In case you missed this profile I wrote for Friday’s Real magazine.
One inescapable fact about the Guadalupe neighborhood: It rests atop a steep hill. In fact, this high point on the wooded prairie is also known as Robertson Hill, named for Dr. Joseph W. Robertson, who purchased the land around the French Legation in 1848. His descendants lived here for almost 100 years. At least one street, Lydia, still bears a family member’s name.
By the 20th century, the hill had became a magnet for African Americans, who moved here in greater numbers after the 1928 urban plan proposed segregating them in East Austin. A lively district evolved around East 11th and San Bernard streets, home to nightspots like the Royal Club, Victory Grill and Paradise Inn.
Robertson Hill School, the city’s first black high school, was built not far from Ebenezer Baptist Church, a community cornerstone on East 10th Street. It later moved north and east as L.C. Anderson High School, named for an early Austin educator. Eventually the name graced an integrated school in Northwest Hills.
In the 1950s, when nearly rural East Avenue was replaced with the concrete blockade that is Interstate 35, the social isolation of Guadalupe’s blacks and Hispanics increased. Yet kindness to newcomers remained customary.
“When I moved into the neighborhood 26 years ago, I was alone for a few months while my wife finished her degree in Colorado,” says Mark Rogers, now director of the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corp., which builds and manages affordable housing in the area. “Within weeks, a neighbor brought me a pineapple upside-down cake and later another brought me caldo de pollo.”
A historian by training, Rogers listened carefully to old-timers like the Rev. Harris, Willis Jackson and Mauro Renteria.
“It wasn’t long before I realized I was living in a very small town a few blocks from the Capitol in the capital city of Texas,” Rogers says. “I was told to watch what I said because nearly everyone in the neighborhood was related to someone else in the neighborhood.”
“It was livable magic,” he says, “with all of the ingredients for a socially vital area within walking distance to downtown. I imagined it was on the verge of an economic explosion. Thankfully that did not happen. And when it did, it was many years later and, thankfully, fell short of an explosion. The neighborhood was filled with families that had lived there for many generations.”
Two historic sites and two historic churches serve as cultural anchors. The French Legation is well-documented as Austin’s oldest home. It was the residence of the self-styled Count de Saligny, chargé d’affaires for France during the Texas Republic.
The Texas State Cemetery to the east is the final resting place for the state’s luminaries. Once neglected, it is now nicely landscaped and makes for a meditative retreat amid the urban bustle.
Ebenezer Baptist, organized in 1875, has been a community rock ever since. Led by Pastor Marvin C. Griffin since 1969, it has operated on the forefront of several waves of social change.
Only a few blocks away is Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the area’s namesake. Located in 1907 in the “Mexican” district downtown by Republic Square, it headed to East Austin during the social displacements of the 1920s. Parishioners carried the bell, which hung in the city’s first fire station, and other parts of the church up the hill in a procession.
For purposes of this story, we considered some retail zones below the hill — all the way to East Fifth Street — as part of Guadalupe, too. This area and East 11th Street have seen the most radical changes on the east side in the past few decades. Some landmarks — Green & White Grocery, Victory Grill, Longbranch Inn — survive, but they are used differently.
Suzie Phyler’s father took over the Green & White Grocery from her grandfather. Her oldest brother, John, is now in charge. Several generations of her family were born, raised and married within blocks of the store. “These grounds are sacred to me and my husband,” Phyler says.
Recently, the southern retail/industrial quadrant has been transformed into a red hot center of Austin hipster culture. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops and artist studios have mushroomed alongside food trailers, hair boutiques and shops. Among the city’s most popular new eateries: Buenos Aires, Franklin Barbecue, East Side Show Room and Takoba.
Though many residents welcome these amenities, others have not been as happy with larger developments, such as the outsized apartment complexes located in the area’s northwest zone. As with any core Austin neighborhood, residents must deal with rising property taxes as well as litter, parking, traffic and petty crime related to nearby entertainment districts.
“Weekend revelry can be a pain,” Gina Fuentes says. “Especially for those neighbors closer to the French Legation. Noise can be an issue sometimes. Not sure why music has to be so loud anyway, but we can hear it from East Sixth Street.”
Some residents see the area exchanging one urban ill for another. “It used to be drug dealers and prostitutes who mainly stayed on or near East 11th Street,” Rogers says. “Now we have home invasions, smash and grabs and occasional assaults on the streets late at night. That was very rare until about five or six years ago.”
One of the bright spots is the use of the area’s many alleyways for new small homes.
“I often say that our alleys are more interesting for walks than most streets in Austin,” Hatch says. “I am working to try to help transform these wonderful parts of our neighborhood into romantic narrow streets like many of us have had the good fortune to have visited in Europe.”
Hatch says that islands of affordable housing in older neighborhoods serve as “forts” against rising property values, and thus taxes.
“Developers came into the area and saw cheap land and fueled development fights that pushed neighbors against each other,” Rogers says. “Sadly this division sometimes was perceived to fall along racial lines with African Americans as pro-development and the Hispanic community as anti-development.”
Despite the kindness one witnesses all around Guadalupe, anyone making changes can be viewed with some suspicion these days, even if they are trying to preserve the essential character of the area. Others take a pragmatic stance.
“All neighborhoods in every part of Austin require ongoing investment, mostly by younger newcomers with money and energy,” says David West, who has spent 28 years fixing up an 1884 Victorian house. “Otherwise housing stock deteriorates, longtime residents move out, and housing stock is torn down.”
Interactive by Rob Villalpando