed secession. Hamilton Pool is named for Morgan. His brother, Andrew Jackson Hamilton, had opposed secession as well and served one term as Texas governor during Reconstruction. During the Civil War, A.J. Hamilton became a hero in the north with his attacks on slavery.38
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On September 12, 1881, the Austin Public Schools (APS) opened, with A.P. Wooldridge appointed president of the school board. Austin High School was founded September 13, 1881. It is one of the oldest public high schools west of the Mississippi and the first public high school in the state of Texas. APS opened Austin’s first dedicated high school at this location in 1900. The district had previously leased space for the high school. Interestingly, in 1903, Arthur N. McCallum, Sr., was appointed superintendent of schools. He was Jane McCallum’s husband, one of the important women in Brush Square’s “Powerful Women” storyline. The following is a quote from Loyal Forever, the website of the Austin High School Alumni Association:
During the Thanksgiving Holidays in 1925, the high school students and junior high students packed their books and lunchboxes and headed home. When they w ent back to school on the next Monday, the high school students w ent to 12th and Rio Grande, and the Junior High kids w ent to "Old Red", the former Austin High at Ninth and Trinity. They "traded campuses." Educational leaders in town thought that there was "more room to expand" at the 12th and Rio Grande site.
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The building was destroyed by fire in 1956. After a land swap among the state, the school district, and First Baptist Church, First Baptist laid the cornerstone of their new church at Hamilton Square in 1969. After the Civil War, the former slaves who belonged to First Methodist left to form their own church, Wesley Chapel, the first African-American church in Austin. The Wesley M.E. Church, now Wesley Methodist, began in March 1865 at the corner of Congress and Fourth. They built a new church, soon to be called “Wesley on the Hill,” at the corner of Ninth and Neches. In other words, that church overlooked Hamilton Square much like the churches at Wooldridge. Wesley M.E. remained at that location until 1928, when their property was bought by the Austin school district, and Wesley moved to the east side where they remain today. The original location of Wesley Chapel, directly south of Hamilton Square (now First Baptist Church), is now a parking garage and vacant lot. There are no historical markers there to tell the history of Austin’s first African-American church. All that remain are the steps that once led to “Old Wesley on the Hill,” the church where generations of Austin AfricanAmericans worshipped until the church moved to East Austin in 1929.39
Photo 25. Austin High School (Old Red)
Photo 26. Wesley Chapel M.E. Church
Austin’s Congress Avenue Through Congress Avenue, one can interpret the whole of downtown Austin.
Photo 28. Congress Avenue Frost Tower
Photo 27. Congress Avenue looking north
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M
irabeau Lamar first walked the narrow creek, now Congress Avenue, in 1838. Lamar had come to the settlement of Waterloo (near the mouth of Shoal Creek) to hunt bison with his friend, Jacob Harrell. Lamar killed a bull bison near what is now the corner of Congress Avenue and Eighth Street. At Harrell’s urging, the group continued up the canyon to a small hill for lunch. Looking back toward the Colorado River, Lamar declared that “this should be the seat of future empire.” The canyon would become Congress Avenue; the hill is now the site of the state capitol.40
Edwin Waller platted Austin with Congress Avenue as its heart line. Waller’s Austin encompassed 640 acres, one section of land, with Congress dividing the city in halves. From its raw beginnings in 1839, Congress Avenue has served as Austin’s main street, the artery that linked Austin’s front door, the Colorado River, to the state capitol. To know Austin, you must know Congress Avenue. Any planning for Congress must begin with a basic understanding and acceptance of the centrality of “The Avenue.” This interpretive strategy for Congress Avenue positions Congress Avenue at not just the geographical center of Austin, but at its cultural and civic nucleus as well. The narratives in this report are admittedly brief synopses of what could be an expansive dissertation. The intent is to introduce these storylines in a way that points a direction for the future while providing enough information for interpretation in the present. An important role for these downtown civic spaces (the historic squares and Congress Avenue) is the introduction of heritage that can be further explored elsewhere. For example, while we may introduce Tejano history at Republic Square, visitors who want to learn more should be directed to the Mexican-American Cultural Center, the Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Tejano Trail. The same is true for the African-American churches at Wooldridge Square, where those who would like to delve deeper into this history should be led to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center and the Six Square Cultural District.
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Vibrant Connections Congress Avenue has a central role and prominence in Austin’s history. It can be interpreted on its own, but more importantly by how it relates and connects to other cultural landscapes of importance. Through these “Vibrant Connections,” one can interpret the whole of downtown Austin. By accentuating connectivity, we leverage city spaces and other heritage resources throughout the city and create an interpretive platform more efficacious and expansive than Congress Avenue alone. Adjoining parks, buildings, squares, monuments, trails, artwork, and the like can be coalesced into heritage conservation districts that can be tethered to Congress Avenue both physically and interpretively. Collectively, the Our Austin Story interpretive plan provides a thematic bridge between Austin’s east and west, north and south, black and white, past and future. The vibrant connections that will be described next are themselves bridges among interpretive sites and their communities. This strategy is primarily focused on Congress Avenue between Riverside Drive (to the south) and West Eleventh (to the north). However, with the expectation that Congress Avenue will be redeveloped per the Texas Capitol Complex Master Plan, this interpretive plan can be extended north to Martin Luther King Drive (MLK). Therefore, we have included that northern stretch in our plans.41
Through these "Vibrant Connections," one can interpret the whole of downtown Austin.
Vibrant Connection - Riverside
South Congress
The southernmost Vibrant Connection along Congress Avenue is Riverside Drive. Interpretive opportunities at this intersection are limited today, although there is a public space at the corner of Congress Avenue and Barton Springs Road (across from Yeti) that may be appropriate for signage. Currently, there is a public art installation at this location.
Initially isolated from Austin proper, and not included in Waller’s original city plan, South Congress developed along its own path and at its own pace. According to the 2003 South Congress Avenue Preservation Plan,
Riverside Drive, however, connects with some of the most important civic spaces and parks in Austin. To the west, Riverside Drive leads to the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Palmer Events Center, Auditorium Shores, Vic Mathias Shores, Butler Park, Doug Sahm Hill, and the south end of the James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycling Bridge. The Butler Trail is easily accessed along Riverside as well. To the east, Riverside parallels the Butler Trail, but parking is limited. Yet, Riverside does connect to the Blunn Creek Greenbelt, Little Stacy Park, Big Stacy Park, and the Travis Heights neighborhood. The South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan42 has identified areas near the Congress Avenue Bridge for future park spaces. These parks will be ideal for interpretive signage and public art that reflects the heritage of the area.
The history of South Congress Avenue follow s the history of Austin but at a slightly slow er pace. The land south of the capital city lay relatively undeveloped during Austin's formative years but in 1852, James Gibson Swisher donated a generous 120' right-of-way for a road through his farm. L aid out on axis with Austin's main street, Congress Avenue, the road south of the Colorado River was both the postal route to Austin and the main highway to San Antonio. Growth along South Congress Avenue progressed slowly during the 19th century; it was not until the completion of the concrete bridge in 1910 that South Austin had reliable transportation over the river.
Photo 29. South Congress 1939 Our Austin Story
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Photo 30. South Congress 1948 The Crockett family farmed along the river and to the east (toward Montopolis), and at one time Moton Crockett’s father was known as the Austin “Spinach King.”43 African-American and Tejano farmworkers settled in East Austin. Until the Great Depression, farmworkers from Mexico traveled to this area to harvest crops under a “bracero” program. The area surrounding Austin produced a majority of the commercial spinach in the state from 1910 to 1920.44 In meeting with Moton Crockett and his family, we heard many of the stories about those early days of travel courts, soft-freeze ice cream, and a part of Austin that developed to serve travelers coming to and from San Antonio. With the construction of I-35 (officially opened in 1962), this traffic moved away from South Congress and so did many of these businesses.
To know Austin, you must know Congress Avenue. Any planning for Congress must begin with a basic understanding and acceptance of the centrality of "The Avenue." This interpretive strategy for Congress Avenue positions Congress Avenue at not just the geographical center of Austin, but at its cultural and civic nucleus as w ell. However, there are interpretive opportunities at the intersection of Congress Avenue and the lake, especially to the east, at the corner of Congress Avenue and Riverside Drive, as well as along the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge (Bridge).
Vibrant Connection The River Walk In the 1853 city map for Austin, the area bordering the north shore of the Colorado River between Congress Avenue and Waller Creek is called the “River Walk.” The same is true for the 1872 Cordova map of Austin. Although never formally developed, Austin’s “River Walk” predates San Antonio’s by decades. Although the River Walk opportunity is currently limited to the north side of the lake, the Butler Trail does offer limited access to the lake. This access is limited by the types of recreation currently being favored along this trail.
Photo 31. Austin River Walk
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Photo 32. Colorado River below Longhorn Dam
Nature This initial section offers the only opportunity on Congress Avenue to interpret Austin’s natural history. Much of the activity along the Bridge to date has been associated with the Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) that summer under the Bridge. However, even the bats have escaped formal interpretation, and most of what does occur is impromptu from tour boat guides or visitors. There are four natural history storylines that we have selected for interpretation at the Bridge.
The River The Colorado River is over 800 miles long, with both its source and its mouth in Texas. The name “Colorado” comes from the Spanish for “red” or “reddish.” Before the construction of the dams, and the clearing of land for (1) Austin, and (2) agriculture, the river provided the only continuous strip of forest until one reached the
Lost Pines of Bastrop. A few of the original bald cypress remain upriver from the Bridge. Sand bars and flats lined the river, periodically cleared of vegetation by intermittent floods. River crossings were limited, with the mouth of Shoal Creek (Waterloo) and what is now Longhorn Dam among the most used.45 Historic river crossings within central Austin that are appropriate for interpretation include the following (west to east): • • • •
McGill’s Ford46 Shoal Creek Crossing Tinnin Ford Longhorn Crossing47
The construction of the Highland Lakes during the New Deal, culminating with the Longhorn Dam in 1960 (funded by the City of Austin), dramatically changed the morphology of the river. With the development of Longhorn Dam, the river became a lake.
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This riparian complex or ecosystem along the river has been fundamentally altered by the construction of the Longhorn Dam and by urban development along the river’s edge. Opportunities exist (such on the six acres bordering the Seaholm Intake) for restoring and interpreting this riparian ecosystem.
