As Austin’s oldest church, Wesley United Methodist Church has a proud history extending back to Reconstruction, 1865. Reverend Joseph Welch, presiding Elder of the Texas District of the Mississippi Mission Conference, presided over the first meeting in the basement of the Tenth Street M. E. Church, South on March 4 of that year. The structure that exists today at San Bernard and Hackberry streets was built in 1928 under the pastoral authority of Reverend Dr. W. L. Turner. It was one of the first black churches to hand a pastor’s study and an on-sight library, and its emphasis on education is highlighted by the fact that Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson College) classes at Wesley for many years. The inaugural meeting for Wesley United Methodist was held on March 4, 1865 and lead by Reverend Joseph Welch in the basement of the old Tenth Street M. E. Church, South. The very next day, the first Quarterly Conference meeting and its first trustees, which included the first pastor of Wesley, Reverend Isaac Wright. By 1874 the congregation was able to erect a free-standing building in Central Downtown Austin at the corner of Fourth and Congress Ave. “The dimensions were about 40x60 feet. The floor was of dirt. The steps were log-wood. The seating capacity was small. The benches were made of slab board. There was a lamp irregularly kept, fastened to the side of the wall. When the lamp was finally installed in place of the individual candles, there was great rejoicing. ”By the end of the nineteenth century, the Fourth street location was overflowing, and soon the cornerstone had been laid at Ninth and Neches streets. The entire construction of the second church was valued at $22,000. The magnificent, two-story edifice symbolized Wesley’s size and strength in the bustling East Austin community through the next two decades of the twentieth century. Yet by the late twenties, the church was blessed with the membership and means to expand to its present location at the central hub of San Bernard, Hackberry and Navasota Streets. The building construction in 1928 was valued at a whopping $50,000, now known as Greater Wesley.

The Texas Music Museum was incorporated in 1984 and received its 501(c)3 tax-exempt status in 1985. In 1986 TMM won state recognition as an official State Sesquicentennialproject, with the mission of highlighting the contributions of Texas musicians to the musical heritage of the nation and the world. To accomplish that mission TMM volunteers interview and photograph Texas musicians and collect and preserve artifacts, early photographs, documents, and reference materials having to do with the diverse traditions of Texas Music. TMM then uses these materials to present exhibits and educational programs that often incorporate musical performances, which are also documented in video and photography. The exhibits and programs encourage both youth and adults to participate actively in the enjoyment, appreciation and ongoing preservation of the state’s musical heritage. In 1987the TMM board of directors developed an agenda for research, exhibitions, and programs that included the following music areas: Texas Historic and Patriotic, Country, Gospel, Classical, Cowboy, Big Band, Western Swing, Blues, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jazz, Ragtime and Barrelhouse, Soul, and Popular, as well as Texas ethnic music, including Tejano, Czech, African American, German, and Native American. Since then extensive materials have been collected in all of the target areas, and at least one initial exhibit has focused on each area. Each of these exhibits and associated archival collections are continually expanded and upgraded. TMM has the official endorsements of the boards of the Texas Music Association ,the Texas Music Educators Association and the Texas Music Teachers Association. TMM has also held memberships for many years in the Texas Association of Museums and the Austin Museum Partnership (with which TMM has participated in several cooperative projects), as well as the National Music Museum Association. Throughout its history, TMM has presented free exhibits, music programs and symposia at many local museums (the Carver Museum and Cultural Center, the Elisabet Ney Museum, the Mexican American Cultural Center and the Daugherty Art Center), and at other public venues, including the state Capitol, theA ustin Bergstrom International Airport, and at the city’s schools and libraries. TMM has also provided resources for exhibits at the Austin Children’s Museum and the Austin Museum ofArt at Laguna Gloria. In 2005 the Austin Chronicle called TMM the Best Roving Museum and the Texas House of Representatives recognized TMM for its work in preserving the state’s musical heritage. Since 2003 TMM has presented exhibits and music programs in two gallery areas of the Marvin C. Griffin Building at 1009 E. Eleventh Street. This arrangement has allowed TMM to develop a more visible presence in Austin. A large sign identifies the Texas Music Museum and colorful banners advertise the current exhibits. TMM has alsot aken the lead in organizing a cooperative marketing strategy for the museums and music sites of East Austin, “Come Over to the East Side.” TMM, the French Legation, the Carver Museum, the State Cemetery and Museum, and the historic Victory Grill all provide brochures with information on the other sites, encouraging tourists and residents to enjoy the cultural and historical attractions on Austin’s East Side. Recently, Texas Music Museum has played an important role in honoring the first 10 inductees to the Austin Music Memorial at the Long Center. Texas Music Museum provided photos and biographical material for all ten inductees and provided rare LPs, cassettes, CDs and VCRs for selection of samples of music the inductees played at the induction ceremony. Finally, Texas Music Museum provided displays for each of the 10 inductees for the induction event with photos, biographies, copies of recordings and other memorabilia. Texas Music Museum continues to work to broaden its collection of oral histories, photos and other artifacts and share its resources with numerous groups in Austin and throughout Texas. The collection and programs of the Texas Music Museum encourage active participation by youth and adults in the continuing legacy of creating and preserving Texas music.

Swede Hill neighborhood is a residential area of downtown Austin, Texas, that was once a former Swedish enclave. Development of this area began in the 1870s when alarge number of Swedish immigrants erected homes near their downtown businesses. Thefirst to build his home there was S. A. Lundell; soon thereafter Carl John Swahn built hishouse there, and many others followed. Eventually some sixty-seven Swedish immigrant families built homes in the vicinity and the neighborhood became known as Svenska Kullen(Swedish Hill)—originally bounded by Waller Street on the east, Red River Street on the west, 15th Street on the south, and 19th Street on the north (today Martin Luther King, Jr.Boulevard)—known more familiarly as Swede Hill. Original owners and residents includedcarpenters, steamship ticket agents, book dealers, custodians, landscapers, as well as many others. The first Swedish Methodist church in Texas was organized in Austin, and shortly afterward its congregation built a church at 15th and Red River streets in SwedeHill. Other Swedish churches were established near the area, and soon Texas Wesleyan College (founded by Swedish Methodists) was established in the vicinity at 26th and RedRiver streets, just north of the present-day University of Texas. Over time, urban development—most notably the construction of IH-35 and the Frank Erwin Center—shrunk the size of the community dramatically. By the 1980s only the portion of Swede Hill east ofIH-35 remained intact as a neighborhood. In 1986, a portion of what remained of the neighborhood was designated and added to the National Register of Historic Places. By the late 1980s two houses in Swede Hill—Blomquist and Anderson homes—had been designated by the City of Austin as historic structures. [1] Today, the Swede Hill neighborhood boundaries have expanded to 12th Street on the south, and to Comal Streeton the east. Architecture within the neighborhood ranges from original historic structures to newer contemporary designs, and the community is comprised of an eclectic mix of families, professionals, artists, students, and urban dwellers. Swedish Hill Historic District National Register of Historic Places [#86001008] Excerpts from the 1986 Nomination... The Swedish Hill Historic District consists of a small neighborhood of houses which fronts on the900 block and a portion of the 1000 block of East 14th Street and on the 900 block of East15th Street. Olander Street forms the western boundary of the District, and Waller Street cuts through it on the east... selected on the basis of the intactness and cohesiveness of the residential structures. Description: The Swedish Hill Historic District, situated in the northwestern part of historic East Austin along East 14th and 15th, Olander, and Waller streets, is comprised of 12 residential buildings, 9 of which contribute to the District and 2of which do not. Approximately 50% of the buildings are owner occupied; without exception, the structures are well maintained and in a remarkable state of preservation. The houses were constructed between ca. 1880 and ca. 1938; there are representatives in the district of construction during every decade during that 58-year span and of most of the architectural styles present in East Austin as a whole. The structures demonstrate a consistence of setback, landscape, scale, and materials, and a craftsmanship and state of preservation which is unusual in the area. Architectural styles which are represented in the District are vernacular versions of the Victorian L plan, T plan, Cumberland plan, late Victorian corner-porch plan, Pyramidal plan, and Bungalow plan. All of the buildings are finely detailed; many display pleasing carpentry ornamentation in the forms of porch columns, balusters, railings, brackets, spindles, and a variety of siding and shingling types. Significance: Architecture Located on lots in the Original City of Austin and subdivided and developed earlier than most other parts of East Austin, Swedish Hill was a residential neighborhood occupied by downtown business people and tradesmen. Its significance derives not only from the broad range of architectural styles which is represented in the District, but also from the fact that each building is an excellent example of its own particular style. Architectural details are complete, and in many cases original plans have not been obscured by later additions. As a result, the Swedish Hill Historic District is the best example in East Austin of a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, residential neighborhood which remains intact.

