Old West Austin Historic District - Settlement of Old West Austin

Settlement of Old West Austin

For much of the 19th century, Shoal Creek and West Avenue defined the western edge of the city. Austin was planned on a 640-acre site on a bluff above the Colorado River, nestled between Shoal Creek (West Avenue) to the west and Waller Creek (East Avenue) to the east Edwin Waller in 1839. The story of the settlement of Old West Austin begins with the oldest and best-known home in the area, Woodlawn. James B. Shaw, an Irish immigrant who served as State Comptroller in Texas Governor Elisha M. Pease's administration, purchased several hundred acres of land west of Austin in 1846.

Shaw commissioned Austin architect Abner Cook to build a two-story Greek Revival mansion on his property. The house was finished in 1853, one year before Cook built the Texas Governor's Mansion. Almost as soon as the building was completed Shaw abandoned the idea of living there because of family tragedies. In 1856, Governor Pease bought Woodlawn, and it remained in his family for nearly fifty years. Woodlawn's adjoining acreage would eventually be sold and subdivided to create the Enfield neighborhood.

Following emancipation at end of the Civil War, Texas Governor Pease sold and gave some of his plantation land to his freed black slaves. In 1871 this neighboring area came to be known as Clarksville and was legally set apart from the other areas of town specifically for the freed black slaves.

It was called Clarksville because Charles (Griffin) Clark, a land developer with an eye to reselling to the newly freed slaves, purchased a 365-acre (1.48 km2)tract of land from former slaves where he founded the town of Clarksville, less than one-half mile from Woodlawn. Some at the time had hoped Clarksville would develop into a thriving stable community of its own. But by 1900 Clarksvile, had become a standard African-American area commonly known as the colored part of town. At the time what was known as separate but equal, and later simply absorbed into the city of Austin.

Clarksville is geographically part of the Old West Austin area, but it is not part of the Old West Austin Historic District because like most areas of this type, it was nothing more than a collection of run down shacks. Bowing to political pressure from certain groups pushing certain agendas, in 1976 Clarksville was added to National Register of Historic Places.

Other important West Austin developments during in 1870s included the establishment of the International and Great Northern Railroad, which defines the historic district’s western boundary, and the establishment of Pease Park, which define the district's eastern boundary. The land was donated to the city by the Pease family. Shoal Creek is the centerpiece of Pease Park. The waterway attracted recreational use as early as the mid-nineteenth century.