Photo 33. Bat watchers
The stories of transportation and the crossing of the river can be told here as well. These stories include shallow-water crossings by wagons, horses, and cattle. In 1852, James Gibson Swisher started a tolled ferry service across the river at the foot of Congress Avenue. The first bridge across the river, a pontoon toll bridge, was constructed in 1869 or 1871, followed by an iron bridge in 1884. A section of that toll bridge remains at Moore’s Crossing. The city constructed the current bridge in 1910.48
Bats The reconstruction of the Congress Avenue Bridge in 1980 brought more than additional traffic to Austin. The new crevices beneath the bridge provided a perfect roost for Mexican free-tailed bats. Bats once lived in the state capitol building, and people would visit in the evening to see the bats exit the capitol dome (fide Oliver Franklin).
Photo 34. Texas river cooters
Today, up to 1.5 million bats spend their summers under the bridge, the largest urban bat colony in the world. Tens of thousands of tourists crowd the bridge each summer evening to watch the bats leave their roosts to feed. Yet, currently there is no interpretation of the bats 49 or their life histories at the bridge.
Endemics Some of the species of wildlife in and around Lady Bird Lake are limited to Central Texas. These are Hill Country endemics, and the bridge offers us the chance to bring these Hill Country natives to the attention of the public. Examples include the Texas river cooter (Pseudemys texana), Texas map turtle (Graptemys versa), and the Texas cichlid (Herichthys cyanoguttatu).
Changes Photo 35. Lesser scaup
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If you stand on the Bridge, and scan across Lady Bird Lake, you are forgiven if you assume that Austin has always been this way. Yet, this lake is a river, and
Photo 36. Austin skyline
it has only been dammed since 1960. For most of Austin’s history, the Colorado River flowed shallow and intermittently. What you see today is not the river that shaped so much of Austin’s history. Here is one small example. In 1925, George Finlay Simmons published Birds of the Austin Region. Simmons’s book, long out of print, details Austin before the Longhorn Dam. He writes about the natural world as shaped by time rather than the hand of man. For example, the lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) is a diving duck, depending on deep permanent water. Deep permanent water is exactly what Austin lacked before the creation of Lady Bird Lake (what we, until recently, called Town Lake). Simmons wrote that the lesser scaup was a “scarce migrant and very rare winter resident” in the Austin region. The few that frequented our area were found along the “Colorado River and [in] small cattle tank ponds and pastureland water holes.” Today, there is no duck more common on Lady Bird Lake in winter than the lesser scaup. The damming of the Colorado River created the perfect conditions for many species once considered rare in the Austin region. Ducks like the northern shoveler and bufflehead, raptors like the osprey and bald eagle (both rare in Simmons’s
time), and waterbirds like the double-crested cormorant (considered by Simmons to be a very rare migrant) are now commonly seen on the lake. The Congress Avenue Bridge offers us the opportunity to interpret Lady Bird Lake, and to use the bridge as a window or portal into Austin’s natural history.
Austin’s Origins This history of Congress Avenue is one of man as well as of land. The Austin Origin’s storyline, introduced at Republic Square with the Auction Oaks (and one that should include Waterloo) stretches across Austin to Congress Avenue and beyond. There are several Austin’s Origins stories that should be told at the Congress Avenue Bridge. • Native Americans: Native Americans (especially the Comanche) used the river and its crossings. There are numerous historic references to the Tonkawas camping in “bedraggled groups” along the Colorado River.50 • Mirabeau Lamar: The visit of Mirabeau Lamar in 1838 led to Waterloo being chosen as the site for the new capital.
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• Edwin Waller: Edwin Waller’s 1839 plan for the City of Austin placed Congress Avenue as the central axis. • The taming of the river with the construction of the Highland Lakes dams, and the creation of Lady Bird Lake, has led to a 90-degree reorientation of the downtown Austin skyline. Land once valueless (in the flood prone areas along the river) is now among the most valuable in the city.
Cattle, Cotton, and Commerce The stories that flow from this storyline to be explored at this location include agriculture and cattle trailing, Austin’s earliest industries.
Agriculture (Spinach) The area surrounding Austin produced a majority of the commercial spinach in the state from 1910 to 1920. Spinach fields included the sand flats along the Colorado River around Congress Avenue. The harvesting of the crop depended on seasonal labor, and the availability of jobs attracted many Latinos to the area.51
Cattle Texas longhorns were driven north from South Texas to railheads in Kansas beginning at the end of the Civil War. By the late 1880s, the period of the cattle trails was over. Hundreds of thousands of longhorns were driven through Austin, crossing the Colorado River at the mouth of Shoal Creek and at what is now Longhorn Dam.52
Cowboy Culture Texas Longhorns Cattle drives brought more than herds of cattle through Austin. The cowboys that drove the cattle left their culture as well. These cowboys were a diverse lot, with vaqueros and black cowboys playing an important part in the trailing of cattle. Austin’s music, food, dance, and dress have all been shaped by this relatively brief period 53 in our history.
Powerful Women The Congress Avenue Bridge is named for Ann Richards, and the lake is named for Lady Bird Johnson. This is an extension of the storyline, Powerful Women, introduced in the section on Brush Square in this report.
Ann and Roy Butler Trail The Butler Trail along Lady Bird Lake is a popular exercise pathway around the lake. However, this activity effectively isolates the lake from those who might want to do nothing more than to leisurely experience the lake. Currently, there are no places at this intersection where visitors can directly experience the lake. To the east, the Butler Trail connects to the ESBMACC, the Waller Creek Greenbelt, the Rainey Street Historic District, and, east of I-35, the Tejano Trails. To the west, the Butler Trail connects to the Drake Bridge, the Seaholm Intake and Waterfront, the trailhead for the Shoal Creek Greenbelt, and the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. All of these are important interpretive nodes.
Photo 37. Spinach field south side of Colorado River
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River Walk With the building of Longhorn Dam and the creation of Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake), the city opened the waterfront to public use and recreation. Before, the riverfront district was primarily dedicated to industrial uses.
Photo 38. Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail at Lady Bird Lake
In recent years, Austin has taken advantage of cityowned industrial lands (Seaholm Power Plant, Seaholm Intake, Green Water Treatment Plant) and opened them to residential and mixed-used development. As the lakefront has developed with high-rise buildings, Austin’s skyline, once aligned north-south along Congress Avenue, is now also oriented east-west along Lady Bird Lake and the River Walk. This reason alone would justify the development of a formal River Walk along Lady Bird Lake, taking advantage of the new skyline and the new enhancements along Lady Bird Lake. Central to this opportunity is the redevelopment of the Seaholm Intake, using the public building to serve all of the public as a connecter between the river and the city.
Vibrant Connection - Fifth Street Storylines and stories that are tethered to Congress Avenue stretch out to enmesh the city. Often these storylines are only first introduced along Congress Avenue (such as First Methodist and Wesley Chapel). Given the importance of the Colorado River in Austin’s history, there is a disproportionate number of unique storylines that originate there. However, there are critical cross streets or vectors along Congress Avenue that connect to important interpretive nodes and special places, as well. Currently, these intersections are faceless and without interpretative or wayfinding markers. In this section, the intersection of Congress Avenue and Fifth Street is an example of such an important crossing.
Photo 39. Seaholm Intake
In 2011, the City of Austin, in partnership with the MexicArte Museum and others, resolved to establish the “Fifth Street Mexican-American Heritage Corridor (Corridor).” The resolution stated that the “corridor will run from Republic Park on West 5th to Saltillo Plaza on East Fifth with Mexic-Arte Museum as the central anchor between the two points.” 54
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Photo 40. Mexic-Arte Museum
Working with Mexic-Arte and partners from the Latino and Tejano communities, the Corridor should be enhanced for interpreting the Mexican and Tejano heritage that shapes and forms this vector. Two storylines that originate at Republic Square, Austin’s Mexico and Spirit of the Square, extend to this section of Congress Avenue as well. Therefore, it is important to interpret this history near the intersection of Fifth Street and Congress Avenue, and to provide wayfinding information and markers for those who wish to continue east and west along the heritage corridor. One additional interpretive resource for this section is the Mexic-Arte Museum at the corner of Congress Avenue and Fifth Street. This museum already offers a wealth of information about Austin’s Mexican and Tejano community, both from the past as well as current.
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Working with Mexic-Arte and partners from the L atino and Tejano communities, the Corridor should be enhanced for interpreting the Mexican and Tejano heritage that shapes and forms this vector.
In addition to this culture, however, there are additional storylines and interpretive sites that should be incorporated into the Corridor. From this intersection of Congress and Fifth Street, to the west Fifth Street connects to Republic Square, the West Third Railroad Trestle over Shoal Creek, the Shoal Creek Greenbelt, and the new Austin Public Library. To the east, Fifth Street connects to Brush Square, the Austin Convention Center, the Waller Creek Greenbelt, the Red River Cultural District, and Palm Park. There are additional storylines that directly connect to this segment and offer unique opportunities to introduce threads of Austin’s heritage that otherwise would be overlooked or excluded.
The Soul of the City First Methodist Church erected their first church at the corner of Congress Avenue and Fourth Street. The site is currently marked with a historical marker. In 1854, First Methodist moved to the corner of Brazos and Mulberry (now East Tenth). The Methodists continued to worship there until 1923 when they constructed their current church at the corner of Lavaca and West Twelfth. From the beginning, enslaved people worshipped along with their slaveholders at First Methodist. However, at the end of the Civil War, the freedmen and freedwomen (or freedpeople) left First Methodist to form their own church, Wesley Chapel. “Wesley on the Hill” stood across the street from Hamilton Square, then Austin High and now the First Baptist Church. Wesley Chapel moved to its current location on San Bernard in East Austin in 1929. Although the history of First Methodist is told at both of its original locations with historical markers, there is no mention of the participation of formerly enslaved people or freedpeople in the creation of Wesley Chapel. The Wesley Chapel site is currently a parking garage and vacant lot, and there is no marker there telling of its significance.