Owner/Operators: Ira Littlefield and Frank Moore "Steamboat I was playing alto sax and Bobby was playing trumpet and I forget. Who was that on drums? Oh, Billy Joe Walker on drums. Who was on piano? I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Alton Rezan, who is a local...who is retired and was a local producer of plays. I believe he was on piano. We played at Steamboat for about four or five months as a house band, playing blues. You know, whine, whine, whine, soddie, oddie and so forth. The Steamboat was one of a row of...it was in a line of clubs on the north side of East 11th st., and at intermission we would go down to the Show bar, they had a jumping band down there. They had one...There was another club, gosh what are the names of some of these clubs? Anyway, on both sides of the street they had clubs that had live music." from an interview with Pat Murphy conducted by Harold McMillan

From an interview with Pat Murphy conducted by Harold McMillan: [on successful businessowners] "They don't come along that often. You had at that time, you had Charlie Gilden ,you had right next door at the Oak Tree, uh, not next door. Up on 12th St. you had George Nichols. George Nichols ran several very successful businesses. He ran the Oak Tree Cafe. He opened the Oak Tree and was very successful. And you had Valle Cannon who helped, well who took over when Johnny Holmes went to Alaska. Valle Cannon ran a very good business there at the Victory."

The 17 acre property in East Austin was originally the home site of Rudolph Bertram, a local store owner and namesake for the town of Bertram. In 1875, Bertram built the 14-room limestone block house on the property, which now functions as the Recreation Center.[4] The house passed to his daughter Emmie and her husband, Charles Huppertz. Upon their passing, the city of Austin purchased the Bertram-Huppertz house and land in 1928for the purpose of creating a segregated park for the African American community.[4][5] In1929, a playground and after-school program was established at the site.[2] Throughout the 1930s, the city added tennis courts, a swimming pool, a bandstand, and baseball fields to the park. The Bertram-Huppertz house was at that time used as the athletic clubhouse and bath house.[4] In 1944, the city started construction on Doris Miller Auditorium, named for Doris "Dorie" Miller, a native Texan and the first African American awarded the Navy Cross.

House built by Robert H. and Alberta Majors. Robert Majors was a mail clerk with the Austin Post Office; Alberta was a music teacher who grew up in Waco and taught at the Texas Colored Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute.

R. H. Porter, former president of the Steck Company of Austin, Texas and Texas Confederate history enthusiast, gathered a collection of approximately one thousand Texas Confederate and Civil War items.

Founded in April of 1907 by the Congregation of Holy Cross to serve the burgeoning community of Catholic residents of Mexican descent in East Austin, Our Lady of Guadalupe was originally located on the corner of 5th and Guadalupe Streets. Direction of the parish was transferred to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1925. The church’s attendance then began to grow under Father Jose Prieto, which necessitated relocation to a larger site for the church and school. Since the majority of the congregation’s members lived in East Austin, a plot of land at the parish’s present location on East 9th Street was purchased, and on September 5, 1926 the current church building was blessed. A school was already located on the plot, but additional construction for the Father’s rectory was completed in December of 1926.

The oldest cemetery in the City of Austin, Oakwood is located southeast of the intersection of IH 35 and Martin Luther King Blvd. Its earliest recorded burial occurred in 1841, although the oldest surviving grave marker dares to 1842. The cemetery covers over 40acres, and includes sections historically dedicated to Austin’s African-American, Latino, and Jewish populations. It became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1972 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1985.

The Newton House is an example of Italianate/Greek Revival architecture built in the mid 19th century and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Only a few blocks off the route Jeanine Plumer follows in her tour of the 1885 murder sites stands an old building in which the ghost of a murdered black undertaker is said to still belaughing. He's apparently impressed with the irony that he became his own client (see "Shades of the Past," page 44), or perhaps he laughs at his own audacity -- at the affront his wealth must have posed to white Austin -- and at the scandal he was causing through his rumored affair with a white woman. Though a young black man was sent to the electric chair for the 1932 kidnap and murder of Nathan W. Rhambo, it's safe to say the deepe rtruth behind that slaying -- possibly in retaliation for his interracial love affair -- has never seen the light of day. Nathan Rhambo was an extraordinarily handsome man, known also for his impeccable manners and good taste. Perhaps that's why as a young man he was singled out to be the protégé of William M. Tears, one of the most successful black undertakers in the entire South. While others who carried the name Rhambo at the turn of the century were typically porters, coachmen, and yardmen, Nathan Rhambo went by the much finer title of embalmer, a profession in those days esteemed nearly as highly as lawn and medicine. Though Rhambo still suffered the ignominy of the lowercase "c" (for "colored") following his name in the city directory, he didn't let that get in the way of making money. Austin's race relations, like those of any other Southern city, were stuntedunder Jim Crow, but the city was relatively free of lynch mobs, like the one in Missouri that dragged a black man accused of assaulting a white girl from a county jail and burned himin the town square in 1932. When Rhambo went to work for Tears, in 1901, black businesses were thriving in the east end of downtown, and Rhambo soon took his place as one of the foremost funeral directors in the black community. He cultivated a genteel interest in hunting, an interest that in those days could only have been indulged by a fewblack men, in whose hands the sight of a gun wouldn't bring policemen down like crows. He married, was a member of Third (now Ebenezer) Baptist Church, and had a reputation as "perfectly sober -- never smokes, drinks, or chews." On the other hand, Rhambo wasn't shy about flaunting his wealth. After his murder, the Statesman reported that he was reputed to carry around large sums of money. Rhambo left Tears' establishment and opened his own funeral home sometime between 1915 and 1920. The business thrived, and by 1929 Rhambo's funeral home was one of the few listed in bold type in the city directory, advertising "Superior Ambulance Service" and "Courteous Attendants." The 19th century building that housed the Rhambo Funeral Home in the 1920s, now used as a photography studio The 19th-century building that housed the Rhambo Funeral Home in the 1920s, now used as a photography studio Photo By John Anderson But on the night of June 21, 1932, Rhambo saw his last customer. A young man dressed in a gray suit and Panama hat called upon him and asked the 55-year-old funeral director to escort him north of town to fetch a recently deceased relative. The two left in Rhambo's black Buick sedan ,and that was the last time Rhambo was seen alive. He was found early the next morning in his car by the side of the road near Dawson, about 130 miles from Austin, shot through the head and severely beaten. Within 24 hours, state Rangers had a suspect in custody: Carl, identified by employees at the Rhambo funeral home as the man who called on Rhambo the night of his death. Police also arrested two of Rhambo's employees, saying the three men conspired to rob the wealthy man -- though a detail that slipped into the newspaper was that Rhambo was still wearing a diamond ring on his finger when he was found. Since Rhambo was a prominent black businessman, the circumstances of his death were reported in the papers, but he received no obituary in the paper, not even a funeral announcement. Stewart was held eight days in police custody without seeing a lawyer. He eventually signed a confession, drafted by a state Ranger, but at his trial Stewart claimed he signed the statement after being tortured for days in a Waco jail. Stewart claimed he was given almost nothing to eat, wasn't allowed to sleep, and was strung up by a pair of handcuffs until he fainted from the pain. Surprisingly, the trial that commenced in October was not to be the usual sham trial for an allegedly murderous Negro. Somehow, Stewart managed to retain the services of not one, not two, but three prominent white Austin lawyers. And what those lawyers did in Stewart's defense is historic: They questioned the veracity of the white Rangers who claimed Stewart's confession was given voluntarily, and accused the Rangers of abusive coercion. They questioned the Travis County district court's jurisdiction over the crime, and tried to have the trial moved out of the victim's hometown.They protested when Rangers who were serving as the state's witnesses were allowed to remain in the courtroom while the defendant's witnesses were on the stand, claiming theofficers intimidated their witnesses and improperly conferred with the prosecuting attorney while he was giving cross-examination. In short, the attorneys challenged the integrity of a white court on behalf of a black murder defendant. Whether this was a first in Austin is unknown, but in protesting the unfairness of placing Stewart before an all-white grand jury(they actually used the word "discrimination"), the attorneys pointed out that a black person hadn't served on a grand jury for 26 years, even though "persons of African descent" comprised 10% of registered voters in Austin and Travis County. It's likely they wouldn't have trumpeted this point had it been a standard complaint. The lawyer's efforts did no good, of course. The jury deliberated only 35 minutes before declaring Stewart guilty and sentencing him to the electric chair, only the second such sentence to be given in Travis County. Judge C.A. Wheeler dismissed all of the defense attorneys' objections to the trial's conduct, as did an appeals court the next year. Wheeler did not even find it prejudicial that when urging the jury to choose the death penalty for Stewart, the district attorney impressed this thought upon the jurors: "Carl Stewart is a Negro. This time he confined his crime to one of his own race. Do you have any assurance, if you turn him loose, that the next time he won't go out and kill some white man for money?" The prosecution had no hard evidence against Stewart, only the witness testimony that he had accompanied Rhambo the night of his murder, and the dubious confession. Nevertheless,Stewart died by the chair on December 29, 1933, only one month after his appeal failed. And with Stewart's death, the full story of who really killed Nathan Rhambo went to thegrave. While held by the Rangers, Stewart implicated some other black men in the crime, and even if he was involved in the murder, it's likely he was working for someone else,possibly a jealous husband or other relative. How else could 23-year-old Stewart have afforded the services of three white lawyers unless he was either (1) flush with payment forpulling a hit, or (2) connected with a wealthy family that promised to help him beat the rap if he got caught? And does the fact that someone actually tried to follow through on suchan impossible errand indicate that in fact his customer was not white but perhaps a wealthy black person? The newspapers never reported any personal details about Stewart, not evenwhere he was from, and other crucial records such as witness testimony weren't kept, so it's impossible to ascertain Stewart's true role in the killing. It's said that people who remember the case still live in Austin, but for 70 years no one has wanted to talk about it. Unless someone steps forward with forgotten evidence, the true intrigue behind Rhambo's death will never be known.

