The Old West Austin Historic District covers approximately 106 blocks of residential development and park land distributed across a plateau west of Austin’s central business district. The area is comprised of three major suburbs, Enfield, Pemberton Heights, and Bryker Woods and was all originally part of the George W. Spear League. See original 1861Travis County Survey Map. When the league was divided, the Pease family’s Woodlawn plantation and farmland John Woods Harris owned encompassed the greater portion of the parceling. Although a few houses were built before the turn of the century, suburban development began in the southern portion of the area in the 1920s and expanded northward through the 1950s. Architect-designed dwellings coexist with more modest vernacular dwellings and the collection includes period revival residences, bungalows, cottages, and apartments. Relieving the basic rectilinear grid are several streets that conform to Shoal Creek basin’s irregular topography and others that gently descend into Pease Park, which forms the historic district’s eastern boundary. The resultant grouping of nineteenth- and twentieth-century resources includes 2,525 dwellings, garages, and other properties that retain integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, which remain recognizable to the historic district’s period of significance.
Old West Austin Historic District 