Photo 41. Sam Wah Cafe
Sam Wah Café and the Chinese Connection According to the Austin History Center, “According to the 1875 Census there were 20 Chinese people living in Austin. Most of these were men who left China to find work in order to support their families. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, they could not bring their wives or children. These men worked mainly in the laundry or restaurant business. This was the beginning of Asian presence in Austin.”55 This section of Congress Avenue attracted several Chinese businesses that represent the beginnings of the Chinese community in Austin. These businesses include the Sam Wah Café (223 Congress), Joe Lung Café (204 Congress), and the Hong Lee Laundry (311 West Fifth). This section offers the opportunity to interpret part of the Asian story in Austin, and to connect the Congress Avenue narrative to the Asian American Resource Center and to the larger Asian population that now represents 8% of Austin’s population.56
Cattle, Cotton, and Commerce Three events determined the survival of Austin. From the outset, the viability of the city remained in doubt. Sam Houston wanted the capital shifted back to the east,
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Photo 42. First train in Austin December 26, 1871
and during his second term as president of the Republic he abandoned Austin and attempted to have the state government brought to him (we will discuss this story later with Angelina Eberly). Therefore, it took persistence, perseverance, and improbable luck to ensure the survival of Austin. The following are three seminal events in Austin’s history that were critical to Austin’s survival and eventual success. All three are evidenced along Congress Avenue. 1850: voters overwhelmingly supported Austin to become the permanent capital of Texas. 1865: end of the Civil War. 1871: arrival of the train.
Central (H&TC) Railroad built their railroad depot at the northeast corner of Congress Avenue and Third Street. For many decades, the transportation center of Austin would be Congress Avenue and West Third. Without rail, Austin would have remained a frontier outpost.
Interpretive Node - Sixth Street Sixth Street, east and west, began as one of the most important highways in Austin. In fact, for a number of years only Congress Avenue and Sixth Street were fully developed and graded. This highway stretched east to Bastrop, where Austin connected to the Old San
The train age arrived in Austin on December 26, 1871, when the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad brought the first train into the capital city. That train crossed the West Fifth Street bridge over Waller Creek and stopped near Brush Square. All that remains of that era is the hotel/depot building that was once Carmelo’s Restaurant on West Fifth between Red 57 River and Neches. H&TC would eventually shift its main line to the south and cross Congress Avenue at Third Street. In 1888, the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad built a railroad depot at the southwest corner of Congress Avenue and Third Street. In 1902, the Houston & Texas Photo 43. Littlefield Building
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Antonio Highway and to routes to Houston and the Port of Galveston. To the west, Sixth Street reached into the Comancheria through the pass around Mount Bonnell. Commercial and retail facilities sprang up along Sixth, and many of the buildings from that era remain. East Sixth Street is one of Austin’s primary entertainment districts, and West Sixth (between Guadalupe and Shoal Creek), in recent years, and become a major entertainment district in its own right. Sixth Street, as a whole, deserves its own interpretive strategy. For the purposes of this strategy for Congress Avenue, it is important to develop wayfinding connectors at the intersection of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue.58
Vibrant Connection - Ninth Street Ninth Street connects west to Wooldridge Square, the Austin History Center, the Travis County Courthouse, the Hirshfeld House and Cottage, the Bremond Block Historic District, Duncan Park, and the Shoal Creek Greenbelt. To the east, East Ninth Street leads to St. Mary Cathedral (1840), St. David’s Episcopal (1840),
Central Presbyterian (1839), Hamilton Square (now First Baptist Church), the original site for Wesley Chapel, the first African-American church in Austin, the Red River Cultural District, and Waller Creek. Currently, there is no wayfinding or other markings to designate the importance of this intersection. There is nothing to lead a pedestrian east or west. In addition, like Fourth Street, Ninth Street needs pedestrian improvements if it is to serve as a primary connector.
Vibrant Connection Eleventh Street Eleventh Street is one of Austin’s most significant historic connections emanating outward from the Texas State Capitol and connecting to many resources of local and statewide significance. To the west, Eleventh Street connects to the Texas State Capitol, the Governor’s Mansion, Travis County Courthouse, Pease Elementary School, and the Shoal Creek Greenbelt. To the east, Eleventh Street connects to Symphony Square and
Photo 44. Congress Avenue at Ninth Street
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Photo 45.Texas State Capitol Waller Creek, the African American Cultural and Heritage Facility, Texas State Cemetery, and, via Rosewood, to the George Washington Carver Museum (Carver), and the Six Square Cultural District. The north side of Eleventh Street is the beginning of Capitol Square, originally dedicated in Waller’s 1839 Plan of Austin. State offices extend north to Fifteenth Street, the original North Avenue and the northern extent of Waller’s original plan. The 2016 Texas Capitol Complex Master Plan proposes major improvements to property north of the capitol. Fifteenth Street (and, by extension, East Fourteenth across I-35), connects to the Oakwood Cemetery. There are two additional storylines to be interpreted along the northern section of Congress Avenue.
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The first to consider is the geomorphology of Congress Avenue itself. Lamar and his hunting companions marched up a canyon from the Colorado River to hunt buffalo. They continued up the canyon until they arrived at a hill that overlooked the Colorado River. That canyon is Congress Avenue, and the hill is Capitol Square. A spring-fed stream carved the canyon that became Congress Avenue. According to Mary Starr Barkley in The History of Travis County and Austin 1839-189959 In Austin, springs furnished the early citizens with water; in fact, Congress Avenue in Austin was the course of a spring that started up about the northeast corner of Fourteenth and Lavaca Streets, circled through the capitol grounds on the west side, down the avenue from about Eleventh Street to approximately the location of the
Paramount Theater, then down to the alley between the Driskill Hotel and Littlefield Building, and eastward to run into Waller Creek between Third and Fourth Streets. Another spring started about the northeast corner of Tenth and Congress, and another at the southeast corner of Tenth and Congress. In the early days of Congress Avenue, before paving, there was a ditch that went north-south along the west side of the avenue. Bridges were used to enter the storefronts facing east. Some of those bridges were relocated to Oakwood Cemetery where they are still in use today. The Congress Avenue “canyon� is most noticeable from Brazos and Colorado looking east or west toward Congress Avenue. This is most accentuated at Tenth and Eleventh. The spring itself still flows beneath Congress Avenue. Buildings in that area still use sump pumps to keep spring water from flooding their basements. We recommend exploring ways in which this spring water might be used for interpretive and landscaping purposes.
Old Bakery and Emporium (1001 Congress Avenue) is one of the historic buildings left in this section. In 1980, the Texas legislature deeded the property to the city on a number of conditions including that it be used for senior programming. PARD currently conducts a program where seniors can sell or exhibit fine arts (mostly paintings) and crafts. The third floor also features an exhibition on the history of the building as it relates to the history of Austin. We recommend that Old Bakery interpretation be expanded and that its role as a welcome center be enhanced, given its critically important location near the corner of Congress Avenue and Eleventh Street. Finally, the corners of Congress Avenue and Eleventh street, east and west, are occupied by a TXDOT parking lot (east) and a small park with historical markers. We recommend initiating a discussion with the state as to how these properties might be improved.
Photo 46. Old Bakery
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Recommendations
Photo 47. Austin Skyline and Drake Bridge
1. Our Austin Story Interpretive Network Create a network of people, places and organizations that are critical to implementing Our Austin Story in a coordinated and cohesive manner.
A
n interpretive network is an association or amalgamation of places, site managers, organizations, agencies, and stakeholders who agree to cooperate to interpret an overarching theme across a broad, diverse landscape. At this moment, no such network exists in Austin. Each civic space, historic place, recreational landscape, performance venue, park, and museum operates independently of the others.
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Geographically, Austin historic squares and civic places (such as Waller Creek, Shoal Creek, Congress Avenue, and Lady Bird Lake) are well positioned to work together to form such a network. Most of Austin’s special places are located within a short walk (three blocks or less) of each other. Yet, they are often both physically and programmatically disconnected. Therefore, our first recommendation is the creation of an Our Austin Story interpretive network. This network should include not only those sites and special places within Austin’s historic downtown, but those from throughout greater Austin that are connected to the downtown through a shared storyline. For example, the storyline from Wooldridge Square that concerns the original African-American churches extends outward to the George Washington Carver Museum, the Six Square Cultural District, and to the Metropolitan AME and First Baptist (colored) churches. The storyline from Republic Square about Tejano history stretches out
to the Tejano Trails, the Fifth Street Mexican-American Heritage Corridor, Mexic-Arte, and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center. “Powerful Women” extends from Wooldridge Square to the Elizabet Ney Museum and the Texas State Capitol. The goal is to create an interpretive framework or infrastructure for all of Austin as exemplified by these special downtown places, especially the historic squares and Congress Avenue. Those participating in the network would share interpretive concepts and strategies, interpretive materials (web, social media, smartphone app, signage, graphics, etc.), and work together to develop a shared capacity for programming. Partners in the network should include the following examples: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Asian American Resource Center Austin Energy Austin History Center Austin Parks and Recreation Department Austin Parks Foundation Austin Public Works Department Austin Watershed Protection Department Brush Square Museums Foundation Bullock Texas State History Museum Capital Metro Downtown Austin Alliance Elizabet Ney Museum Friends of Wooldridge Square George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center Mexican American Cultural Center Mexic-Arte Museum Old Bakery and Emporium O. Henry Museum Preservation Austin Shoal Creek Conservancy Six Square Susanna Dickinson Museum Texas State Capitol Texas Historical Commission The Tejano Trails The Trail Foundation Visit Austin Waller Creek Conservancy
One of the benefits of Our Austin Story is the way in which it adds value not just to the downtown, but to the image (the brand) of the city as well. Of course, downtown businesses, residents, and visitors gain value from this project. Our Austin Story is already deepening the understanding of and appreciation for Austin’s heritage. Preservation efforts benefit from Our Austin Story as well. Our Austin Story provides the narrative context, and helps Austin prioritize its many (and sometimes competing) values.
2. Traditional Interpretive Enhancements Develop traditional interpretive enhancements such as panels, historic markers, brochures and maps for the historic squares and Congress Avenue. Below are some suggested starting points. Interpretive Panels • Develop a series of interpretive panels for the historic squares. This has already been done for Republic Square. • The interpretive content should also be available for download. Rather than permanently mounted (and therefore static) signage, we recommend the use of frames with removable panels that can be easily updated and replaced. Although we have traditionally used high pressure laminate signs for most of our projects, in recent years we have become more committed to embedded powder coatings. Coatings are now available that are anti-graffiti, and we recommend these for urban settings where graffiti is a problem (such as downtown Austin). These panels can be fabricated on thin aluminum sheets that are simple to swap out of their frames and can be exchanged several times a year. Fortunately, such panels are much less expensive to fabricate than
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Photo 48. Tall Grass Prairie Interpretive Panel by Fermata Inc.
the traditional high-pressure laminates, so one installation of three or four exchangeable panels still costs in the range of one high pressure laminate. • Given the need to maintain the aesthetics of these historic squares, we do not recommend additional permanent signage other that what has been recommended for the general descriptions and storylines. • Panels made from embedded powdered coatings can be fabricated from a diversity of materials and in a variety of shapes. We believe that there are opportunities to recognize individuals and events at the squares in artistic ways that still fulfill an interpretive function. • We also recommend that the same signage template be used with the three squares as well as other places within Austin of special interest. Visitors should be able to recognize informational and interpretive signage by its shape and color palette. • Currently, there are historical markers at the squares. However, there are histories that are not covered by
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these markers, especially those related to AfricanAmericans and Tejanos. Therefore, we recommend working with the Texas Historical Commission’s Undertold Marker program60 to develop additional markers for the squares. The Undertold Marker program is “intended to address historical gaps, promote diversity of topics, and proactively document significant underrepresented subjects or untold stories.” Specific examples of undertold histories at the squares include the African-American churches and Jacob Fontaine at Wooldridge Square, and the Our Lady of Guadalupe and Tejano history at Republic Square. We recommend partnering with PARD as well as the Travis County Historical Commission in the development of these specific undertold history markers.