The first light was shed in 1873 in the minds with a group of organizers of this church and has spread with such force that it has become a light in the center of a hill that beckonmen and women into its path. On the San Antonio Highway, in a little settlement called Williamson Creek, the Mt Zion Williamson Creek Baptist Church was born under theleadership of Reverend Jacob Fontaine. In 1883, a flood destroyed the church. Through thefaith of our forerunners, services were held in homes. It was during this time that Trustees,Alfred Overton, Monroe Johnson and Luke Sneed sought out a plot of land on the North Bank of Williamson Creek on line of James Brodie, a short distance below where the San Antonio Highway crossed Williamson Creek. This property was purchased from A. P. Blocker and wife. The Reverend A. R. Walker came to the rescue of the parishioners and helped rebuild the church. In 1898, the pastor, Reverend Jacob Fontaine went to get his reward.1898-1944 successive leaders were: Reverends Andy Craft, John Harris, Chester Anderson, Sam Clark, S. A. Sneed, H.J. Jackson, A. R. Walker, W. H. Luckett, and J. H. Hansbourgh. In1945, Reverend S. A. Davis was called to the leadership of Mt Zion Williamson Creek Baptist Church, with a membership of approximately 162. Second Church Through his leadership, in 1946, the church moved to the city and held services alternately with the Mount Moriah Baptist Church on Northwestern, under the pastorage of Reverend L. Brown. In 1948, the walls of Mt Zion Williamson Creek was torn down and reconstructed at 2942East 13th Street, assuming its present name, Mt Zion Baptist Church. Reverend S. A. Davis served as pastor for 24 years. On December 18, 1969, the Lord called him from labor to reward. We thank God for the visionary and faithful servant of God, Reverend S. A. Davis. In March of 1970, the Reverend G. V. Clark was called to the leadership of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and with him came visions of continued growth. In 1970, a parsonage was purchased. In 1972, two more lots were purchased on this track of land where our presentfacility stands. Current ChurchIn 1979, the Mt Zion Church Family moved into its new edifice. With this new facility, Mt. Zion's sanctuary accommodated pew seating for 1,200members with room for an additional 300 chairs, nursery, business office, conference room, Pastor's Office, men's lounge and women's lounge, and seven classrooms. In 1980, the oldedifice, 2942 East 13th Street, was renovated and became our Fellowship Hall. Third Church It was named S. A. Davis Fellowship Hall in honor of our late Pastor Davis. In 2002,the Fellowship Hall was renovated and recently a new floor was installed. Under the leadership of Pastor Clark, our property holdings have constantly increased. In 1983, theproperty and structure located at 1212 Harvey and the facility was named the G. V. C.Activity Center. In 1986, the church purchased the lots located at 2935 East 13th; 2946East 13th; and 1300-1302 Harvey. Some of the property was converted to additional parking space. In 1992, the church purchased the lot located at 2951 East 14th Street andis the current location of the Mt. ZARC (Zion Action Recovery Center). In December 1995,the church purchased the lot located at 2926 East 13th Street. In 1996, the church wasinstrumental in acquiring ten single family units for senior citizens, Eden Park. These unitsare located on East 12th Street. After 1996 through 2002, the church purchased several

ANDERSON, LAURINE CECIL (1853–1938). Laurine Cecil (L. C.) Anderson, black teacher and school administrator, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1853 and received his B.A. from Fisk University. He trained for the Methodist ministry and taught at Tuskegee, Alabama, with Booker T. Washington before moving to Texas in 1879 to assist his brother E. H. Anderson, who was a minister and teacher at Prairie View Normal Institute (now Prairie View A&M University). In 1882 L. C. Anderson lobbied for university status for the school. Upon his brother's death on October 9, 1885, Anderson succeeded him as principal of Prairie View. During his tenure there Anderson helped form and was elected the first president of the Colored Teachers State Association (see TEACHERS STATE ASSOCIATIONOF TEXAS). He served as president of the college from 1885 to 1889 and worked to unify African-American leaders in business, politics, and religious and fraternal organizations, as well as for to improve conditions for black Texans through education. After heading Prairie View for seventeen years, Anderson moved to Austin to serve as principal of the school for blacks that later became Anderson High School, named in his honor. He was principal for thirty-two years and taught Latin until he was forced to resign in 1928 because of ill health. Anderson died in Austin on January 8, 1938, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery. KharenMonsho, "ANDERSON, LAURINE CECIL," Handbook of Texas Onlin

Kealing Middle School has a rich history and tradition of providing an excellent education for all children. Named for Hightower Theodore Kealing, an African-American educator, writer, editor and activist in Austin in the 19th century, the school opened in the fall of1930 as the first junior high school for African-American students in Austin. The first principal was Professor I.Q. Hurdle, who served from 1930 to 1939. Principal T.C. Calhoun then led Kealing until 1971, when the school was closed as part of Austin’s desegregation efforts. After serving as an annex for the Austin Independent School District (AISD) and community programs, Kealing’s building was devastated by fire. In 1986, the school reopened as a junior high school, both for students in the Kealing neighborhood and for students throughout AISD who were accepted into its rigorous and innovative academic magnet math and science program. In 1993, the magnet program expanded to include a focus on the liberal arts as well. In the fall of 2004, Kealing opened its sixth grade program and became a middle school.

