Laguna Gloria Historical Marker

I must say I really enjoyed my visit at this location. The wife and I spent three hours looking at the art that is now displayed in this home (see the post on the AMOA museum for more information on that). As for the marker the home is absolutely marvelous. The architecture is superb. It is a must see in Austin.

photo by D. Kevin Surbaugh

Inscription:
This Mediterranean style villa was built in 1916 for Henry H. and Clara Driscoll Sevier. Named Laguna Gloria for a nearby lagoon off the Colorado River, the stuccoed home features a decorative window that resembles the rose window at San Jose mission in San Antonio. In 1943 the site was conveyed to the Texas Fine Arts Assoc. by Clara Driscoll, best known for her efforts to preserve the Alamo. Her homesite is now owned by Laguna Gloria Art Museum.
Erected:
1983

photo by D. Kevin Surbaugh

Location:
3809 W 35th St, Austin TX 78703


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Pecan Street Festival - Fall 2012 - September 29-30

The bi-annual Pecan Street Festival is this weekend, September 29-30, 2012. This festival is held twice a year Once in the spring and again in the fall.The festival covers 24 blocks of 6th street from I-35 to Brazos. Featuring artisans from all over the country (USA) who display and sell their homemade art and craft-work. In addition there will reportedly be three stages with musicians providing entertainment. Of course you can't forget the various kinds of food that will be sold either.
Some might ask why this festival is called Pecan Street if it is on 6th Street. To answer that we have to look at Austin's rich history. When Edwin Waller first laid out the street plan for Austin, he named the north-south streets after Texas rivers in the order in which they appeared on the Texas map. While Mr. Waller had recommended the east-west streets be numbered, they were instead given the name of trees. Eventually, numbers did replace the tree-named streets and what had been Pecan became, what we now know as 6th Street, today. The Old Pecan Street Spring and fall Festivals honors the streets original name.
Whether you come for the food, music/entertainment or arts/crafts there is something for you. It is a tradition that is 100% Austin, which has been known for the last 34 years as a great way to spend a weekend.

O. Henry Museum and Marker

O. Henry is diffidently one of the top witters on my personal favorites list. On my trip to this museum and the historic marker in the front yard, I learned some things about the man who gave us "The Gift of the Magi." For example, O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was at one point in his life a bank teller at the First National Bank of Austin.  After, money came up missing he was fired eventually charged with embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison, of which he served three years.

Photo at O. Henry House & Museum (Austin, TX) via Wikipedia.  The bank teller in the picture is William Porter (aka O. Henry). The copyright holder grants any entity the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Porter (aka O. Henry was born September 11, 1862, near Greensboro, North Carolina. Despite his time as a bank teller, Henry spent his entire life overspending, drinking and gambeling his money away and constanly asking his friends for money. The museum and historical marker is sandwiched between the fire station (that also contains the Austin Fire Museum) and the Joesph and Susanna Dickinson Hanning Museum.

Home/Museum

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

Hours:
Wednesday-Sunday 12-5

Contact phone:
512-974-1903

Admission:
Free

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

Historic Marker

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

Inscription:
Born in Greensboro, N.C., moved to Texas in 1882, and lived on a ranch near Cortulla. Came to Austin in 1884, and in addition to writing, worked as a pharmacist, musician, draftsman, and bank teller. His first nationally published short story appeared in 1897.

Porter began writing under the name O. Henry during three years spent in prison. The 381 stories published in New York, 1902-10, won him international fame. O. Henry's collected works have been translated into 10 languages.

This mid-1890s home of Porter, his wife Athol, and their daughter, opened as a museum in 1934.

Erected:
1974


Location:
409 East 5th Street, Austin TX 78701 (near 5th and Trinity)


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Governor Edmund Jackson Davis

Texas Governor Edmund Jackson Davis was Governor when Texas was readmitted into the union after the bloody Civil War of the previous decade.

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

Inscription:
Born in Florida, E.J. Davis became a lawyer and judge after moving to Texas. During the Civil War (1861-65), he commanded a regiment of Texas Unionists and rose to the rank of Brigadier General.

During the reconstruction era, Davis led the radical wing of the Texas Republican Party. In Nov. 1869 he narrowly defeated moderate Republican A.J. Hamilton for the Governorship in an election marred by charges of fraud. Davis took office in Jan. 1870, and Texas was readmitted to the Union the following March. Davis four-year term was marked by controversy over the formation of a State Police force and alleged financial corruption. His administration drew praise, however, for its support of free public education.

Davis was defeated for re-election in Dec. 1873 by Democrat Richard Coke, but he refused to leave office. From Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, 1874, Davis occupied the first floor of the State Capitol, while Coke and members of the 14th Legislature held the second floor. Armed conflict was prevented when President U.S. Grant declined to intervene in the dispute, and Davis left the building peacefully.