Style Guide Develop a brand and brand elements, including a logo, tag line, preferred fonts, and color palette, for the Our Austin Story interpretive network. Each partner should receive a style guide with all of these elements in a digital form. All interpretive materials should adhere to the Our Austin Story style guide.
Maps
Itineraries
We recommend the development of maps that can help people navigate to these special places downtown as well as sites outside of the downtown core. The maps can be organized thematically (by storyline) and geographically. We recommend that the Our Austin Story navigation map be installed in each of the squares as well as in affiliated network sites.
Storylines lend themselves to being developed into itineraries. Therefore, we suggest developing a series of downtown walks that coincide with the storylines that have been developed for the squares. Eventually, these can be expanded to include sites within the interpretive network.
We also recommend that the general Our Austin Story map be developed in concert with downtown goods and service providers. Local hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, and retail outlets should be shown on the general map to better orient visitors with the downtown area. One purpose of Our Austin Story is to dramatically expand the heritage tourism offerings of the city, and an important way to extend this market is to expand the tourism information services being provided to travelers.
Pamphlet (rack piece) We recommend the development of a general Our Austin Story rack piece and brochure that can be distributed by Visit Austin and the Our Austin Story network. These printed pieces, like the maps, should be available in digital form on the web.
One important component of these itineraries is the integration of sites outside of the downtown core. We previously described ways in the which the storylines serve as narrative connections to other special places in Austin. In addition, there are lesser known places within the downtown core that can be profiled and brought to the public’s attention through their inclusion in thematic itineraries.
Passport We recommend the development of a passport program for Our Austin Story and its interpretive network. Although there are excellent digital passport programs, we suggest initially using a printed passport since not all visitors will have access to the Internet while visiting sites in downtown Austin. However, we do suggest exploring the development of a digital passport as a corollary to the printed passport program.
Photo 49. Flint Hills Brochure by Fermata Inc. Our Austin Story
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Audio/Video Itineraries can be augmented with audio, and we recommend the development of a series of audio guides for downtown Austin that are thematically organized. We also recommend the development of a short video introduction for Our Austin Story that can be distributed through YouTube and similar platforms. We also recommend the development of both audio and video PSAs that can be distributed locally.
Public Art Public art is an integral component within sense of place. Art can be used to “build strong, healthy, and resilient cities by integrating the arts into broader community 61 revitalization and place making efforts.” Public art is also symbolic, and we integrate interpretive or symbolic art into our interpretive strategies. Interpretive art that celebrates Austin’s heritage is under represented in downtown Austin. There is currently a statue of Angelina Eberly on Congress, and busts of Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon and Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla have been reinstalled at Republic Square. Otherwise, there is relatively little art in Austin that connects directly with Austin’s past.
Therefore, we recommend working with Austin’s Art in Public Places program (AIPP) to create and install interpretive art in the squares and strategic locations in downtown Austin. We embrace the idea that these pieces be artistic rather than realistic icons. The goal of interpretive art is to use artistic expression as a way of symbolizing important places, events, and people that are the subjects being interpreted. We encourage AIPP to review and take the Our Austin Stories framework into consideration. We also recommend working with AIPP to coordinate public art installations in downtown Austin. This report identifies a number of civic spaces that are sacrosanct, and any art that is placed in these spaces should be respectful of the heritage of these sites. Republic Square, for example, is the epicenter of Austin’s original Latino neighborhood, and any art in the square should be rooted in this heritage. The same is true for the AfricanAmerican heritage of Wooldridge Square. Therefore, we recommend inviting AIPP and the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department to become involved with Our Austin Story.
Photo 50. Bison by John Lopez
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Photo 51. Angelina Eberley Performance art can be an important contributor to understanding Austin’s heritage, as well. Music, for example, can help interpret many of the storylines identified in this strategy. We recommend exploring, through the upcoming master planning process, the possibility of developing a performance stage at Brush Square, adjacent to the Austin Convention Center, where music that reflects Austin’s heritage can be performed for those attending conferences. The hundreds of thousands of people that attend conventions (150,000 during SXSW, alone) are a ripe audience for Austin’s musical heritage.
3. Digital Enhancements Develop digital interpretation enhancements such as web, smartphone applications and virtual reality tools. Austin is one of the primary centers of high tech and digital industries in America. Yet, these technologies have been only barely utilized in interpreting Austin. We recommend gathering a group of representatives from the Austin digital community to begin brainstorming
ways of using these technologies to connect Austinites and visitors to Austin’s remarkable heritage. Digital interpretation will be especially important in the larger landscapes such as Congress Avenue, and there is no city in America better positioned to take advantage of these technologies than Austin. Smartphone apps are a popular way of using digital technology in interpretation. The availability of in-phone geolocation makes this technology even more appealing. However, it is important to note how crowded this space has become. Currently, there are 2.8 million app available in Google Play Store, and 2.2 million for the iPhone in the Apple App store. We do recommend the development of a smartphone app for Our Austin Story, especially one that geolocates. Such an app diminishes the need for in situ signage. We recommend that the app be developed in concert with Visit Austin to ensure wide distribution in this already crowded space.
There is no city in America better positioned to take advantage of these technologies than Austin. Our Austin Story
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4. Programming and Engagement Develop and market regular programming and engagement activities in downtown’s public spaces that are grounded in Our Austin Story. Currently, there is no overarching effort to program downtown public civic spaces. Programming in its current form is provided on a place-by-place, sponsor-by-sponsor basis. At best, this produces only sporadic activation of these downtown places. Without consistency and predictability, the activation of these downtown parks and civic spaces will be difficult. Programming can target not only these permanent places, but temporary locations as well. “Pop up” programming is an important component of an overarching strategy for activating downtown. Pop-up exhibits and programming, although, at times, decidedly low tech, are also important in bringing downtown civic
spaces to life. These can be temporary installations and activities that are quickly installed or presented, and then removed. Pop-ups will be an important responsibility and interpretive tool for the Our Austin Story network. Finally, there is a need to diversify downtown recreational activities and events. Current activities are limited, with a decided emphasis on running and athletic events. Programming should provide a broad set of activities and events for all Austinites, giving everyone an invitation to get to know their downtown. The same is true for travelers, and diverse programming is one way to attract a diversity of tourists. An expressed goal of the Our Austin Story interpretive network should be to have events, exhibits, and programming available every day of the year in downtown. Even seemingly minor activities such as guided tours are important components of activating and diversifying downtown.
5. Physical Enhancements Make the most of interpretive opportunities by introducing physical enhancements that will add to the interpretive potential of downtown. Although there are a variety of planning efforts underway that are focused on the physical settings of the historic squares and Congress Avenue (such as the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative), we offer a number of recommendations that will enhance the interpretive potential of the physical setting for Congress Avenue and the squares. All of these recommendations will require further research and design, yet we believe it important to at least mention the potential of these investments.
Photo 52. Faces of Flight Popup at Hobby Airport in Houston by Fermata Inc.
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One of the specific recommendations (and most exciting) we have is the conceptualization, design, and installation of a series of “Vibrant Connectors” (VCs). A VC should integrate artistic, traditional, and digital interpretation into a single installation. More than a tourism or wayfinding
We recommend w orking with the Austin design and high-tech communities in the design and development of a uniquely Austin Vibrant Connector. Photo 53. Congress and Cesar Chavez installation, a VC incorporates all of the interpretation tools at our disposal. We recommend working with the Austin design and high-tech communities in the design and development of a uniquely Austin VC.
South Congress • Install a VC at the corner of Riverside and South Congress Avenue. • Design and install interpretive signage and maps that tell the stories of the area and show the connections to nearby heritage planning districts such as to the west.
The Austin River Walk • Install a VC at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Caser Chavez. • Develop an interpretive kiosk/plaza at the southwest corner of the River Walk and Congress Avenue. The interpretive panels should include a map of the River Walk and its connections both east (such as to the ESBMACC) and to the west (such as to the Seaholm Intake and Waterfront). • Install public art in this plaza.
• Develop and install interpretive signage at the parks being proposed near Lady Bird Lake at the foot of the Congress Avenue Bridge. • Install public art at these same parks. This public art should be mirrored on the north side of Lady Bird Lake at Caser Chavez as well. Along South Congress Avenue, such art would need to be placed on the east side of Congress Avenue since city guidelines preclude the installation of public art in Town Lake Park.62
Congress Avenue Bridge Currently, there is no interpretation on the Congress Avenue Bridge. We recommend the installation of a series of interpretive panels that follow the storylines and stories recommended in this report.
Photo 54. Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge
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The Fifth Street Vibrant Connection • Install a VC at this corner. Install interpretive signs with maps showing the connections to the heritage planning districts to the east and west.
The Sixth Street Interpretive Node The corner of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue is Austin’s main intersection. These two streets were the first to be constructed and completed in Austin. Sixth Street, as the main highway to Bastrop, served Austin as one of its primary connections to the outside world until the train arrived in 1871. The Bullock House, one of the important gathering spots for early Austinites, was located at the northwest corner of this intersection. The historic Littlefield and Scarbrough buildings are situated at this intersection, and the Driskill Hotel is located along West Sixth one block east. • Design and install an interpretive kiosk with panels that detail the appropriate storylines and maps that show the connections to the entertainment districts to the east and west.
The Eleventh Street Vibrant Connection • Install a VC indicator at this corner. Install interpretive signage with maps showing heritage planning districts to the east, west, and north. • Work with PARD to develop a more robust set of interpretive programs and offerings at Old Bakery so that it serves as a welcome center for the Congress Avenue heritage planning district. • Work with the state to develop the potential pocket parks at the corner of Congress Avenue and Eleventh.
