Hancock Neighborhood's History

Excerpts from The Hancock Neighborhood: An Urbane Oasis, Richard A. Thompson, Editor, 1999

Contents

Introduction - The Namesake

The namesake of the Hancock Neighborhood in Austin, Texas was a pioneer of early Texas. He was Lewis Hancock, the son of George Hancock, Battle of San Jacinto veteran, and the co-owner from the 1830s of the Trading Post at Sixth and Congress, where the Scarbrough Building stands.

George Hancock's business partner, Frances Dietrich, built a one-story structure at what is today 3401 Red River. For decades this property was on the outer edge of Austin, along a road leading north to Georgetown from Austin. In 1850 Dietrich added a two-story home to it, calling it Synnyridge. Indians killed him a year later. His widow married Joseph Whipple, who sold it to Lewis Hancock in 1900. Hancock resided in that home until his death in 1920. His daughter Mildred Hancock continued living there until her death. The house was sold and bulldozed in 1967, making way for the Century Square apartments that currently stand on the site. The Hancock family represents a 130-year transition in the life of Austin from the days of the Republic of Texas to the modern era.

Geological Origins

Charles Woodruff, Jr.

A recounting of the origins of the area would be incomplete without recognizing how the geological substructure has determined land use. Three major geological events shaped the Austin area: the Cretaceous Seas, the formation of the Balcones Fault Zone, and subsequent erosion of the landscape by the Colorado River and its tributaries.

Marine deposits between 65 and 145 million years ago formed the limestone strata, which underlie Austin. At that time, a vast inland sea covered the interior of what is now North America. During the late stages of the Cretaceous epoch, volcanoes formed along a buried hinge (the subsided stumps of the Ouachita Mountains) that would later mark the edge of the Balcones Fault system. Pilot Knob, in southeast Austin, is the remains of one of these volcanoes.

Approximately 20 to 25 million years ago, rocks underlying what is now Central Texas were broken and displaced downward toward the Gulf of Mexico. This resulted in mountain building in Colorado and New Mexico to the west and sediment deposits along the Texas coast to the southeast. This belt of broken rock, which makes up the Balcones Fault Zone, extends from Del Rio, northeastward through San Antonio and Austin, and beyond. It has profound influences on today's landscapes and water resources. The limestone, uplifted to the west, has been sculpted into the Hill Country west of the fault line; to the east, softer chalks and claystones have been eroded to lower levels, forming the Blackland Prairies.

As described by geologist and former President of the University of Texas Peter T. Flawn, "the Balcones fault line is where the West really begins." The cotton economy of the Old South meets the cattle economy of the Old West at the Balcones Escarpment, where the Blackland Prairies abut the hardscrabble hills.

That immense crack in the earth's surface created the anomaly of older Cretaceous limestone hills in west Austin being higher than the younger Blackland Prairie at lower elevations in the east. Parallel fault lines are most evident east of the Mount Bonnell Fault. Both Shoal Creek and Waller Creek follow along the parallel faults. Joseph Jones in his Life on Waller Creek, A Palaver about History as Pure and Applied Education, notes how Waller Creek began as no more than a trickle along a stretch of Cretaceous limestone.

The whole Hancock area is underlain by this Austin Chalk, which is evident by the road-cut along 38th street, west of Red River, on the south end of the golf course. Waller Creek exposes the chalk bedrock in many places, as well as minor fault traces. The creek provides the north-south axis of the Hancock area; it is understandable how it defines so much of the land-use from the beginning of human habitation.

Native Americans

The Native Americans in this part of the state were the Tonkawa, according to W. W. Newcomb Jr., in his The Indians of Texas from Prehistoric to Modern Times. They were nomadic hunters, gatherers, and fishermen, for whom the bow and arrow were most important. They camped along streams and rivers and in burnt-out rock middens of the earlier Archaic cultures. From the 16th century, Indians roamed from as far west, as the uppermost Edwards Plateau on to the Coastal Plain, and as far east as the Brazos River bottoms. In 1839 Waller Creek was teeming with fish. With buffalo and deer abounding in its vicinity, game was plentiful and abundantly harvested by the Tonkawa. By 1850 game had diminished and the Tonkawa were confined to reservations, with a very small population numbering only in the hundreds.

