The1928 Austin city plan (also known as the1928 Austin master plan) was commissioned in 1927 by theCity Council ofAustin, Texas. It was developed by consulting firm Koch & Fowler, which presented the final proposal early the next year. The major recommendations of thiscity plan related to Austin's street plan, itszoning code, and the development of major industries and civic features, but it is most remembered for institutionalizinghousing segregation by designating East Austin as the city'snegro district.
The city ofAustin, Texas, was established in 1839 to become aplanned capital for theRepublic of Texas.[1]Texas PresidentMirabeau B. Lamar appointed his friendEdwin Waller to oversee thesurveying of the new city and to develop acity plan for its layout.[2] Waller and fellow surveyors laid out agrid plan fourteencity blocks wide, with a central four-blocktown square meant for theTexas Capitol. This "Waller Plan" determined the shape of what is nowdowntown Austin, and it was not until the 1870s that Austin expanded significantly beyond the bounds of the 1839 city plan.[1]
By the early 1900s, Austin had developed a number of suburbs surrounding the original downtown street grid, and growth began to strain the city's transportation infrastructure, especially at the crossings of theColorado River,Shoal Creek, andWaller Creek. Citizens and businesses increasingly pressed city leaders topave the dirt roads and otherwise improve the road network. Also, theCity Beautiful movement inspired general interest in beautifying public spaces, as well as making them more functional. In 1926City Council created a commission charged with the development of a new master city plan aimed at all these ends. The next year, the commission hired the Dallas consulting firm Koch & Fowler to develop a comprehensive plan for Austin's urban development.[3]: 8–11
From theCivil War to the early 1900s, most of Austin's African American population lived in a number offreedmen communities distributed across the city, such asClarksville andWheatville.[4]: 13 White city leaders were interested in moving black residents out of the central city and concentrating them into a racialghetto on less valuable land,[5] in part to reduce the cost of providing "separate but equal"racially segregated public amenities throughout the city.[6] In 1917 theU.S. Supreme Court ruled inBuchanan v. Warley that the enforcement of racialhousing segregation throughlocal ordinances was unconstitutional,[7] but the city continued to search for a way to establishde facto housing segregation in Austin that could satisfy this new legal standard, and this was to be one of the goals of the new city plan.[5]
Koch & Fowler submitted their finished proposal to City Council in January 1928, in a document titled "A City Plan for Austin, Texas". The 80-page report included a large section on the development of the city's street plan, another on the design and placement ofmunicipal parks and otherurban green spaces, and a number of shorter sections on other public amenities such aspublic schools,cemeteries,fire stations, and a proposedcivic center. Other sections discuss the development of the city'srailroad andstreetcar networks, the desirability of a municipalairport, the establishment of a new municipalzoning code and rules forland subdivision, and the city's integration into the development of the surrounding region.[8]
The "Street plan" section noted that the Waller Plan's street grid continued to serve the central city well, but that the shortage of paved roads combined with the impact of obstructions such as the Capitol and theUniversity of Texas campus forced excessive traffic onto a handful of streets.[8]: 4–5 Detailed recommendations for the expansion and improvement of particular streets filled most of the section. In particular, it proposed the construction of four new bridges to connect central Austin with its suburbs, three of which were eventually built as theWest Fifth Street Bridge, theLamar Boulevard Bridge, and theInterstate 35 Bridge. The report emphasized the potential aesthetic value of bridges and other new constructions, urging that they be given ornamental designs.[3]: 11–12
The "Parks and boulevards" section argued for the importance of public green spaces to the physical and emotional health of citizens, recommending locations for new or improved park facilities throughout the city.[8]: 20–21 It noted the good condition of the three surviving park squares from the Waller Plan (Republic Square,Wooldridge Park Square, andBrush Square) and their value to the city as "beauty spots and breathing spaces".[8]: 25–26 The plan recommended the preservation ofgreenbelts along Shoal Creek and Waller Creek and the banks of the Colorado River, as well as other wooded areas within the city.[8]: 27–30
One section of the plan called for the development of a new civic center district on the north shore of the Colorado, to include a new municipalauditorium and event center, and a new central library downtown.[8]: 42 Another section called for the creation of a municipal airport, suggesting that it be built in southeast Austin on what is now the neighborhood ofTravis Heights.[8]: 38–39
One of the city plan's recommendations, detailed mainly in the "Schools" section, is the establishment of a "negro district" on the southeast fringe of the city, east of East Avenue (now Interstate 35) and south of theCity Cemetery,[6] which the plan identified as the neighborhood with the highest preexisting concentration of black residents.[8]: 57 After noting that explicitly racial zoning was not legally feasible (thanks toBuchanan v. Warley), the document advises that the city concentrate all public amenities aimed at black citizens in this region, so as to draw the black population to it.[5]
In response to the plan, City Council adopted a resolution defining newcity limits and establishing Austin's first zoning code.[6] Later in 1928, Austin voters approved amunicipal bond package providing $4.5 million (equivalent to $82,000,000 in 2024) in funds to implement many of the city plan's recommendations. These bonds paid for the construction of newboulevards, bridges,culverts, public schools, playgrounds, and city parks around Austin, as well as a new central library (now theAustin History Center) and an expansion ofBrackenridge Hospital.[3]: 12 They also funded the establishment ofRobert Mueller Municipal Airport, opened in 1930 on the northeast edge of the city.[9] The civic auditorium the plan called for was not built at the time, but thirty years later the city built thePalmer Auditorium across the river from the site the plan recommended; it has since been redeveloped into theLong Center for the Performing Arts.[10]
Though the vast majority of its contents dealt with the sorts of city planning issues that still confront Austin today (transportation, utilities, parks, schools),[6] the 1928 master plan is mainly remembered today for its role in establishing East Avenue/Interstate 35 as the dividing line between the majority-white central city and the majority-black district of East Austin.[11] The "pull" incentives recommended in the city plan were complemented by "push" incentives when the city avoided extending thesewer system or paved roads into the existing freedmen communities elsewhere in Austin, and real estate "redlining" also pushed African Americans east of the central city.[4]: 13–14 By 1932 almost all of the city's black residents had relocated to East Austin, and the other black communities across the city had largely disappeared.[5] This pattern of racial housing segregation persists in Austin to the present day, though its effects have been eroded by subsequent court rulings and legislation from theCivil Rights Era.[11]
The community ofWheatville, a historic Black community in Austin encompassed by modern dayWest Campus, saw its decline as a result of African Americans being pushed out of the community area. The city excluded Wheatville from essential amenities such as trash collection, electricity, paved streets, and water services. Despite being home to one of the city's trash dumps, residents did not receive regular trash collection, and city garbage wagons often dumped refuse along the streets. These discriminatory practices, combined with the influx of students and rising property prices, led many Black residents to leave Wheatville in search of better living conditions elsewhere, particularly in East Austin.[12]