6. Affinity Trails Design and develop a series of affinity trails that help locals and visitors explore different topics of interest. One way to interpret downtown Austin is through the creation of a series of affinity or interest trails. Trails are ways of arraying specific interests and experiences along a linear path. There are countless types of affinity trails – history trails, Civil War trails, birding trails, Catholic mission trails, wildflower trails, wine tasting trails, etc. Over the past 30 years we have developed and/ or interpreted dozens of these affinity trails, including the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, the Elk Scenic Highway in Pennsylvania, the Indiana Dunes Discovery Trail in Indiana, the eleven scenic byways in Kansas, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway in Nebraska, and the
Photo 55. Bullock House
The Ninth Street Vibrant Connection • Install a VC at this corner. Install interpretive signs with maps showing the connections to the heritage planning district to the west.
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Trails are ways of arraying specific interests and experiences along a linear path.
Caribbean Birding Trail. Our experience has shown us that trails are among the interpretive enhancements most easily adapted to the digital technologies of today. To our knowledge, no affinity trail has been developed that includes downtown Austin. Therefore, we are strongly recommending that Our Austin Story design and develop a series of affinity trails for downtown Austin. Affinity trails can be based on geography or can be organized around a specific interest. For example, the Butler Trail around Lady Bird Trail is a geographic hike-and-bike trail that lacks interpretation. Fermata Inc. previously developed the interpretive content for the Butler Trail, and its incorporation into a map and smartphone app would be a simple first step in implementing this recommendation. Physical trails for downtown Austin should include Congress Avenue as well as the Vibrant Connections. One geographic affinity trail that should be considered for early implementation is for the Austin River Walk. Potential affinity trails based on interests are too numerous to mention. Consider the following possibilities for downtown Austin; • Barbeque trail • Tex-Mex cuisine trail • Art gallery trail, linked to the Elizabet Ney Museum and Laguna Gloria • African-American history trail • Historic bridge trail along Shoal Creek • Pease Park nature trail • Railroad history trail • Birding and wildlife trail along Lady Bird Lake • Historic architecture trail along Congress Avenue • Civil War Trail • American Indian (Comanche) Trail • O. Henry Trail • New Deal Trail • Ghost Trail (including Servant Girl Annihilator) • Connect to the Tejano Trail • Connect to the Mexican American Cultural Heritage Corridor • Music Trail (historic sites, East 6th Street) • Texas Capitol Trail (historic sites, Capitol Square) • Cowboy Trail (retrace the Chisholm Trail and the longhorn crossings)
Photo 56. Stevie Ray Vaughn • Austin’s Mexico Trail (a trail that interprets the Mexican community that once surrounded Republic Square) Affinity trails are only limited by (1) extant resources, and (2) the interests of visitors. For example, the AfricanAmerican history trail could begin in Clarksville, extend east by Wood Street to Wooldridge Square and the UT campus, pass by the Wesley Chapel site across from Hamilton Square, and then continue east to the George W. Carver Museum and Cultural Center and the Six Square Cultural District. As noted earlier, affinity trails adapt well to the new digital technologies. We have developed smartphone apps for affinity trails in the near past, and we have found
Affinity trails can be based on geography or organized around a specific interest. Our Austin Story
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Photo 57. Paramount Theater
them to be ideal for this type of interpretation. Therefore, we recommend the development of a smartphone app that can serve as a platform for a series of affinity trails that will be developed for Our Austin Story and for downtown Austin.
7. Heritage Planning Districts (HPDs) Develop non-regulatory heritage planning areas as a framework for identifying, preserving and enhancing the authentic narratives and stories identified in Our Austin Story. Our Austin Story introduces the concept of heritage planning as a way to identify, preserve, and enhance a set of shared resources and values, and build upon the character of a place or community. Heritage Planning Districts (HPDs) can be considered an important overlay that can help to inform planning, design, and development decisions at many different scales.
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Rather than being limited by architecture, age, or a specific use (music, for example), HPDs consider all of the factors that contribute to their unique character comprehensively. For example, a Lady Bird Lake HPD may have natural history and recreation as major contributing factors, while nature would be a minor part of a Republic Square HPD. The character of a HPD can (and should) be viewed as a narrative, an ongoing story a specific people and their places. According to the American Planning Association; …The community character of a city, county, town, or neighborhood can be seen as a story or narrative of a place. Planners and community members can come together to reveal and burnish this narrative through: • an articulation of the historic, cultural, economic, and cultural context of the community; • a commitment to the reinforcement and enhancement of the community’s identity; • and the implementation of policies, regulations, and incentives that support and enhance this evolving identity.
The character of a heritage planning district can (and should) be view ed as a narrative, an ongoing story a specific people and their places. Awareness of community identity and character is strengthened by the consideration of all community interests in decision-making processes; the integration of arts and cultural resources with civic visioning programs; and the balancing of the inherent conflicting nature of past, present, and future social values. Downtown contains and attracts people interested in a wide variety of activities, landscapes, and pursuits. Downtown Austin can benefit from developing and promoting a variety of HPDs, each with its own unique character. HPDs should identify and focus on preserving and enhancing authentic resources (events, people, places) and values - resources that are so rooted in Austin that they could not happen or be elsewhere. For example, there is only one Lady Bird Lake. This lake does not occur in any competing city; it cannot occur elsewhere with precisely the same form and the same history. Lady
Bird Lake and the Colorado River are intrinsic to Austin and contribute to what makes Austin singular. In addition to HPDs such as Lady Bird Lake (The River), Congress Avenue (The Avenue), and Sixth Street, HPDs should be organized around the four civic spaces (historic squares) discussed previously – Brush, Hamilton, Republic, and Woodridge. The civic spaces can serve as anchors for these HPDs, providing a focus that organizes each district. The Republic Square HPD encompasses some of the most important Tejano history in Austin. A Republic Square HPD, therefore, should preserve, celebrate and build upon this significant Tejano heritage. In contrast, a Wooldridge Square contains some of the most historic resources and institutions in the city, such as the Austin History Center, the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, the Bremond Block, Duncan Park, and a significant inventory of historic housing. This area connects to Congress Avenue and further east by the Ninth Street VC. Republic Square is an excellent place to tell the Tejano history in Austin, while one of Wooldridge Square’s strengths is African-American history. Both squares are important to understanding Austin and its people, and these histories should be protected in situ. The HPD can be the framework through which histories are restored, protected, and celebrated. HPDs also reveal and build upon the character of the neighborhood.
Photo 58. Lady Bird Lake and the Drake Bridge
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Proposed Downtown HPDs
Community Benefits
• The River (Lady Bird Lake, bordered by the Riverside and Riverwalk connections, I-35 to the east, and Lamar to the west). • The Avenue (Congress Avenue including resources on Brazos and Colorado streets) • The Mexican-American Cultural Heritage Corridor • Sixth Street • Brush Square • Republic Square • Wooldridge Square • Hamilton Square • Capitol Square (from Eleventh to Fifteenth)
Austin began as a city of immigrants. In the beginning, everyone came from somewhere else. Jacob Harrell’s family and three cabins at Waterloo represented the entire Anglo population, and Harrell had been here for only a couple of years. The Comancheria roughly extended south to Shoal Creek, but comparatively few Indians lived here permanently.
8. Community Engagement Create a comprehensive communications and community engagement strategy for sharing and promoting Our Austin Story.
This is not to say that American Indian tribes were not present in this region for millennia. Tonkawa and Lipan Apache are examples of tribes that resided in the Hill Country. The Comanche had mastered the horse, originally brought by the Spanish, and swept south across the Great Plains to the Edwards Plateau. The Indian story is an important one, yet one that is better told at sites such as Barton Springs and Zilker Park, Mount Bonnell, Shoal Creek, and even Congress Avenue.
Each step in the implementation offers the opportunity for community engagement. In truth, one of the most significant values of conducting interpretive research is the chance to engage Austinites in discussions about what is meaningful to them in their community. And, as this strategy is implemented, there will be opportunities to engage the community again and again. For example, the installation of an interpretive sign is an opportunity for celebration at the unveiling of another part of Austin’s story. Every event, program, installation, and enhancement should be celebrated and communicated to the public. We recommend the development of a comprehensive community engagement strategy for Our Austin Story. Such a strategy should detail how Our Austin Story can be most effectively communicated to the public. The use of PSAs, radio spots, television programming, school curricula, newspaper articles, and web-based programming should all be considered as a part of this overall community engagement effort
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Photo 59. Morning commute on Lady Bird Lake
Austin began as a city of immigrants. In the beginning, everyone came from somewhere else.
Photo 60. Congress Avenue at Fifth Street
We can argue, therefore, that everyone came to Austin from somewhere else, even the Comanche (who did not arrive in Texas Panhandle until the early 1700s and near San Antonio in 1743). Most Austin immigrants came from another state in the United States. Everyone in Austin was an immigrant; everyone in Austin was new. Slowly, Austin attracted foreign-born residents as well. People came from Sweden, Lebanon, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and the like. But, Austin was never a primary destination for any ethnicity or cultural group, so no single clan or culture dominated. Austin has always been a city of immigrants, and Austin is still. The origins of Austin residents are as follows: • • • •
53% born in Texas 27% born in U.S. 2% U.S. citizens born outside of the U.S. 18% Foreign born
Simply put, nearly half of the people who live in the capital city were not born in Texas. In 2017, the median age of an Austin resident is 32 years of age. Many Austinites are young, cosmopolitan, recently arrived immigrants (even if from another area of Texas).63, 64
Benefits to Residents Knight Soul of the Community (SOTC) is a three-year study conducted by Gallup of the 26 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation communities across the United States “employing a fresh approach to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area’s economic growth and well-being.” The study focuses on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.
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According to the Knight Soul of the Community 2010 report;
Benefits from Tourism
• Community attachment is an emotional connection to a place that transcends satisfaction, loyalty, and even passion. A community’s most attached residents have strong pride in it, a positive outlook on the community’s future, and a sense that it is the perfect place for them.
As Stedman notes,65 one force that shapes cognition is interpretation. Interpretation is both pedagogical as well as informative. Interpretation, applied correctly, can inform tourism, marketing, design, and architecture. Tourism is an excellent example of where interpretation can help shape and market tourism products.