Owner/Operator: Ira Littlefield "'Charlie's brought the white kids from the west side and the runoff enabled the other clubs to have a heck of a business,' he explains. 'Like Sam's on 12th Street and the IL Club across the corner from Charlie's Playhouse. And when Charlie's was full, the kids just said,' We'll go to the IL Club,' because he had a band, too. They just tore that club down a year or two ago [ca.2001].'" from Margaret Moser's article Bright Lights, Inner City

HURDLE, ISAIAH QUIT HURDLE, ISAIAH QUIT (1886–1968). Isaiah Quit Hurdle, African American minister and public school educator, son of Rev. Andrew Jackson Hurdle and Viney James (Sanders) Hurdle, was born in Greenville, Texas, on August 12, 1886. Raised on a farm in Hunt County, I. Q. Hurdle grew up in a family of seventeen children. His father, A. J. Hurdle, was a slave on a plantation in Dangerfield, Texas. However, he escaped during the Civil War and found refuge with a unit of Federal soldiers. He later became a reverend in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), served as president of the Northeast Texas Christian Missionary Convention, and opened the Northeast Texas Christian Theological and Industrial College in Palestine in 1912. In 1920 Hurdle decided to move to Austin, where he began an illustrious thirty-four-year career as a teacher and school administrator. From1920 to 1925, he taught science at L. C. Anderson High School, where he eventually became head of the science department. Following that, he attended graduate school at the University of Colorado. From 1927 to 1930, he served as principal of the Gregory Town School, which was later renamed Blackshear Elementary. Then, in 1930 he became principal of Kealing Junior High School, the first junior high school for black students in Austin. (The school closed in 1971 but was later reopened as a magnet school in 1986.)After his time at Kealing, Hurdle continued to serve as a school administrator. Eventually, he became principal of the Clarksville School, an honors school for black students, where he worked until his retirement in 1954. Over the course of his career, Hurdle was alsoclosely involved with the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas (CTSAT). He was elected to a one-year term as president of that organization in 1936 and served as an editor for the CTSAT’s quarterly publication, the Texas Standard, from 1937 to 1938. While president of the CTSAT, he led the fight for the passage of Texas House Bill 678. Since Texas had no graduate schools for blacks, this bill provided state funding for black students who wished to attend out-of-state graduate programs. Aside from H.B. 678, which eventually became law, Hurdle helped organize the Central Texas District of the CTSAT, promoted the spread of Boy and Girl Scout groups in communities across the state, requested provisions to allow for fully-funded retirement plans for teachers, and called for the CTSAT to assist the state in caring for the blind and deaf, as well as juveniledelinquents. Hurdle was a member of the CTSAT’s Division of Research and Investigation and worked as the CTSAT’s special agent on higher education in 1947. Additionally, he was a member of the CTSAT’s executive committee. He was also a firm supporter of the National Education Association and was the first black member of the NEA’s Texas delegation in 1945. Moreover, he voiced his concerns about the unequal distribution of state funds for public schools—according to the April 1933 issued of the Texas Standard, in1930 blacks comprised 16.9 percent of Texas’s public school population, but the value of black school facilities amounted to only 5.5 percent of the total value of all public schools statewide. Hurdle was a Master Mason, and he spent his retirement as a public relations officer for the St. Joseph Grand Lodge in Austin. He also served as secretary of the Texas Commission on Interracial Cooperation (1952–53) and was on the executive board of the Texas Commission on Race Relations (1955). Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Texas Commission on Race Relations worked to foster cooperation between local citizens, school boards, and superintendents in order to formulate an amiable path toward school desegregation. Hurdle maintained a lifelong commitment to his church. While in Austin, he was head of the 12th Street Christian Church and served as president of the Texas United Christian Missionary Convention in1943. He was also a parliamentarian in that church’s national convention from 1949 to1956, a delegate to the World Convention on Christian Education in Toronto in 1950, and a trustee of Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas (1945–57). In the late 1950s he moved to San Antonio, for a time, and was pastor at the Willow Park Christian Church there. His religion certainly influenced his educational philosophy, and, as president of the CTSAT, he had spoken out publically against the degrading effects of drink, jazz, and the “frivolous attitude of some scientific minds…bent toward birth control,” and reminded hisf ellow teachers that the Ten Commandments were the cornerstone of a proper education. In 1968 Hurdle suffered a stroke and died in Dallas on January 14, 1968 Source: Ramona Houston and R. Matt Abigail, "HURDLE, ISAIAH QUIT

Huston-Tillotson University is affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). HT, in Austin, is a coeducational college of liberal arts and sciences, operating jointly under the auspices of the American Missionary Association of the United Church of Christ, and the Board of Education of The United Methodist Church. Huston-Tillotson College officially changed its name to Huston-Tillotson University on February 28, 2005.Huston-Tillotson College was formed by the merger of Samuel Huston College and Tillotson College, which was effective on October 24, 1952. Huston-Tillotson College remained primarily a black college after the merger, although there were no restrictions as to race. Huston-Tillotson University awards undergraduates, four year degrees in business, education, the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, science and technology. A multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith institution, the University welcomes students of all ages, races, and religions. In 1966 the 19-acre campus contained an administration building, science building, tworesidence halls, student union-dining hall, gymnasium-auditorium, music hall, lounge, and two other halls. The Downs-Jones Library subscribes to more than 350 periodicals, and is amember of TexShare, a library resource-sharing program which enables students, faculty, and staff to borrow books from other member libraries. By the early 1970s new buildings included a classroom-administration building, a chapel, an addition of three wings to the women’s dormitory, and an addition of two wings to the men’s residence hall. In 2004, the first phase of renovation work was completed on the Old Administration Building and it reopened after standing unoccupied for 35 years. The Downs-Jones Library and both residence halls were updated in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Mary E. Branch and William H. Jones, past presidents of Tillotson College and Karl E.Downs, Robert Harrington, and Willis J. King, past presidents of Samuel Huston College, undertook cooperative sponsorship of several academic activities beginning in 1945. Matthew S. Davage served as interim president during the transition period. He retired in1955 and was succeeded by J.J Seabrook, the first permanent president of Huston Tillotson. Upon Seabrook’s retirement in 1965, John Q. Taylor King became president. King was president in the 1974-75 term, when the enrollment was 696 students. King retired in1988 and Joseph T. McMillan, Jr., succeeded him. In the fall of 1998 there were 59 faculty members and 621 students at Huston-Tillotson University. Larry L. Earvin became the fifth president of the University in 2000 and moved the institution to university status. The University is a not-for-profit corporation. The president serves as chief executive officer of the corporation.

Established by the Community Welfare Association in 1929, the Howson Community Center continues to serve East Austin to the present day. The Center has historically served as a meeting place for clubs and organizations engaged in a variety of social, educational, and community-wellness activities, and was added to the National Register for Historic Places on September 17, 1985.

