My Favorite Map: The City of Austin and Suburbs

by Daniel Alonzo, GLO Digital Archivist

My favorite map will come as no surprise to my co-workers because of my background working in Austin history: It’s an Austin Map! Specifically, it is The City of Austin and Suburbs compiled and drafted by Dixon B. Penick and published by the E. L. Steck Company in 1925.[1] This map is an excellent illustration of the growth and changes the city of Austin has experienced in the last hundred years, especially if you know what to look for!

Dixon B. Penick, The City of Austin and Suburbs, Austin: Penick Engineering Company, 1919, 1925, Map #0926, Map Collection, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX. Reproductions of this map (GLO Map #76203) are available for sale at the GLO courtesy of TSLAC.

There is so much going on in this map when comparing it to the Austin of today. Let’s start with the misnomers. The French Legation, located at 7th Street and East Avenue (now the much-maligned parking lot known as I-35), is labeled “Old French Embassy.” Much has been written about this historic building; however, an embassy it certainly was not (although, nowadays it serves as a pretty good wedding venue).[2]

UT is listed as “Texas State University,” which is slightly irritating as the name is too near that Aggie pejorative “Texas University.” Up until 2003, this could at least pass without causing too much confusion, but since then, some of the good folks in San Marcos would probably have something to say about it.

[left] The French Legation, labeled “Old French Embassy,” at 7th St. and East Ave. [right] Texas State University (University of Texas) sits in its familiar location north of downtown, shown here alongside the defunct Texas Wesleyan College, which operated from 1912 to 1936 before it shut down and sold the property to UT.[6]

And then there are the many state institutions that bear their old, non-politically correct names. The State School for the Feebleminded (Austin State School), State Deaf and Dumb Institute (Texas School for the Deaf), and its segregation-era counterpart the State Deaf Dumb and Blind Institute for Colored, and the State Insane Asylum (Austin State Hospital) all appear on the map.[3]

Several state institutions, shown bearing archaic names, were situated in the north part of town.

There are many streets that have disappeared (and many more that didn’t exist then) that tell a story of how people got around, both within the capital and to Austin’s neighboring towns and cities.

[left] Crockett, Fannin, and Bowie Streets shown near the MoPac rail line. Only Bowie remains today. [right] South Congress Avenue terminated at Post Road, which continued to San Antonio and Lockhart. St. Edwards University sits, isolated, in what eventually became a packed south Austin neighborhood.

Of note are three small streets located near the MoPac rail line just north of the river: Crockett, Fannin, and Bowie. It was a curious decision to include Fannin and not Travis, since Crockett and Bowie both had ties to the Alamo and Fannin did not. Of the three, only Bowie still exists. Fannin was replaced, along with Ruiz St. and Park Way, when Lamar Boulevard was created. Crockett was replaced when it was merged with Baylor St, possibly because, on this map, there is another Crockett St. in Travis Heights down at the southern city limit.

Sabine street downtown, just east of Red River St., used to be an actual road that could get you somewhere instead of the frustrating bunch of dead ends it is now. Sabine, along with Oldham, Swisher, Cole, Longfellow, Whittier, and Emerson all disappeared as East Avenue became I-35 and UT began to expand eastward.

State Highway 275, which didn’t exist in 1925, was the name given to the road that went from San Antonio through Austin to Georgetown. On this map, you can see that South Congress ends at Post Road, which goes on to San Antonio. To the north, 45th St. bisects a road near Guadalupe that goes to Georgetown. These roads later became Lamar to the north and an extended South Congress to the South. On a modern map, you can see that the State Highway 275 designation still exists and both the north and south routes eventually merge with I-35.

Camp Mabry and Mt. Bonnell, familiar to Austinites today, were shown on the 1919 map.

While I was wondering how a traveler passing through would know how to get through town to the correct road in 1925, I realized that all they had to do was stay on a paved road. As the key notes, the black cross-hatching are the paved roads, the rest are unpaved. This modernization of the roadway was started in 1905 with Congress Avenue, and progress continues to this day (although commuter Austinites may beg to differ).

While much has changed over the years, some things have endured. You can still find Barton Springs, the Municipal Golf Course, Pease Park, and Camp Mabry on the map. The same goes for the State Cemetery, and of course, the Capitol and the University of Texas.

The Ridgetop School is nestled into a small lot in the Ridgetop neighborhood in northeast Austin.

All this is interesting, but my favorite spot on the map is another one of those quirky persistent landmarks that could easily be overlooked, way up north in a little neighborhood called Ridgetop. There is a little parcel at 51st St. next to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC RR)[4] called “Ridgetop School.” It has been in that little neighborhood now for exactly one hundred years and is still operating out of an updated (1940s) building. It is a charming little school with an enrollment of about 350 kids — remarkable in this day for a city of nearly one million. It is so old, when it began in 1917 it was outside of the city limits and was a county school until the Ridgetop/Highlands area was annexed by the City of Austin in 1924. The school is now operated by the Austin Independent School District.[5]

The City of Austin and Suburbs is held at the Texas State Library and Archives, but reproductions are still available for purchase from our website courtesy of TSLAC.

This map was digitized for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission through a collaborative digitization project with the General Land Office. To see all 884 digitized maps from the Texas State Library and Archives on the GLO web site, please click here.

[1] According to a family tree, Dixon Penick was a distant cousin to the famed Austin golf coach Harvey Penick. Handbook of Texas Online, James A. Wilson, “Penick, Harvey Morrison,” accessed July 26, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpetf. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

[2] Handbook of Texas Online, Kenneth Hafertepe, “French Legation,” accessed July 19, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ccf03. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Modified on July 27, 2016. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

[3] Handbook of Texas Online, Sherilyn Brandenstein, “Austin State School,” accessed July 19, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sba08. Uploaded on June 9, 2010. Modified on June 5, 2017. Published by the Texas State Historical Association; Handbook of Texas Online, Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl, “Texas School For the Deaf,” accessed July 19, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kct26. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association; Handbook of Texas Online, James W. Markham, “Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School,” accessed July 19, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kct17. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Modified on April 26, 2017. Published by the Texas State Historical Association; Handbook of Texas Online, John G. Johnson, “Austin State Hospital,” accessed July 19, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sba07. Uploaded on June 9, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

[4] The H&TC tracks are now used by the Capitol Metro Red Line, and Airport Blvd., which utilizes part of the old railroad right-of-way, goes south towards the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport (1936–1999), now a toney subdivision known as “Mueller” in East Austin: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2010-01-08/935680/; http://www.muelleraustin.com/about/history/

[5] http://ridgetoprattlers.com/what-makes-us-special/.

[6] Handbook of Texas Online, James M. Christianson, “Texas Wesleyan College,” accessed July 26, 2017, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kbt25. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.