• They are less likely to want to leave than residents without this emotional connection. They feel a bond to their community that is stronger than just being happy about where they live. • Communities with the highest levels of attachment had the highest rates of gross domestic product growth. • Residents who have lived in the Knight communities for three to five years tend to be the most attached. However, the newest arrivals tend to be the least attached. One clear benefit of this interpretive strategy is to nurture a sense and spirit of place among the city’s new residents. As pointed out in the Knight report, people who are the “newest arrivals tend to be the least attached.” How will these new immigrants develop a sense of place for and attachment to the city if we fail to nurture a sense and spirit of place?
By diversifying downtown Austin’s interpretive offerings, we also diversify Austin’s tourism products and potential markets. Admittedly, many of these are small, niche markets, but the aggregate impact of these niche markets is sizable. Diversification extends visitor stay, and bolsters shoulder seasons. Of course, markets such as family travel are sizable, yet we emphasize that importance that niche and micro-markets can bring to the Austin tourism mix. The following are but four examples of markets that this interpretive strategy can help reach.
Family Travel 66 • 88% of the respondents are either ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to travel with their children in the next two years. • Shorter vacations (up to one week) are most common.
Photo 61. The Bullock Texas State History Museum
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• A family’s main priority when taking a family vacation is “visiting new places and exploring together” (49%), followed by “relaxing and unwinding together” (42%). • The top five reasons that families travel are as follows: • Theme park 73% • Beach vacation 68% • Family road trip 68% • Museum or cultural attraction 61% • City Vacation 49%
Heritage Travel • Texas had approximately 243 million domestic visitors during 2014. The Texas average party per trip spending was $770 in 2013. For those parties visiting historic sites, the average is $1,331 or $561 more than the typical party of visitors.67
Photo 62. Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
• More than 10.5 percent of all travel in Texas is heritage related, and that number continues to rise. • Heritage tourists contribute more than their share to spending, $7.3 billion or about 12.5% of total visitor spending in Texas. • Of that, nearly $2.26 billion can be attributed directly to the heritage-related portions of their trips. • According to a survey of participating sites, the Texas Heritage Trails Program increases revenue and visitation by 13.9%.68
Arts and Culture Travelers A recent study found that 78% of all U.S. leisure travelers participate in cultural and/or heritage activities while traveling, translating to 118.3 million adults each year. With cultural and heritage travelers spending an average of $994 per trip, they contribute more than $192 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Cultural and heritage travelers as a whole are more frequent travelers, reporting an average of 5.01 leisure trips in the past 12 months versus non-cultural/heritage travelers with 3.98 trips. They are also more frequent business travelers and are more likely to have taken an international trip in the past 12 months than their noncultural/heritage counterparts.
Photo 63. The Contemporary Austin More than half of cultural/heritage travelers agree that they prefer their leisure travel to be educational and nearly half said they spend more money on cultural and heritage activities. They are also likely to travel farther to get the experiences they seek: about half of most recent overnight leisure trips were 500 miles or more from home. More than a third say they traveled between 100 and 300 miles for a day trip.69
Nature (Wildlife-related) Tourism • In 2011, 90.1 million Americans, 38% of the U.S. population 16 years old and older, enjoyed some form of fishing, hunting or wildlife-associated recreation. Outdoor recreation is a huge contributor to our nation’s economy. Our Austin Story
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Photo 64: Bat watchers and canoe • Expenditures by hunters, anglers and wildlife recreation enthusiasts were $145.0 billion. This equates to 1% of gross domestic product; meaning one out of every one hundred dollars of all goods and services produced in the U.S. is due to wildlife related recreation. Almost 37.4 million Americans participated in fishing, hunting or both sports in 2011. • These sportsmen and women spent $43.2 billion on equipment, $32.2 billion on trips, and $14.6 billion on licenses and fees, membership dues and contributions, land leasing and ownership, and plantings for hunting. On average, each sportsperson spent $2,407 in 2011. • The 2011 Survey found that 6.3 million Texas residents and nonresidents 16 years old and older fished, hunted, or wildlife watched in Texas. Of the total number of participants, 2.2 million fished, 1.1 million hunted, and 4.4 million participated in wildlife-watching activities, which includes observing, feeding, and photographing wildlife. The sum of anglers, hunters, and wildlife
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watchers exceeds the total number of participants in wildlife-related recreation because many of the individuals engaged in more than one wildlife-related activity. • In 2011, state residents and nonresidents spent $6.2 billion on wildlife recreation in Texas. Of that total, triprelated expenditures were $2.4 billion and equipment expenditures totaled $2.9 billion. The remaining $994 million was spent on licenses, contributions, land ownership and leasing, and other items.70 Other markets addressed by this interpretive strategy include nature travel and ecotourism, African-American travel, Latino travel, culinary travel, cowboy and western travel, architectural travel, and Texas history travel, to name but a few. All of these have similar economic impacts that can benefit Austin and its economy. Simply put, the cost of whatever is invested in interpreting downtown Austin will be eclipsed by these new contributions to Austin tourism, alone.
I
Public Outreach
nterpretation is one way that the people gain a voice. No interpretive strategy is possible without the contributions from and participation by many. Over the course of the past year, we have met with many individuals and organizations via public meetings, public walks, and tours. In addition to public meetings, we interviewed a number of people, many of whom are considered by the community to be stewards of Austin’s diverse heritage. Many of these interviews have been recorded, and copies of these recordings will be archived in the Austin History Center.
No interpretive strategy is possible without the contributions from and participation by many.
In addition to using social media to connect with people around the city, the Downtown Austin Alliance introduced the public to the project through a page on the downtownaustin.com website entitled Our Austin Story. The webpage provided basic information about the effort, as well as contact information. The Downtown Austin Alliance also developed a space on their engagement site - engage.downtownaustin - to gather input from the public about the proposed narratives, and to solicit additional stories from the community. All of the narratives in this report were available for review and comment for months through the engagement website. The following individuals we would like to recognize for their willingness to help us bring this interpretive strategy together.
Photo 65. Our Austin Story public walk
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Austin City Council Steve Adler, Mayor Ora Houston, District 1 Delia Garza, District 2 Sabino “Pio” Renteria, District 3 Gregorio “Greg” Casar, District 4 Ann Kitchen, District 5 Jimmy Flannigan, District 6 Leslie Pool, District 7 Ellen Troxclair, District 8 Kathie Tovo, District 9 Alison Alter, District 10
Downtown Austin Alliance De Peart, President and CEO Molly Alexander, Executive Vice President Melissa Barry, Project Manager (Historic Squares) Michele Van Hyfte, Project Manager (Congress Avenue)
Austin Parks and Recreation Department Kim McKnight Cara Welch Bamidele Demerson, George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center Cynthia Evans, George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center Oliver Franklin, Elizabet Ney Museum Taja Beekley, Asian-American Resource Center Melissa Parr, Brush Square Museum and PARD J. Savannah Herlinda Zamora, MACC Vanessa Castro, PARD and Tejano Trail Gloria Espitia, MACC Jenna Cooper, MACC
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Our Austin Story Steering Committee Kate Singleton, Preservation Austin and Chair
Downtown Austin Alliance Melissa Barry Julie Fitch Dana Hansen Allison Watkins
Austin Parks and Recreation Department Laura Esparza Rey Hernandez Kim McKnight Cara Welch Vanessa Castro, PARD and the Tejano Trail
Additional Members Ashley Dowgwillo, Visit Austin Mike Miller, Austin History Center Sylvia Orozco, Mexic-Arte Museum Clarissa Perez, Visit Austin Charles Peveto, Friends of Wooldridge Square Dr. Andrea Roberts, Texas A&M University Bob Ward, Travis County Historical Commission Allison Watkins, Austin Parks Foundation Joanna Wolaver, Shoal Creek Conservancy
Contributors Melinda Arias Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman Charles Betts, Austin History Center Nan Blassingame, Great Promise for American Indians Anna Bradley, Art in Public Places Coordinator Jenna Cooper, MACC Richard Denny Delores Duffy
Angelica Erazo Rachel Feit Lee Gresham Shannon Halley, City of Austin Roland Hayes Nefertitti Jackmon, Six Square Cultural District Steve Manning, Pastor Joan Marshall, Executive Director of Travis Audubon Society Larry McGinnis Mitchell McGovern Dick O’Dennehy Lanny Ottosen Olivia Overturf Gloria Pennington Kazique Prince Lia Truitt, Elizabeth Christian Public Relations Rachael Warburton Coach Howard Ware Guinevere Webb Misty Whited, Elizabeth Christian Public Relations Tricia Whitman Eddie Wilson
...the best way to plan for downtown is to see how people use it today; to look for its strengths and to exploit and reinforce them. There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that w e must fit our plans.... We can see what people like. - Jane Jacobs in Downtown is for People, Fortune, 1958
Photo 66. Wheatville School
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References Primary Historic Resources The following resources were used as primary sources for information about the history of Austin. Mary Starr Barkley, History of Travis County and Austin 1839-1899, (Waco: Texian Press, 1963). Frank Brown, Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (From the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875), Date Unknown, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Travis County Historical Commission. Handbook of Texas Online by the Texas State Historical Association. Hicks and Company, African-American Settlement Survey Travis County, Texas, Prepared for the Travis County Historical Commission, 2016. Jeffery Stuart Kerr, Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin, Texas, (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2013). Jason McDonald, Racial Dynamics in Early TwentiethCentury Austin, Texas, (Lexington Books, 2012). Michelle M. Mears, And Grace Will Lead Me Home: African American Freedman Communities of Austin, Texas 1865-1928, (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2009). Ferdinand Roemer, Texas: With Particular Reference to German Immigration and the Physical Appearance of the Country 1849, (Austin: Eakin Press, 1995). Marilyn McAdams Sibley, Travelers in Texas – 1761-1860, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967).
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Tejanos Through Time, (Texas State Historical Association, 2017). Alexander L. Terrell, “The City of Austin from 1839 to 1865,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 14, No. 2 (1910): pp. 113-128. Valenzuela Preservation Studio, Mexican-American Settlement Survey Travis County, Texas, Prepared for the Travis Country Historical Commission, 2016. Del Weniger, The Explorers’ Texas: The Lands and Waters, (Austin: Eakin Press, 1984). Richard Zelade, Guy Town by Gaslight: A History of Vice in Austin’s First Ward, (Charlestown, S.C: The History Press, 2014).
City of Austin Reference Reports 1968 - A Comprehensive Plan for Austin’s Town Lake and Colorado River. 1979 - Congress Avenue Historic District Inventory. 1985 - Town Lake Study. 2000 - Austin Town Lake Corridor 2002 - Historic/Archeological Research on Republic Square Draft Letter Report, submitted in draft to the Austin Parks Foundation by Preservation Central, Inc., Austin, Texas. 2003 – South Congress Preservation Plan. 2016 - South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan. 2016 – Texas Capitol Complex Master Plan.