Hoover Alexander’s cooking roots run deep through Texas, just like the flavors in his food. As a fifth generation Texan, born and raised — with family throughout, including small townships like Pilot Knob, Manchaca and Utley Texas, Hoover and his cooking are inspired by Texas itself. The different flavors on his menu are representative of the many cultures and people who make up the great state. As Hoover says “ I take something from my mother Dorothy’s home cooking — all the way to Mama Breaux’s, East Texas Cajun cooking — and from BBQ cooked by the Old Pit Bosses— to the Tex-Mex of Austin’s own. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic school”. Some of what he brings also comes from his early days in the business, where he learned some of the simple but great secrets of food, along with the principles of making and keeping your customers happy. Hoover and his partners credit learning some of these great lessons to Harvey Akin the visionary behind the successful Nighthawk Chain of restaurants, that opened in the 30’sincluding the one in Austin where Hoover got his start. Its these simple lessons and the goal to always carry the positive influences along his culinary journey, that fuel Hoover’s commitment to what’s good. Those same influences power his restaurant’s mission:“ Honest-to-Goodness- Good cooking- at a Good Value.” Hoover’s relationships with the farmers, who grow crops with their hearts and hands, allow Him and his staff to serve fresh, natural, comfort food, on his tables everyday. What he gets from the farmers he is able to pass down to his customers with a special personal touch. In that Texas homegrown spirit, we invite you to “Enjoy our Smoke, Fire and Ice House and please, save some room for desert”.

The center of East Austin’s remaining blues history resides at 1104 East 11th Street, the home of the Historic Victory Grill. Since its opening in the 1940s, the Victory Grill has hosted national and local blues musicians traveling the national Chitlin’ Circuit: the network of juke joints, bars, and clubs which welcomed black patrons and musicians. The grill was an important aspect of the East Austin music scene, one of the many bars and clubs lining East 11th Street during the mid-twentieth century. When segregation ended, more white customers began to patronize the Victory Grill and black musicians took their acts to the previously forbidden venues on the west side of Austin. The Victory remained a popular music venue through the 60s and now resides on the National Register of Historic Places. The Grill stands as a reminder of the community it unified, the turbulent times it survived, and the crowded nights during which it hosted people and their music. In 1942, Johnny Holmes was selling hamburgers from a stand on East 11th Street. It was not long after President Roosevelt had asked Congress to declare war on both sides of the globe and the country was wrapped up in war mania. For three years, Holmes watched the war progress on the European and Pacific fronts. As 1945 arrived, an American and Allied victory seemed eminent. Sure enough, victory came on May 8th in Europe and on August15th in the Pacific, ending the Second World War and sending American soldiers back home across the seas. In Austin, Johnny Holmes moved from his hamburger stand to a café at the same address, 1104 E. 11th Street. He named this café, the beginnings of EastAustin’s historic grill, for Victory. Holmes began hosting blues musicians on the front porch of his café, selling food and beerto those who came to listen. In 1949, he expanded his business to take on a new purpose: providing returning African American soldiers with a place to find good food and entertainment. Though American forces had achieved a united victory abroad, the country they defended was far from completely cohesive. At the end of the Second World War, JimCrow and segregation maintained their hold, especially in the Southern States. Legislation effectively confined African Americans to the neighborhoods on the East Side. Blacks couldnot go to school, draw out loans, or receive other basic social services elsewhere. Even private businesses banned African Americans: Blacks could not patronize nor play in themore upscale bars and clubs reserved for Whites on the west side of town. Johnny Holmes and his Victory Grill, therefore, helped to fill the void of available entertainment venues forthe East Side community.During this period of time, other venues in East Austin and across the nation catered to African Americans, forming what was collectively called the “Chitlin’ Circuit,’ a stretch ofBlack-friendly clubs spotting the Eastern coast and Southern states. These clubs fostered the blues culture of the 1920s to the 1960s, hosting musicians such as Louis Armstrong,B.B. King, and Billie Holiday. Other musicians made the 11th Street district their morepermanent home, such as T.D. Bell and Blues Boy Hubbard. Johnnie Holmes persuaded Tyler “T.D.” Bell to remain in Austin’s East Side permanently during its 1950s heyday, hiring him to play a regular gig at the Victory. Bell played withthe house band, The Cadillacs, at the grill and later remained an integral aspect bluesculture in Austin.Blues Boy Hubbard was also a regular at the Victory Grill and other neighboring clubs. He and his band, The Jets, filled in on un-booked nights and played back up for travelingmusicians.The Victory Grill and neighboring 11th street businesses became the hub for the culture East of I-35. But though Holmes had originally intended to cater to the Black community,his customer demographic soon changed. His grill began to draw White customers, mostlystudents at the University of Texas, who had more money to spend than the average Blackpatron. (This addition to the club crowds produced tensions between Blacks and Whites…)In 1954 the Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education declared segregation unconstitutional and the trickle of Whites to the East Side blues and juke joints widened.At the same time, Black patrons and musicians left their original haunts in the East to visitthe previously restricted clubs on the West side of town.The end of segregation produced an ironic twist in the fate of East 11th Street. Manypeople in the Black community, no longer forced to stay in the East, moved elsewhere. At the same time, the area attracted visitors from other parts of town.The East side of Austin was no longer a contained environment exclusive to one ethnicity. Though Blacks from East Austin gained freedoms with the end of segregation in the mid 50s, they also lost some of the cohesiveness of their community. The businesses and clubs on East 11th Street suffered the same ironic fate as the rest ofthe East end neighborhood. When more opportunities open for Black musicians and customers on the West side, the Victory Grill and others lost their most regular business.The Grill remained popular, however, throughout the 1960s, when it hosted such performers as B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Ike and Tina Turner, and Janis Joplin.Today, the Victory Grill is one of the few standing stops on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” and it claims a spot on the National Registry of Historic Places. In present-day East Austin, the Grill represents the juke joints and clubs that lined East 11th Street in its heyday.http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/music/downloads/Inductee%20bios-web.pdf(http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/music/downloads/Inductee%20bios-web.pdf)http://www.diversearts.org/ADAM/archive/v9n5/VG.html(http://www.diversearts.org/ADAM/archive/v9n5/VG.html)http://www.historicvictorygrill.org/ (http://www.historicvictorygrill.org/)1104 E 11th St

"We had some great blues players too and a lot of them are still active here. TD Bell, I remember his group at...playing at the Victory. He's very great. In his prime, I tell you, you couldn't beat him. The...the Victory was also the scene of some good jazz too. I remember when Bobbly Blue Bland used to come down. He was in the service up in Fort Hood. He would come down, this was during the '50's. He'd sit in with the house band. The house band was made up of Sam Huston collegian musicians mostly. This was like, ohhh, when? It had to be '52-53. Bobby Bland has been around a long time, he's been on the scene a good while. But he was quite young then. The downstairs of the Victory was real nice down there. You look at the Victory today and you think, "My this was a dump." But it wasn't always like that. That's another thing. The insides of the clubs then, they were real nice." from an interview with Pat Murphy conducted by Harold McMillan

Housed in the building that once contained Austin’s first library, the George Washington Carver Library, Museum, and Cultural Center is dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of African-American historical and cultural material. The original structure, built in 1926, was moved to East Austin in 1933, where it became the city’s first branch library, serving the African-American community in East Austin. The facility was named the George Washington Carver Branch Library in 1947, was expanded in 1979 and1998, and is currently a 36,000 square-foot space containing four galleries, a dance studio, a 134-seat theater, and archival space, amongst other things. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2005.