Arrowheads of Native Americans have been found along Waller Creek, where it turns to the northeast towards the Elisabet Ney Museum - on an 80 acre tract deeded to Angelina D. Smith by Republic of Texas President Sam Houston on December 16, 1841. In the 1920s, George Dempsey, a recent owner of a portion of that property, collected artifacts from tribes of the vicinity. The Dempsey House still stands at 700 E. 44th St.

Since the days of Anglo settlement, the Cretaceous strata have been used for quarries and limestone production. Drill holes and blast marks can be identified along Waller Creek from the south of 38th Street and north to 41st Street. The Perry family converted such a quarry, located on the southeast corner of the former Perry Estate, into a sunken garden. The otherwise flat- laying land in the flood plain of Waller Creek was used mostly for dairy farming. But as later described, the principal land use of the Hancock area became residential, especially triggered by the founding of the Austin Country Club at the turn of the century. Subdivisions grew up around this geographical and social center of the community.

Early Anglo Settlement - to 1890

The earliest plat maps, besides showing the name of Angelina D. Smith, also include that of John Henry Lohmann who bought 40 acres from her in 1847. Here he established the first, and until 1861, the only dairy in Travis County. In 1910 the first significant housing development took place on this acreage, when W.T. Caswell purchased land for the purpose of subdividing.

Joseph Lucksinger purchased another portion of the land of the Smith property in 1871. Here he built a two-room stone cabin and established one of the first slaughterhouses in Austin, furnishing meat to Austin and state institutions, according to Susan M. Ridgway in the May 1981 issue of Austin magazine.

Early beginnings are also represented by Ideal Place, the subdivision northwest of the Hancock Golf Course, from 41st to 44th Streets along the east side of Duval Street, extending to Waller Creek. Its history commenced on Christmas Day in 1846 when Charles Klein of Switzerland arrived with his family at the Port of Galveston, Texas. He registered his mark and brand in 1847 at the Travis county courthouse. In 1848, he was granted 40 acres by the State of Texas, being Outlot No. 14 in the Division C of a tract adjoining the City of Austin. On census records, he is listed as a stock-raiser and farmer. The property remained in the family until the 1890s, when it passed to others. By 1911 T. H. Barrow, an Austin realtor, and W. K. Ward of Ellis County, owned Outlot 14, and filed the plat for Ideal Place at the Travis County Courthouse.

A notable individual living in the Hancock area during this period was Susanna Dickinson, who with her infant daughter Angelina, survived the carnage of the Alamo, as they were given leave by Santa Anna. According to Women in Early Texas, edited by Evelyn M. Carrington, Dickinson, with her husband, Joseph W. Henning, moved to the corner of Duval and 32nd streets in the 1870s. She lived until 1883. Henning, who had opened a furniture and cabinet shop at 205 east Pecan, continued to trade in real estate.

Turn of the Century Founders

Lewis Hancock is listed as the first to lead, in giving definition to the area at the turn of the century, by founding the Austin Country Club. In doing so, he provided a magnet, which attracted others like the Perry, Bailey and Fisher families.

Lewis was known also for having served as Austin's mayor, from 1895 to 1897 and builder of the Hancock Opera House, at 120 West Sixth, in 1896. It was during his travels in the United States and Scotland the he developed a keen interest in the game of golf. According to David Gunther's A Short History of Hancock Recreation Center, printed in the November, 1986 issue of FUTURELOOK, "Hancock gathered a group of like-minded enthusiasts at the Driskill Hotel in 1899 to draw up plans for the construction of a golf course in Austin." Gunther states that this course was the first in Texas, and only the second of its kind in the south. The original golf course had nine holes, located on a strip of land, which bordered Duval. The Ernst Farm, at 41st and Red River, was purchased in 1913 to created another nine holes. This land was adjacent to the Hamby farm to the north.

Once the property was purchased, developments began to build up around the course. Aldridge Place was the one Hancock took the most hand in developing. Peter Flagg Maxson, in his paper Aldridge Place, the 'Suburb Beautiful', writes that Hancock sought to create an extended country club suburb between the University and the golf club. Although this neighborhood between Guadalupe and Speedway, 30th and 34th Streets, is outside the Hancock neighborhood boundaries, it represents the same impetus to build in proximity to the golf course.