Endnotes 1 Alexander W. Terrell, “The City of Austin from 1839 to 1865,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1910): pp. 113-128. Terrell is unsure of the year of Lamar’s visit, and he reports it as “in the autumn of 1837 or 1838….” However, it is likely that he visited Waterloo in 1838 as he campaigned for the presidency. 2 Alexander W. Terrell, “The City of Austin from 1839 to 1865,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1910): pp. 113-128. 3 City of Austin Ordinance, May 21, 1888. 4 “What is a Great Civic Space,” Project for Public Spaces, last modified 2009, https://www.pps.org/article/benefits-public-spaces. 5 Jeffery Stuart Kerr, Seat of Empire (Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2013) 74 6 Jeffery Stuart Kerr, Seat of Empire (Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2013) 102 7 Dorothy Steinbomer Kendall, “San Pedro Park,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 05, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/gks12. 8 Peyton Abbott, “Business Travel Out of Texas During the Civil War: The Travel Diary of S.B. Brush, Pioneer Austin Merchant,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 96 (1993): 259-274. 9 “Austin, TX (AUS),” The Great American Stations, accessed March 11, 2018, http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/austin-tx-aus/. 10 “Alliance Yard Being Cleared: City’s Property Will Not Be Taken Away,” The Austin Statesman, May 25, 1908. 11 “Alliance Cotton Yard Is Being Made Into Park,” The Austin Statesman and Tribune, January 26, 1916 12 “El Corrido de Kiansis: Creation and Significance,” last modified 2002, http://www.laits.utexas.edu/jaime/cwp4/ckg/index.html. 13 Jack Becker and Matthew K. Hamilton, “Wartime Cotton Trade,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 06, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/drw01. 14 Peyton Abbott, “Business Travel Out of Texas During the Civil War: The Travel Diary of S.B. Brush, Pioneer Austin Merchant,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 96 (1993): pp. 259-274. 15 “Austin’s Parks,” The Austin Daily Statesman, May 23, 1888. 16 J. Frank Dobie, The Longhorns, Little, Brown Publisher, 1941. 17 Jimmy M. Skaggs, “Cattle Trailing,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 06, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ayc01. 18 L. Patrick Hughes, “New Deal Work Programs in Central Texas,” Austin Community College, last modified 1999, http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/new.html. 19 Taylor Goldenstein, “Police: Up to 50,000 attended Women’s March in Austin,” Austin American-Statesman, January 21, 2017. 20 City of Austin Ordinance, May 21, 1888 21 “Austin’s Mexico: A Forgotten Downtown Neighborhood,” Mexic-Arte Museum, last modified 2016, http://www.mexic-artemuseum.org/map. 22 Mary Starr Barkley, History of Travis County and Austin (Waco: Texian Press, 1963). 23 Roy Bedichek, “Municipal Concerts in an Amphitheatrical Park,” The American City XII, No. 5 ( May 1915): 400-401. 24 Plan of the City of Austin, map, 1839;(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123851/m1/1/: accessed March 8, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. 25 William E. Montgomery, “African Methodist Episcopal Church,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 16, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ima02. 26 Amanda Sawyer, “Paul Quinn College,” Baylor Institute for Oral History, accessed April 13, 2018, https://www.baylor.edu/oralhistory/index.php?id=931738 27 Kobena Korang-Arthur, “The History of Paul Quinn College: Austin and Waco Years,” University of North Texas Libraries Digital Library, December 1992, digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278844/ 28 “Booker T. Coming Friday: Negro Educator Will Speak From Stand In Wooldridge Park, Barbecue Planned,” The Austin Statesman, September 25, 1911. 29 Lorenzo Thomas, “The African-American Folktale and J. Mason Brewer” in Juneteenth Texas, (Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1996), 230. 30 Patricia Ellen Cunningham, “Cunningham, Minnie Fisher,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 08, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcu24. 31 Michael Barnes, “Once neglected, Wooldridge Square Park once again a gem,” Austin American-Statesman, September 7, 2013. 32 W. Page Keeton, “Sweatt v. Painter,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 08, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jrs01. 33 Denise Gamino, “MLK’s mark on UT,” Austin-American Statesman, January 16, 2011. 34 Michael Corcoran, “Drawn to the Scene,” Texas Highways, May 2015. 35 Eddie Wilson, personal interview, 2017. 36 J.D. Harrison, “When we were small: Whole Foods,” The Washington Post, July 30, 2014. 37 “Michael Dell,” Biography, last modified 2015, https://www.biography.com/people/michael-dell-9542199.
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38 James A. Marten, “Hamilton, Andrew Jackson,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fha33. 39 “Our History,” Wesley United Methodist Church, http://wesleyunited.org/our-history/. 40 Alexander W. Terrell, “The City of Austin from 1839 to 1865,” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1910). 41 “Master Plan Phase One,” State of Texas Capitol Complex, 2016, https://www.tfc-ccp.com/ 42 “South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan,” City of Austin, 2016, ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/npzd/Austingo/SCW_Vision_Plan_LatestEdition.pdf 43 Moton Crockett, personal interview, 2017. 44 E. Mortensen, “Spinach Culture,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/afs01. 45 “About the River,” Colorado River Alliance, accessed March 09, 2018, https://coloradoriver.org/about-the-river/ 46 “The McGill Ford: Indian Crossing on the Colorado,” Trails and Tales of Old Austin and Travis County, December 26, 2015, http://txcompost.blogspot.com/search/label/McGill%20Ford%3A%20Indian%20Crossing%20on%20the%20Colorado. 47 Michael Barnes, “Where did the famed Chisholm Trail cross the Colorado River?,” Austin American-Statesman, April 30, 2016, https://www.mystatesman.com/lifestyles/where-did-the-famed-chisholm-trail-cross-the-colorado-river/VBziEnhfkpEEDLYcuZyRFJ/. 48 Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, Wikipedia, last modified December 15, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_W._Richards_Congress_Avenue_Bridge. 49 “Congress Avenue Bridge: A Little History,” Bat Conservation International, accessed 9 March 2018, http://www.batcon.org/index.php/our-work/regions/usa-canada/protect-mega-populations/cab-intro. 50 “South Congress Avenue Preservation Plan,” McGraw Marburger and Associates, 2003. 51 E. Mortensen, “Spinach Culture,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/afs01. 52 Walter Long, The Longhorn Crossing, (Austin: self-published, 1960). 53 Jimmy M. Skaggs, “Cattle Trailing,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ayc01. 54 “RESOLUTION NO. 20110825-067,” The City of Austin, 2011, http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=157371 55 “Pioneers from the East: First Chinese Families in Austin,” Austin History Center, accessed 11 March 2018, http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/pioneers-east-first-chinese-families-austin-352175 56 “Asian Pacific American Data,” The Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.austinasianchamber.org/asian-data 57 “Austin, TX (AUS), The Great American Stations, accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/austin-tx-aus/ 58 “Sixth Street (Austin, Texas),” Wikipedia, last modified March 3, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Street_(Austin,_Texas) 59 Mary Starr Barkley, History of Travis County and Austin 1839-1899, (Waco, Texas: Texian Press, 1963). 60 “Undertold Markers,” Texas Historical Commission, accessed 11 March 2018, http://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/state-historical-markers/undertold-markers 61 “Creative Communities and Arts-based Placemaking,” Project for Public Spaces, June 12, 2015, https://www.pps.org/article/creative-communities-and-arts-based-placemaking 62 “City of Austin Artwork Donation and Loan Policy and Application,” City of Austin, March 21, 2013, http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/EGRSO/art_donation_2014_v01.pdf 63 “20% of Austinites foreign-born, mostly from Mexico, Asian nations,” Politifact Texas, last modified November 20, 2013, http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/nov/20/city-austin/20-austinites-foreign-born-mostly-mexico-asian-nat/ 64 “Austin, TX Demographics,” Areavibes, accessed March 10, 2018, http://www.areavibes.com/austin-tx/demographics/ 65 Richard Stedman, “Toward a Social Psychology of Place: Predicting Behavior from Place-Based Cognitions, Attitude, and Identify,” Environment and Behavior 34 (2002). 66 Dr. Lynn Minnaert, “U.S. Family Travel Survey 2017,” Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, NYU School of Professional Studies, accessed March 11, 2018, file:///Users/virginiaeubanks/Downloads/P1718-0036-2017_Family_Travel_Survey.pdf 67 Office of the Governor of Texas, Economic Development and Tourism 68 “Economic Impact of Historic Preservation in Texas,” The University of Texas and Rutgers, 2015, http://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/economic-impact-historic-preservation.pdf 69 “New Study Reveals Popularity of U.S. Cultural and Heritage Travel,” Mandala Research, October 21, 2009, http://mandalaresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CHT_release_Oct_20.pdf 70 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2012.
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Photo Captions & Credits Photo 1. Eubanks, Ted. Republic Square. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 30. South Congress Avenue looking north. January 14, 1948. (texashistory.unt.edu/
2018. Austin, Texas.
25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.
Photo 3. W. T. Wroe’s leather factory located at 421-423 Congress Avenue. 1890. Austin,
edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
April 3, 2018, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
Photo 32. Eubanks, Ted. Colorado River Below Longhorn Dam. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 2. Eubanks, Ted. Austin skyline, Colorado River looking west toward Drake Bridge.
Texas. texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124371/m1/1/?q=PICA15506: accessed texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Photo 4. Eubanks, Ted. American Bison, 2018. Oklahoma. Photo 5. A Topographical Map of the City of Austin. 1872.
(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123849/: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
ark:/67531/metapth125316/m1/1/?q=metapth125316_xl_C05766.jpg: accessed March
Photo 31. Eubanks, Ted. River Walk. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 33. Eubanks, Ted. Bat Watchers. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 34. Eubanks, Ted. Texas River Cooters. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 35. Eubanks, Ted. Lesser Scaup. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 36. Eubanks, Ted. Austin Skyline. 2018. Austin, Texas
Photo 37. Jordan Company. Spinach Farming. Date Unknown.
(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125363/m1/1/?q=metapth125363_xl_C09918.
Photo 6. Eubanks, Ted. Austin Skyline and the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge, 2018.
jpg: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The
Austin, Texas.
Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public
Photo 7. Eubanks, Ted. St. Mary Cathedral. 2017. Austin, Texas.
Library.
(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124552/: accessed March 25, 2018), University
Austin, Texas.