The first owner of the lot, platted in 1841, was South Carolina native Joseph W. Robertson. In 1848, the physician and fifth mayor (for one year) of Austin bought the French Legation building and its surrounding property for a girls' school. When the school closed after a semester or two, he moved in with his wife, nine slaves and eventually 11 children. Since then, the area between Interstate 35 and the Texas State Cemetery and between East Ninth Street and East 12th Street has been called Robertson Hill. In 1869, he deeded the East Eighth Street lot to George Lee Robertson, one of his five sons, who held it in trust for his mother. Since 1877, this pocket of picturesque real estate has been known as the George L. Robertson subdivision. According to Steve Sadowsky, historical preservation officer with the City of Austin, the George A. Peterson House, named for its first owner occupant, was built in 1901. Peterson was a prominent merchant, who came to Texas from Sweden by way of Minnesota in 1890. He operated a grocery and dry goods store at 701 E. Sixth (then Pecan) St. Peterson lived in the house on East Eighth Street until 1923 when he sold it to Albert H. Stroud, an engineer for the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1943, Stroud's widow, Annie, sold it to the Galvan family. Nazario Galvan was caretaker and gardener of Laguna Gloria from 1920 until his retirement and subsequent death in 1958. The Galvans lived in Laguna Gloria's gatehouse with their eight children until after the property was donated to the Texas Fine Arts Association in 1943

The French Legation house, now located east of I-35 on 802 San Marcos Street, is the only structure a foreign government has erected on American soil. Built in 1840-1841 at the commission of Monsieur Jean Pierre Isidore Dubois de Saligny, chargé de affairs for the French government in Texas. After Dubois de Saligny left Austin and Texas became a part of the Union, the house passed into the hands of the Robertson family, who held it until the mid-twentieth century. The house stood amidst the waves of immigrants who settled in the area surrounding it, from Swedes and Germans near the turn of the century to Mexicans and African Americans a few decades later. Now, the French Legation acts as a museum which preserves the original style of the time period of the Texas’ early beginnings as a Republic. During the mid-nineteenth century, the period of rapid American expansion towards the west, the Republic of Texas claimed sovereignty over its own territory between the United States and Mexico. In 1835, Texan colonists in the Mexican interior revolted against changing governmental policies. By early 1836, the Republic of Texas declared its own constitution. United States President Andrew Jackson recognized the independence of the new Republic the following year and in 1839 King Louis Philippe of France sent an emissary to the frontier nation on an exploratory mission. This diplomat, Monsieur Jean PierreIsidore Dubois de Saligny, recommended open relations with Texas, especially considering its resources of cotton, a commodity in short supply in France. On September 25th of thatyear, King Louis recognized the independent Republic of Texas, signing a Treaty of Amity, Navigation, and Commerce. Dubois de Saligny, a former secretary in the French legation in Washington D.C., took histime reporting to Austin to fill his new position as chargé d’affaires. After a vacation stop in New Orleans, he arrived in the capitol city, then a collection of log cabins and dirt roads, in September of 1840. He was not impressed with his new Texan surroundings and Texans were soon not impressed with their new French diplomat. Not long after his arrival, Duboisde Saligny gained the reputation as a swindler and a cheat, accused of producing counterfeit bills to pay his bills. During 1841, Dubois de Saligny was pushing to pass an agreement between France and Texas that would allow French explorers and settlers to colonize a portion of West Texas. At first, Texans were receptive to this Franco-Texian Bill, but their perception of it soon soured with along with their regard for the French diplomat. Dissenters argued that both Dubois de Saligny and the country of France would profit from the passage of the bill.Dubois de Saligny did not help his case when he engaged in a conflict with an inn owner.This conflict, now termed the Pig War, further ruined Dubois de Saligny’s reputation withTexans and in mid-1841 Secretary of State James Mayfield sent a letter to Paris requestingthe diplomat’s removal. Before the letter reached Paris, however, Dubois de Saligny tookthe hint, packing up and leaving Austin for good. He remained in his position as chargéd’ affaires, but acted mostly from New Orleans until 1846, when the Republic joined the United States of America. When he left Austin, the chargé left behind his residence on the east side of the city, still under construction at the time. In an effort to live in the most luxurious way possible, Dubois de Saligny had commissioned the erection of a mansion on a hill in the middle of twenty-one acres of purchased land. The house, designed with a blend of Greek Revival, then a popular American style, and Mississippi Valley French architecture, could accommodate the guests and dinner parties which Dubois de Saligny envisioned. Builders constructed the residence from Bastrop pine, a “fine-grained lumber found nowhere else in the world,” as if it were in the French Caribbean rather than on a Texas hillside: they raised the house two feet off the ground and added Greek columns to the front veranda. Dubois de Saligny probably never took up residence in the French Legation house, however, because of its unfinished state at the time of his departure. He sold the house to the Catholic Diocese in late 1840 on the condition that he could remain in it, if he so chose, until mid-1842. By the time that the diocese gained full possession of the house, the Texas capitol had moved to Washington-on-the-Brazos and Austin’s population was suffering the consequences. When the Republic agreed to terms of annexation with the United States in1947, Mosely Baker, a hero of the Texas Revolution, bought the house and in turn sold it toa Dr. Joseph W. Robertson. Robertson and his wife, Lydia Lee, planned to create a school for girls within the mansion on a hill, but their plans fell through within a semester or two. The Robertson family then moved into the house and Mr. and Mrs. Robertson raised eleven children on the property.Members of the Robertson family remained living in the house until they sold it the State ofTexas in 1940. Nine years later, the State of Texas bought the house from the Robertsonheirs and put it under the care of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. In 1956, theDaughters opened the French Legation Museum, which remains in operation toda

Constructed in 1912 by Huston-Tillotson University, Austin’s oldest institution of higher learning, the three-story Evans Industrial Hall was built in order to add a program of industrial arts to the sciences and an academic program in home economics.

Downs Mabson Field has some significant baseball history. The ballpark is the home of the Huston-Tillotson University Rams baseball team. The ballpark was also once home to the Austin Black Senators. Downs Mabson field was also the home ballpark of Samuel Huston College before it combined with Tillotson College in 1952. Several notable ballplayers have played at Downs Mabson including: Satchel Paige, Willie Wells, Smokey Joe Williams, Willie Mays, and Buck O’Neil.

The [b]Connelly-Yerwood House, is an Eastlake-style cottage located in Austin, Texas. The structure was built in 1904 for Kate and Michael Connelly and their four children. In addition to his occupation as a stonemason and bricklayer, Connelly owned the Silver KingSaloon at 307 E. Sixth Street. Eventually the population of the neighborhood began to change, as communities served by Samuel Huston College and St. Peter's M.E. Church were moving into the area. In 1926 the Connellys sold their home to an African-American doctor, Charles R. Yerwood, and his wife Nan.[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConnellyYerwood_House#cite_note-1][/url] The Yerwoods divorced but Nan Yerwood continued to live in the house; she sold the south portion of the lot where their garage was located; three homes were later constructed on this lot. Daughter Connie Yerwood Odom later occupied the house. Prominent in the public health field in Texas, Dr. Connie Yerwood achieved many "first" - as a women and as an African-American. Following Dr. Connie Yerwood, other family members owned and occupied the house through the 1990s when the structure and land was purchased by Anderson Community Development Corporation. In the late 1920s or early 1930s the house was enlarged to nine rooms, the original rear porch enclosed and the west half extended to include the present kitchen and dining room.Additional changes occurred in the 1950s when two bathrooms and a bedroom were added. The exterior was also altered when the front porch was shortened and pink compositionsiding with green trim was applied. The color scheme a nod to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,Inc. of which Dr. Connie Yerwood was a member. In 2000, ownership of the property was transferred to the City of Austin - Office of Neighborhood Housing and Community Development. The structure was renovated and restored. Renovations began with replacement of the old pier and beam foundation which was in bad condition. The originalfloors have been preserved as well as other interior trim, including bathroom tiles. Using old photographs porch spindles and trim were reproduced and the house is once againwearing its fish-scale shingles. The project received a 2006 Heritage Society of Austin MeritAward.[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connelly-Yerwood_House#cite_note-2][/url] Thebuilding, located at 1115 East 12th Street serves as the home office for AndersonCommunity Development Corporation. It was added to the[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places]National Register ofHistoric Places[/url] in 2003.[/b]

