More than a century after Andrew Jackson Zilker donated approximately 350 acres of land to the City of Austin to create what would eventually become the city’s favorite metropolitan park, we find ourselves in an embarrassing predicament — Zilker Park has never had a master plan! Well, there have of course been plans over the years, but not…
history
Marking the Medical History of East Austin at Holy Cross Hospital
A new historical marker for East Austin recently approved by the Undertold Markers program of the Texas Historical Commission will soon commemorate the final site of the former Holy Cross Hospital, the city’s first hospital for Black patients — and the first to allow Black physicians to practice alongside whites with equal privileges at the time of its opening in…
New Parkland at the Former Holly Street Power Plant Takes One Small Step
We’ve followed the civic saga of East Austin’s so-called Holly Shores region for years now, but the master plan for this enormous tract of parkland on the shores of Lady Bird Lake actually dates back all the way to 2009, when City Council first tasked the Parks and Recreation Department with forming a vision for the improvement of the…
At Brazos Place, Downtown Austin Condos Preserve a ‘Hotel of Distinction’
True condo conversions of older buildings are surprisingly hard to find in downtown Austin, with standout examples including the Brown Building and Avenue Lofts — both originally office structures adapted much later for residential use. But a more underrated transformation holds down the corner at East Eighth and Brazos Streets, the 14-floor, 72-unit condo community now known as Brazos…
Party Like It’s 1989 With These Vintage Local TV Clips From Austin’s KTBC
First broadcast out of the Driskill Hotel in 1952, Austin’s longtime local television channel KTBC was the city’s first TV station, holding down channel number seven and owned for many years by none other than Texas royalty Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. The station, primarily a CBS affiliate until its switch to Fox in 1995, is an essential background element of the…
At Rosewood Courts, a Milestone of Housing History Imagines an Upgrade
Though its historic significance doesn’t receive due attention outside the city, the Rosewood Courts public housing complex in East Austin is the first federal housing project in the nation built for African Americans. Funded by the United States Housing Authority of the New Deal thanks to the famously tireless politicking of then-Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson and completed in 1939, the…