Dr. Eliot Tretter (blue shirt) in front of Zavala Elementary
I hosted a walk and talk through East Austin today in partnership with Jenni Minner President of Mid-Tex Mod and Project Manager of the Austin Historical Survey Wiki. It was also one of hundreds of commemorative Jane Jacobs walks recognizing her contribution to planning, preservation, and all things urban street life held around the country. The goal of the talk was to illuminate the hidden history of racial segregation and community resilience in East Austin.
Dr. Eliot Tretter, urban geographer and East Austin scholar led a rag tag gang of preservationists, community leaders, students, and neighborhood residents on an informal tour. The focus: racial and social change as seen in the landscape and built environment. He’s author of the forthcoming, “The Privilege to Stay Dry: Racism, Flooding, and the Emergence of Austin’s Lower Eastside Mexican Barrio, 1890-1940.”
Tour participants learning about public housing history in Austin
Dr. Fred McGhee, archaeologist and public housing anthropologist gave am enlightening, consciousness-raising talk as we waited out the rain this afternoon.
Beginning with a lecture on Chalmers Housing Project, the “white” housing project built during the Johnson administration, Dr. McGhee led a larger discussion on Johnson, the New Deal, and the War on Poverty.
Dr. Fred McGhee keeping us all in stitches. Who knew preservation was so fun?!
For more impressions on the tour, take a look at Ryan Pollack’s great photos and thoughts on the event.
Learn more about the research project I work on, the Austin Historical Survey Wiki Project (a UT – City of Austin project) and Mid-Tex Mod, a Modern Architecture preservation group.
And get involved, because historic preservation matters!