Owner/Operators: Robert Hobbs and Lorenzo Thompson "Mississippi-born Lavelle White was already a veteran musician based in Houston when bookings brought her to Austin in the Sixties. 'I came to Austin to play,' she says, 'and I played a gob of clubs: Charlie's Playhouse, the Derby, Good Daddy's, Sam's Showcase, the Victory Grill. Joe Valentine had a club, too. There were a lot of clubs there and really in the swing, you know? They were really doing it.'" from Margaret Moser's article Bright Lights, Inner City

Charlie’s Playhouse was a legendary jazz and blues club on 1206 East 11th Street, inAustin. The story of Charlie’s Playhouse is one of great personal successes, hot music, aculturally thriving community, and eventually the racial politics of desegregation.[img]/cms/sites/all/modules/wysiwyg/plugins/break/images/spacer.gif[/img] When CharlieEarnest Gilden, an African American businessman, purchased the Show Bar in 1958 theEast Side of Austin was flourishing with African American owned businesses. Especiallyon the weekends, large crowds of five or six thousand people enjoyed the jazz and bluesclubs on 11th and 12th streets. Charlie Gilden was a major force in expanding the successof the clubs in the area, drawing both African American and eventually white crowds. In1958 Charlie did not only purchase the Show Bar, he purchased the whole block, includinga barber shop, cleaners, and a liquor store. Charlie was a shrewd businessman, whowanted to make a true success out of the club. When Charlie purchased the Show Bar italready had a house band called the Gus Poole Trio, which played piano jazz. Jazz wasbecoming harder to market to the crowds flocking to the area, and Gus Poole left town.Charlie had heard of a young musician and jet mechanic, H.L. “Blues Boy” Hubbard. Heasked Hubbard if he would like to be the band leader of a new house band for Charlie’sPlayhouse. Hubbard agreed, and in reference to his job as a jet mechanic, named his newband The Jets. The Playhouse, as it was known, was one of the swankiest clubs in thearea. The Jets wore tuxedoes, and Charlie’s wife Ivy made certain that the band behavedprofessionally while on stage. Every blues or jazz star who came to Austin made anappearance at the Playhouse, including Tina and Ike Turner. Charlie didn’t stop withthe Playhouse. In 1960 he purchased an after-hours club called Cheryl Ann’s. He renamedit Ernie’s Chicken Shack, and The Jets played there after Charlie’s Playhouse closed for thenight. At that time, clubs legally selling alcohol had to close by 1 am on Saturday nights.The Chicken Shack stayed open all night, with The Jets playing well into morning hours forstanding-room-only crowds. Charlie hosted secret gambling in the back room and servedbootleg liquor. Austin, like the rest of Texas, was legally racially segregated until the late1960’s. The blues and jazz clubs on the East Side thrived in part because of thesegregation policies of the city. The African American community was not allowed to go toother areas of the city for entertainment, and so they patronized the businesses in theimmediate neighborhood. The Playhouse was among the first clubs on the East Side toallow white patrons. White students from the University of Texas became interested inblues music in part because of a television show called “Now Dig This.” The show featuredAfrican American blues artists every Saturday morning. According to Blues Boy Hubbard,“…what happen was, they started calling the East Side clubs for the bands that they see onTV, you know…Then somebody would, whoever it was, told them, 'Call Charlie'sPlayhouse,' you know, and they did.” Charlie’s business boomed with this new audience,but his success wasn’t without controversy. Fraternities from the University of Texas wouldreserve tables for large groups, leaving little room for the African American neighborhood audience. Charlie decided to have a “Soul Night” on Mondays for his African American audience while Friday and Saturday nights were 95% white, which many people in the African American community found insulting. The Playhouse was packed, but Charlie didn’tallow African Americans and whites to mingle with each other inside the club. Once the white audiences came into the club, African American audiences were shut out. ThePlayhouse was innovative in that both races were allowed inside, but once inside the club the races were segregated. When whites filled the club, because of the racialized landscapein the city, African Americans could not go to other sections of the city and hear music. Tommy Wyatt, a young African American man from the East Side neighborhood,remembers the growing tensions of the situation at Charlie’s Playhouse: “…the thing about it was that because he had such a large clientele of U.T. students on Friday and Saturday nights African Americans could hardly get in the club, although it sat right in the middle ofour community... We couldn't go into any club on the west side, but yet we couldn't go to our own clubs on the east side on Friday and Saturday night. It was the biggest club inAustin, for East Austin, was Charlie's Playhouse and we couldn't go there on Friday and Saturday night.” The new white audience was spending large sums of money in the club.Being a businessman first, Charlie wanted to keep this new crowd happy. He was known to have asked people who were not spending money, often African Americans, to give up theirseats to someone who had more money to spend, often young white students. However, Charlie did not discriminate. He would ask African American or white to leave a seat if theywere not spending any money. Many people from the neighborhood felt betrayed by Charlie. Some young African American students from Huston-Tillotson College decided toboycott the Playhouse and Ernie’s Chicken Shack to protest Charlie’s policies. Despite the boycott, the African American and white crowds continued to come, and when thePlayhouse was too full, they went on to other clubs in the area, like The IL Club, and Victory Grill. Eventually however, desegregation spelled the end for the Playhouse andmany of the other clubs on the East Side. African Americans had opportunities to move to new neighborhoods and hold new jobs. The musicians were able to play at clubs in otherparts of the city, and ironically the once thriving neighborhood began to see many of itsAfrican American owned businesses close. While desegregation provided numerous opportunities for African Americans, it also changed forever the landscapes of the previously segregated neighborhoods. Charlie closed the Playhouse in 1970, with Blues Boy Hubbard and The Jets playing out the last set. He was able to keep the Chicken Shackopen until his death in 1979. Musician Lavelle White summed up her memories of Charlie’s Playhouse: “Everybody went there, every weekend night. You could hardly find a place to sit. Dancing and music. Gambling going on in the back room, yes there was. They had bootleg liquor and Blues Boy Hubbard and The Jets. It was wonderful.” Please visit our audio section to hear some of the memories from people who visited Charlie’s Playhouse. 1206 E 11th St "The blues: I always heard the blues you know and we've always had some very good blues players here. What happened, the guitar--the amplified guitar--became very, very popular. Charlie Gilden, when he finally opened Charlie's Playhouse and put in, installed a house band with Hubbard on guitar, that really put a dent in the acoustic bands ability to get work. Because everybody wanted to hear the guitar, and amplified sound and you know they wanted things loud for dancing and so forth. Charlie Gilden operated a club, as I said on 7th street and I think somewhere before that but then he )moved to Chicon, right off of 12th street and then he moved from there up to a club on East 11th street that became Charlie's Playhouse. Before that, he had several different-- it had several different owners or operators; it was a show bar at one time. This building was very popular, it was a popular place. It always had its crowd, but when Charlie got it and renovated it and expanded it, it really became a mecca of both black and white people seeking entertainment at night. And he had an after-hours club where they would go after the legal time for drinking. It was called the Sheryl Ann club and it was out beyond the city limits but anyway that's another different story." from an interview with Pat Murphy conducted by Harold McMillan

A Gothic house built in 1898 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1985.

The Briones House, located in downtown Austin, is the largest and most prominent example of tinted concrete ornamentation on a building within Texas, a style of ornamentation introduced from Mexico in the 1920s that is unusual in the state. Genero P. Briones designed and constructed the home from 1947 to 1953, and, while he worked on projects in other states, this building—known locally as the Casa de Sueños, or House of Dreams—remains the best preserved example of his work. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 1998.