Davis married Anne Elizabeth Britton (b. 1838) and had two sons, his grave is in the State Cemetery in Austin.

Erected:
1976

Location:
near 1006 Congress in Bicentennial Square with a number of other markers

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St. Stephen’s Missionary Baptist Church

Dr. B. J. McQueen is the current senior pastor of this historic church and they can be reached at (512) 837-1196. In 2012 Dr. McQueen was inducted into the distinguished Board of Preachers at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta.  According to an article in the Austin Statesman,

At St. Stephen's, the congregation is concerned with affecting positive outcomes for the community, McQueen said. The church works to help others so that they can take care of themselves "and become a contributor to society, rather than one who's constantly in need," he said.
McQueen cited as an example a program in which the church rents homes to members with financial difficulties at below-market rates. Those members must complete a two-year financial stewardship program to receive a portion of what they paid in rent to use toward a down payment on a home of their own.

photo by D. Kevin Surbaugh

 Inscription:

Organized in 1887, this congregation first met in a small wooden building near this site. The Rev. Stephens Smith served as first pastor of the church, which served residents of the Waters Park, Round Rock, and Pflugerville communities. Land for a church and school was given by Mr. and Mrs. Anderson Peoples in 1887. St. Stephen’s School, also known as Waters Park Colored School, provided education for black children in the area. A new sanctuary was built in 1978. This church continues to serve a large community with outreach programs.

Location:
12300 Amherst Dr, Austin TX 78727

photo by D. Kevin Surbaugh

Erected:
1988
 

Location:

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other links to this article:

• HMDB.org

Weekend Events

This weekend (Sept. 21-23, 2012) there a number of events that you might want to check out.

Austin Museum Partnership is Sunday September 23, 2012. Every year many of the museums around Austin team together to offer a day when the public can visit their museums for free. However, parking is not included in that free offer, so in some cases you may have to pay a parking garage fee. We also wrote more about this event earlier this week.

Fantastic Fest begins today Thursday September 20, 2012 and runs through September 27. So what is Fantastic Fest?  According to their website:

Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. In years past we have presented the world premieres of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, APOCALYPTO, CITY OF EMBER, ZOMBIELAND, and GENTLEMEN BRONCOS, while our guest roster has included such talent as Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Dolph Lundgren, Jemaine Clement, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. We also feature world, national and regional premieres of new, up-and-coming genre films.
Fantastic Fest is held each year in various venues, but primarily at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse was named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly and features food and drink served to your seat without any disruption of the movie experience.

The Austin Pride Festival is this weekend also.The festival includes what has been dubbed the Rainbow Run 5k. The 21st annual event will be held Saturday September 22, 2012.

Finally beginning Sunday September 23 (through September 26 and September 30 through October 3rd) is Austin Restaurant Week. To celebrate this 5th Annual event, more then 50 Austin restaurants will be participating in this event. But

the best way to access the information for Austin Restaurant Week is to download the app that you can find in the Apple App Store (for iPhone) or in the Android Marketplace (for Android). In addition, you may download and print maps at home through this site.

African Americans in the Texas Revolution

This marker is one of about 8 in bicentennial Square and 10 in this block of Congress avenue across the street from the State Capital. This marker remembers the unsung heroes of the Texas Revolution with Mexico.  Some counts say that 30% of the Texas population was of African American decent. While most of them were slave, they still had a big part to play in our fight with Mexico.  

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

Inscription:
Many African Americans, free and slave, supported Texas during its 1835-36 war of independence from Mexico. Although official recognition of the African American role was generally denied, recorded accounts of individual acts of bravery and patriotism survived.

Hendrick Arnold distinguished himself as a guide and soldier for Ben Milam’s Texas Army at the Siege of Bexar and later at the Battle of San Jacinto.

William E. (Bill) Goyens, a prominent African American businessman of Nacogdoches, served as an interpreter and liaison for Sam Houston during treaty negotiations with the Cherokee Indians at the outset of the war.

Samuel McCullough, Jr., a freeman, was severely wounded in the Goliad Campaign in late 1835 and later recognized by the Texas Congress as among the first to shed blood in the Texas War for Independence.

Joe Travis was among the few defenders of the Alamo to survive the devastating siege by Mexican General Santa Anna in 1836. Travis later carried news of the battle to General Sam Houston.

African Americans are counted among the Texas Army massacred at Goliad, among those who contributed money and transported supplies for the Texas Army, and among those who died defending the Alamo.

Erected:
1994

Location:
1006 Congress Austin, TX 78701

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