Another visible sign of the influence of the golf course on the surrounding areas is to be found in the name of Greenway, the street that led directly to the links, from the Beau Site neighborhood to the south. That acreage was purchased by James Robinson Bailey (1868-1941). his home 3504 Hampton Road, was constructed in in 1910. In written material supplied by the current owner, Becky Phillips, it is reported how he served as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas. During World War I, he and his associate Alcan Hirsch succeeded in "cracking" the German formula for Novocaine. Subsequently, he is said to have sent more students along the route to Ph.D. degrees than any other professor in the University.

It was another University of Texas professor, political scientist Dr. Lindsey M. Keasbey, who in 1907 purchased the Lucksinger property. According to the previously cited Susan M. Ridgway, Mr. Keasbey led in the building o their home. She ". . . would come out clasping in her arms one of the volumes of her beautiful 12-volume edition of the Arabian Nights and she and the builder would pore over the illustrations in this and make their plans." She gave the Moorish-style structure the Arabic name "Inshallah."

As the city of Austin grew northward, the Hancock area continued to change from earlier farm and dairy use to residential. Soon after the turn of the century, the largest additions to be platted were Beau Site, Oaklawn, Harpers, Ideal Place, and Plainview Heights. Lot sizes varied greatly.

Typical of the newly formed subdivisions was that of the Oaklawn Addition. The original patent to these Outlots 11 and 12 was held by Solomon L. Johnson. He purchased these from the state in 1846. Later it passed to the Richard H. Peck family and for many years was known as "Peck Place." Mr. Peck owned a general merchandise store at the present site of the Driskill Hotel.

On May 1, 1905, a plat was filed at the Travis County Courthouse by developers Carl Luetche and W. G. Sneed. It was bounded by East 41st Street on the north, East 38th Street on the south, Waller Creek on the the east and Groomes (now Duval) on the west. Three avenues ran east and were named Terrell, Ross, and Johnson. Peck Avenue ran north and south. Lots were 25' x 145' with alleyways. In 1906, the land was sold from Peck Avenue to Waller Creek to the Austin Country Club.

From the 1920s to 1945

The City of Austin had a population of 34, 876 in 1920 and the Hancock neighborhood was near the northeast corner of the city limits. East Avenue (now Interstate 35) was a broad boulevard with a park in the middle. The Hancock Estate occupied the area along East Avenue from 32nd Street almost to 38th Street. A few lots had been subdivided on the west side of East Avenue from 38th to 41st Streets. The east 40 acres of the Country Club (the back nine holes of) fronted on East Avenue from 41st to 43rd Streets. Duval Street formed the western boundary of the neighborhood and the area between it and Waller Creek was the most developed portion of the neighborhood. The southern boundary, 32nd Street, because of its proximity to the University of Texas, also had been developed. The norther boundary, 45th Street, was occupied partially by a dairy farm north of the Country Club. None of the streets were paved. A few, such as Red Rivers, were graveled. The nearest streetcar line was in Hyde Park.

The 1928 master plan for the City of Austin recommended that, because of its extensive use, Red River Street be paved 40 feed wide from 19th Street to 43rd Street. The planners said that Duval Street was destined to be a very important trafficway and should be 100 feet wide. East Avenue was favored as a radial, arterial highway for the entire northeast section of the city.

There were no public schools in the neighborhood until Robert E. Lee Elementary School was built in 1939. Prior to its construction, elementary students attended Baker School at 3908 Avenue B. University Junior High School was located at Martin Luther Ling (19th Street) and San Jacinto. Austin High School as located at 1202 Rio Grande, now the Austin Community College main campus.

Lutheran Concordia College of Texas was established in 1926 on 20 acres facing East Avenue between 32nd Street and the newly named Concordia Avenue. The land was purchased from the Hancock Estate for $19,000. Mrs. Hancock volunteered to donate one of the lots for Concordia Avenue, which became the city limits. The description of the property as it looked in 1926 is given in the 1977 history, Concordia of Texas - From the Beginning: " . . . our first college campus was in the fullest sense, on the outer limits of the city. Generally speaking, we had city conveniences . . . but no paved streets. Nature compensated us for the few inconveniences . . . Across East Avenue at 34th Street was a square block of veritable 'bird's paradise.'"

On June 27, 1926 the cornerstone for the first building was laid. It was named Kilian Hall in honor of Rev. John Kilian, pioneer minister of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. He had led 500 Wends to settle in Texas.