Blackshear Elementary School Opened in 1891 to provide free public education to African American children in the community then known as Gregory Town, Blackshear Elementary School was known in earlier years as School no. 3, Gregory Town School and Gregory School. In 1936, it was named for Edward I. Blackshear (1862-1919), a 19th-centuryteacher and principal who left Austin in 1895 to become head of Prairie View College. Programs and facilities for Blackshear students, including the establishment of a school library in 1934, expanded as the number of students increased. Now serving an ethnically diverse population in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade classes, Blackshear is an important part of Austin's educational history. (2001) - This is the wording on the historical marker

The Blackland neighborhood is located on the East side of Austin, North of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, South of Manor Road, East of I-35, and West of Chestnut Street. Swedish immigrants originally founded and organized the neighborhood, profiting from the agricultural benefits of the rich black soil in the area. In 1927, Austin initiated a plan to segregate the city, confining black people to the East side of town and providing the University of Texas at Austin with rights to expand its property Eastward. The Blackland community, now made up of primarily black people, took part in the heyday of the 11thstreet “Chitlin’ Circuit,” the music scene of the fifties and sixties. Blues pianist Robert Shaw owned and operated his barbeque and grocery store on Manor Road, acting as a hub for the Blackland community, college students, and politicians. The neighborhood grew in its architectural and cultural diversity, layering styles and cultures one on top of the other. Despite the city’s rejection of the 1927 plan in 1956 because of its racist foundations, the University of Texas continued to cite it as a part of its initiatives to expand. In 1981, when UT was pushing for its 6th expansion Eastward, activists lobbied for affordable housing and preservation of the Blackland community. The University agreed to negotiate and the neighborhood maintained its current boundaries. In the late 19th century, the Blackland area was home to farms of cotton, which grew readily in the fertile soil. By the turn of the century, Austin’s population growth necessitated the division of this area into urban housing. Swedish immigrants, who had created the farms to the East of town originally, built these houses at equal distances throughout the subdivision, leaving a comfortable amount of room between units. They were wood-framed, made of cedar, the abundant hardwood of the central Texas area. Many of them accommodated large families with their double windows and high ceilings. Though they were not wired for electricity originally, owners later added external wires to their home, providing for one outlet per room. Many of these homes still stand today, survivors of natural and manmade disasters and the damage from a century’s use. The landscape of the Blackland neighborhood changed drastically in 1927, when Austin passed an urban development plan which confined all blacks to the East side of the city. Sections of this plan also included the University of Texas’ annexation of land and expansion towards the East. The new black settlers followed in the trend of their Swedish predecessors, constructing wood-frame houses in the spaces between the existing structures. These wood-frame structures retained much of the architectural style characteristic of the Blackland neighborhood. Their exterior walls bore wooden siding and their windows, tall, narrow, and often grouped in pairs, wooden paneling that separated them from the rest of the house exterior. These newer homes included electricity and plumbing in the original plans, but had lower ceilings and less space. Many of the owners living in them later built onto the original structure to accommodate growing families, often without regard to city codes. The construction of major roadways such as East Avenue (I-35) and 19th Streets accentuated the segregation that the 1927 plan codified. Because of legal, cultural, and geographical segregation, the Blackland neighborhood became its own microcosm, an area separated from the rest of the city. Within this alienated area of Austin, people congregated around their own stores, music, and venues. One of the most recognized of these places was Robert Shaw’s “Stop n’ Swat,”a barbeque and grocery store which moved from West Lynn in Clarksville to Manor Road in the Blackland neighborhood in the 1950s. Robert “Fud” Shaw moved to Austin in 1935,playing piano on the so-called Santa Fe circuit. He played in the “boogie woogie” style, which took its rhythms from the beats and music of the railroad trains that traveled Eastfrom Santa Fe. This type of music was popular on the music scene and Shaw was an admired musician during the 30s until he married and started his first store later in thedecade.After he moved his store to Manor Road in the 50s, Shaw and his “Stop n’ Swat” became the center of the Blackland community. “When my father would drive around,” said Shaw’sdaughter, “he’d know every single person on the street.” In his grocery and barbeque stop,located where the “El Gringo” restaurant stands today, Shaw catered to the localcommunity and also attracted collegiates and politicians from the West side of the city. Hepracticed his playing skills daily on an upright piano he kept in the back room, preservingthe old style of “boogie woogie” music he had played before settling down. In 1963, amusic historian discovered Shaw’s skills in his store and persuaded him to record analbum. With his album “Texas Barrelhouse Piano,” later re-titled “Ma Grinder,” Shawbrought back a crisp version of the Santa Fe circuit’s boogie woogie style, recording the oldsignatures as if the 1930s hadn’t ended. The hippy, folk, and blues musicians of the 1960sadmired Shaw’s skills and the Austin music scene embraced him once more. Afterperforming with Janis Joplin in ’66 and playing in 14 Kerrville Folk Festivals, Robert Shawsuffered a heart attack in 1976. In 1985, the Blackland community laid Shaw to rest aftera funeral service at Ebenezer Baptist, recognizing the man who had fostered theneighborhood’s growth while preserving its music on a back room piano.At the time of Shaw’s death, the Blackland neighborhood was fighting the University ofTexas for its land and housing rights. Though the city had repealed its 1927 plan basedupon its racist foundations in 1956, the University continued to cite the legislation in orderto acquire rights to acquire land to accommodate its growing needs. Ever since the 1927plan, the University had been buying land on the East side of I-35, on the North-West sideof the Blackland neighborhood. As property values lowered just East of the University,speculators bought the devalued property in order to sell it at a profit to the University atits next annexation. Though the lower property prices provided Blackland residents withcheaper rent, living conditions in the area also declined drastically.In 1981, members of the Blackland community formed the Blackland NeighborhoodAssociation in order to protect the neighborhood’s property rights and fight for betterhousing conditions. After two frustrating years of opposition, the association formed the Blackland Community Development Corporation, a non-profit which aimed to help the neighborhood by buying property and building affordable housing in the area. After a twelve year struggle between the University, the BCDC and its political, collegiate, andpublic support, the two sides agreed on a compromise in 1994. The University’s limited its Easter acquisitions to the area bound by Leona Street, with an exception along Manor Roadto Chicon Street. The BCDC continues to renovate and build affordable houses in the and around the University’s former holdings, providing shelter for those whom speculators hadpushed from the neighborhood.These new houses add another layer of physical history to the Blackland neighborhood,which displays its history through its eclectic mix of residents, cultures, and architectural styles.

Originally from Mississippi, Ben Wash started cooking when he was seven years old. He moved to Austin as a teenager in the late 1950s and learned to grill brisket from olderfriends. His mother cultivated his love and talent, and at twenty-seven years old, with a bank loan of five hundred dollars and a good eye for bargains, Ben started the Long Branch in his garage. His first building, a Western-inspired place where horses tied up, was built in1971 and was named after the saloon on the television show Gunsmoke. Thirty-six years later, Ben’s Long Branch resides in the heart of old East Austin and, as a barbecue institution in this community, Ben believes in keeping the history and roots of the are a alive. Ben talks candidly about any subject from brisket prices to integration and, whether you’re in the mood for pork ribs or stories about East Austin development and the quickly changing character of the neighborhood, Ben knows a lot about both. He is a kind and vivacious man, whose positive energy comes through in his food. Ben left his Long Branch in 2002 only to return to a business that was failing without his presence. The restaurant is successful once again, and Ben is working hard to keep the East Austin spirit alive. Date of interview: March 30, 2007 Interviewer: Andrew Busch (primary) and Marvin Bendele with Anna K. Martin

Built circa 1890, the Arnold Bakery located at 1010 E. 11th Street is an 1,800 square foot solid brick structure that has stood the test of time first as a bakery, later as a dinette and most recently an artist’s live/work studio. ARA bought the bakery in 2000 so that it could be renovated in a manner that would blend with the mixed-use development ARA has planned for the block. Shoehorn Design, a local business that is located just blocks from the site, expressed an interest in renovating the building for use as its new design studio. ARA sold the building to Shoehorn at below market value on the condition that the building be rehabilitated within12 months in a manner consistent with the larger mixed-use development the ARA is constructing around it. In fact the owners commenced construction on their rehabilitation and addition project in May 2002 and completed it in early 2003.