Photo 8. City of Austin. Marching band at Wooldridge Park. 1938.
Photo 38. Eubanks, Ted. Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail at Lady Bird Lake. 2018.
of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin
Photo 39. Eubanks, Ted. Seaholm Intake. 2018. Austin, Texas.
History Center, Austin Public Library. Photo 9. Eubanks, Ted. Brush Square. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 10. Traders and Employees in Cotton Exchange, Date Unknown.
Photo 40. Eubanks, Ted. Mexic-Arte Museum. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 41. Douglass, Neal. Photo of back of train and Sam Wah Café. September 27,
1948. texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth19290/m1/1/?q=harry%20truman:
texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124034/: accessed March 25, 2018), University
accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin
texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
History Center, Austin Public Library.
Photo 42. Train on Waller Creek Bridge. December 25,1871. texashistory.unt.edu/
Photo 11. Eubanks, Ted. Texas Longhorn. 2018. Texas.
ark:/67531/metapth124459/m1/1/?q=train%201871: accessed March 25, 2018), University
Photo 12. WPA Poster. Accessed March 25, 2018.
of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin
https://sandiegofreepress.org/2014/05/the-works-progress-administration-wpathis-
History Center, Austin Public Library.
day-in-labor-history-may-6-1935/
Photo 43. Eubanks, Ted. Littlefield Building. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 13. Eubanks, Ted. Austin Fire Station No.1, 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 14. Portrait of Susanna Dickinson (1814-1883). Nineteenth century. Texas State
Library & Archives Commission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Dickinson#/ media/File:Alamo77dickinson.jpg Photo 15. Eubanks, Ted. Republic Square Landscape. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 16. Eubanks, Ted. Auction Oaks. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 17. Hillyer, H.B. View of Austin, TX. 1869. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/
metapth124900/: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Photo 18. Douglass, Neal. Walker’s Austex Chili Company. 1948. (texashistory.unt. edu/ark:/67531/metapth62847/m1/1/?q=metapth62847_xl_nd-48-a057-07.jpg:
accessed March 26, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Photo 19. Eubanks, Ted. Sustainable Food Center Farmers’ Market. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 20. Eubanks, Ted. Wooldridge Square Looking East. 2018. Ted Lee Eubanks.
Photo 44. Eubanks, Ted. Congress Avenue at Ninth Street. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 45. Eubanks, Ted. Texas State Capitol. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 46. Eubanks, Ted. Old Bakery. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 47. Eubanks, Ted. Austin Skyline and Drake Bridge. 2018. Austin, Texas
Photo 48. Fermata Inc. Tall Grass Prairie Interpretive Panel. 2018. Sandhills, Nebraska. Photo 49. Fermata Inc. Flint Hills Brochure. 2018. Flint Hills, Kansas. Photo 50. John Lopez Studio. Bison. Accessed March 26, 2018.
http://www.johnlopezstudio.com/ [used with the permission of the sculptor] Photo 51. Eubanks, Ted. Angelina Eberley. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 52. Fermata Inc. Faces of Flight Popup at Hobby Airport in Houston. 2018. Houston, Texas.
Photo 53. Eubanks, Ted. Congress and Cesar Chavez Street. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 54. Eubanks, Ted. Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 55. Bullock’s Hotel. Date Unknown. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/
metapth124480/m1/1/?q=metapth124480_xl_PICA18895c.jpg: accessed March 25,
Photo 21. Metropolitan AME, from Aerial View of Austin, TX. Date Unknown. (texashistory.
2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123897/m1/1/?q=PICA%2001114: accessed March 25,
texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu;
Photo 56. Eubanks, Ted. Stevie Ray Vaughn Statue on Lady Bird Lake. 2018.
crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
Austin, Texas.
Photo 22. Douglass, Neal. Heman Sweatt in UT Registration. September 19, 1950.
Photo 57. Eubanks, Ted. Paramount Theater. 2018. Austin, Texas.
02.jpg: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The
Photo 59. Eubanks, Ted. Morning Commute on Lady Bird Lake. 2018. Austin, Texas.
texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33842/m1/1/?q=metapth33842_xl_ND-50-283Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Photo 23. Eubanks, Ted. The Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 24. Jim Franklin. Wooldridge Square Poster with Armadillo. September 29, 1968. https://jim-franklin-arts.myshopify.com/ [used with the permission of the artist]
Photo 25. Old Red Campus. Date Unknown. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/
metapth124476/m1/1/?q=metapth124476_xl_PICA18727c.jpg: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
Photo 58. Eubanks, Ted. Lady Bird Lake and the Drake Bridge. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 60. Eubanks, Ted. Congress Avenue at Fifth Street. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 61. Eubanks, Ted. The Bullock Texas State History Museum. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 62. Eubanks, Ted. Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 63. Eubanks, Ted. The Contemporary Austin. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 64. Eubanks, Ted. Bat Watchers and Canoe. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 65. Eubanks, Ted. Our Austin Story Public Walk. 2018. Austin, Texas. Photo 66. Wheatville School Students. 1912. Austin, Texas.
texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124567/m1/1/?q=PICA20645: accessed April 3,
Photo 26. Wesley Chapel M.E. Church. Date Unknown. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/
2018, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu;
metapth17388/m1/1/: accessed March 25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The
crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Jacob Fontaine Religious Museum.
Photo 67. International & Great Northern Railroad Depot. Date Unknown.
Photo 27. Eubanks, Ted. Congress Avenue Looking North. 2018. Austin, Texas Photo 28. Eubanks, Ted. Congress Avenue Frost Tower. 2018. Austin, Texas.
Photo 29. Ellison Photo Co. Congress Avenue looking north. 1939~. (texashistory.unt.edu/
texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125144/m1/1/?q=metapth125144: accessed April 3, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory. unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
ark:/67531/metapth125166/m1/1/?q=metapth125166_xl_C00674.jpg: accessed March
25, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt. edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
Our Austin Story
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Addenda "If history w ere taught in the form of stories, it w ould never be forgotten." - Rudyard Kipling, The Collected Works
Photo 67. View of the International & Great Northern Depot at the East 5th Street and Neches. Horse-drawn stret car in foreground.
Interpretive Planning
I
nterpretive planners follow a fairly standard protocol when interpreting special places. Fermata is no different. We have utilized the same basic approach for over 30 years, a technique that has been part of the interpretive world since the publication of Freeman Tilden’s Interpreting Our Heritage (written initially for the National Park Service) in 1957. However, over that time we have refined and expanded on the basic steps of planning. With time, our planning approach has become distinct, and, in important ways, proprietary.
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Our Austin Story
We are including this short description of the process followed for the development of this strategy for two reasons. First, it is important that readers know that there is a method to the madness. Second, Austin has been little exposed to interpretation and interpretive planning. Therefore, we offer this brief description of interpretive planning as a way of introducing that concept to a new audience. Any place-planning project begins with a delineation of the project’s boundaries. These boundaries, which we call the Zone of Influence (ZOI), includes the physical parameters of the project as well as the interpretive
space that is influenced by the project. A ZOI can be as simple as one building, or as complex as a scenic byway. Defining of the ZOI is one of the most critical steps in place-based interpretive planning. This step requires the client, with all of their representatives, to agree to a clear definition of their “turf.” In cases where the project is delineated by legislative mandate (a refuge, park, or national forest) the ZOI may be straightforward. But, in many cases, there is no such mandate and the limits of the ZOI are negotiated. We have found that it is helpful to resolve these issues of limits and turf at the outset of the project. The ZOI for this phase of Our Austin Story is the four original public squares – Brush, Hamilton, Republic, and Wooldridge, and Congress Avenue. The historic squares comprise one city block, and the storylines that are selected for each square extend outside of these squares. The ZOI for Congress Avenue extends from Riverside Street to Eleventh Street, and from Brazos Street to Colorado Street. However, the introduction of Vibrant Connections and HPAs stretches this ZOI to include, in effect, all of downtown Austin. Future work to complete an interpretive plan for all of downtown should be able to build on what has been started here. With the ZOI defined, the next step in Fermata’s interpretive planning approach is to inventory all of the resources within the ZOI that are to be interpreted. We have developed a site assessment protocol for this purpose, the Applied Site Assessment Protocol (ASAP™). ASAP™ aids us with performing unbiased assessments that could be compared to and contrasted with sites at other locations. ASAP™ should not be confused with a biological assessment, since the protocol is interested in weighing sites relative to their tourism, recreation, and interpretative, rather than ecological, values. If resources determine visitation, then the better these resources are understood relative to their distinct recreational or appreciative values, the better we can plan our interpretation.
The interpretive structure of the interpretive plan is revealed and ordered by the inventory. The next step in actually structuring the strategy is the definition of the theme. The essence of the interpretive plan, like the essence of a book or a play, is the theme. The theme encapsulates what the interpretive plan is about. Unlike fiction, where the theme is often implicit and only revealed through a careful reading, the theme statement of an interpretive strategy is explicit and presented as an active statement or command. A theme is the central idea or ideas around which an interpretive strategy is constructed. The theme is central to a strategy. Simply put, the theme is what the strategy is about. Once the theme has been defined, the most basic (and time-tested) method for organizing interpretive materials is using storylines to associate and aggregate related stories. A storyline, like the plot in a novel, organizes the stories important to the overall theme. Storylines should be limited in number but broad in scope. We try to limit storylines to no more than three or four in a given interpretive plan. Storylines (like plots) are often linear and organize stories along a geographic or chronological path. While the theme and its storylines are limited, the stories that may be told related to these storylines are limitless. Therefore, we defined our storylines broadly to provide room for a diversity of stories. As stated earlier, while theme and storylines are limited, stories are limitless. The process of identifying the stories to interpret is a simple connecting of stories to places and/or things. Stories are the tie that binds people to place, visitors to sites, and residents to their patrimony. The end result of this process is a theme, a set of storylines, and stories that we use to connect visitors to the resources being interpreted.
Our Austin Story
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O u r Them A ust i a n t i c S Theme: S t t r o u r G c r t y Su eat Cit u r e bthemes ies tell
Great S Brush Squ tories Republic are StoW ooldridgSquare rylines e Square Brush S Cattleq,uare The Co Cotton, a A ustin' wboy Cult nd Commer ce P ow erf s New Dea ure Republi ul W ome l A ustinc Square n A ustin' Origins Spirit s Mexico W ooldri of the Soul odfge SquarSequare W inds o the City Keep A u f Change stin W e ird Fermata Inc. PO 5485 Austin, TX 78763 www.fermatainc.com