In 1926, the Cashway Bakery and Grocery was located in the red brick building still standing at 40th and Duval. By 1935, several businesses had been established on 43rd Street just west of Duval, including the Checker Front grocery store, a butcher shop, a barbershop and a beauty salon. A service station existed at 4300 Duval and a garage for automotive repair was at 410 East 45th Street. By 1945, a cleaner, a variety store, and a shoe repair shop had joined the cluster of businesses near 43rd and Duval.

Two men who had a major impact on the development of Austin lived in the neighborhood during a portion of the 1920-1945 era. Edgar Perry, Sr. built his mansion on the site of the former quarry and gravel pit at 41st and Red River Streets. Perry used the fortune he earned as a cotton broker to build the Commodore Perry Hotel and the Perry-Brooks Building in addition to being the initial developer of Highland Park West and Highland Park neighborhoods.

Tom Miller lived on Park Boulevard and was mayor of Austin from 1933 to 1949 and again from 1955 to 1961. He was instrumental in obtaining federal funds for many projects that provided for numerous Austinites during the Great Depression.

Another resident of note was Morris Williams, who wrote about golf for The Austin American Statesman. He and his family lived at 517 East 40th Street. The municipal golf course adjacent to Mueller Airport was named for him and for his son who was killed in a World War II plane crash.

World War II and its attendant system of rationing caused Victory Gardens to sprout throughout the neighborhood. The families of servicemen stationed at Del Valle Army Airbase (later named Bergstrom in honor of the First Austinite killed in the war) rented houses or rooms in the neighborhood. University students lived in the many garage apartments in the area.

Post World War II to the Present

In the wake of the expansion of the Texas Capital Complex to the north in the 1950s, a number of homes were purchased and moved to Keasbey Boulevard, south of 45th Street, to the west of Red River. Also moved from the capital neighborhood was the parsonage of the Swedish Central Methodist Church, no located at 700 Carolyn in the Harper Addition.

No single development better signifies the change in the locality than the coming of Hancock Shopping Center. It was Austin's first shopping mall, built in 1963, on the site of the back-nine holes of Hancock Golf Course. A feature in the Austin American-Statesman, "Life and Arts" section, March 9, 1997, author Han Stuever caught the 35-year significance of the facility in this way: "What was right about Hancock Center was wrong for the mall boom. Hancock was one-third the size of present-day suburban malls and it did not have a roof. Highland Mall came in 1970 and the flock followed. It was the right neighborhood at the wrong time." With the coming of the newest and one of the largest H.E.B. Grocery Stores in 1997, the center had clearly been re-established as a focal point for the community.

It was the proposed sale by the city of the original nine holes of the golf course that led to the creation of the Hancock Neighborhood Association in the summer of 1980. As H.N.A. Historian Elise Plumb Kidd wrote in the Hancock Neighborhood Association Newsletter in September 1996, "Residents and golfers city-wide arose in support of continuing the course, not only for the sport itself, but also to ensure that this inner city treasure would continue as a beautiful greenbelt. H.N.A. flourished for many years with frequent meetings and excellent programs. After years of inactivity, it was revived in 1995 and efforts to rebuild it are ongoing." The first president of H.N.A. was Charles Harker, followed by Jim Beauchamps, Don Weston, Bill Bevier, Russell Hur, and Bill King. Richard Thompson, the current President was elected in 1995. The H.N.A. continues to provide a forum for the sharing of information and of community concerns. In 1998 it also sponsored the first Pet Parade.

In addition to the H.N.A., there is a Hancock Recreation Center Advisory Board, which serves an auxiliary function, including sponsorship of the Hancock Holiday Candle Trail - now a seventeen year tradition.

The Hancock Recreation Center serves more than 15,000 people each year. Its programs include adult enrichment classes and support groups, dancing and fitness. Among the youth camps and classes is the Tiny Tots day care, which began in 1963. An After School Fun Club meets the needs of K-6th grade children from Robert E. Lee and Maplewood schools. Supervisor Kate Tanguis reports that the Center is the site of one or two weddings, receptions, or parties each weekend throughout the year.

It is the increase in traffic, to be generated by the future development of the Mueller Airport site to the east and by the proposed Cencor Triangle development to the west which continues to define issues addressed by The Association. The continuing challenge for those who live and work in the area is to preserve it as an urbane oasis for present and future generations.

© Copyright 1999,2009 Hancock Neighborhood Association. All rights reserved.