Clarksville and Old West Austin

Soon after the abolition of slavery in 1865, freedman Charles Clark bought two acres near present-day 10th Street from a former Confederate general and Texas state senator/attorney general. This became the foundation of Clarksville—one of the first freedmen's communities west of the Mississippi and one of Austin's oldest neighborhoods. Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church became the heart and soul of this close-knit community where residents raised livestock and fished the Colorado River, and built lives of self-determination.

Old West Austin's historic tapestry extended beyond Clarksville. Italian-American families settled to the east along Lynn Street in the 1930s. Closer to the Colorado River and rail tracks (now Union Pacific), the foundry that became Tips Engine Works opened in 1899, evolving from cotton gin repairs to structural steel fabrication.

This vibrant neighborhood faced devastating blows that forever changed its demographic makeup. Austin's 1928 segregation plan displaced Black residents to the East side. Then MoPac's construction in the 1970s razed a third of Clarksville, including the home of longtime resident Pauline Stewart Brown.

Our 5.5-mile walk (official map here) begins at Veterans Park, follows a 1970s greenbelt just west of MoPac, then loops through Clarksville's surviving streets. We'll come across remnants of the area’s rich history: the 1950s Bennett family windmill marking a homestead that predated MoPac, Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church still active at 1725 W 11th, the Tips foundry site, and Maggie Mayes Street—renamed from Confederate Avenue in 2022 to honor the Black educator who founded Clarksville's first school.

Ours is a chatty and calorie-neutral group, so you can expect that some of us will seek out lunch at the end of the walk.

TRANSIT LOGISTICS:

• 10 AM start, on our Fall/Winter schedule
• Free public parking is reputedly abundant by MoPac on the south of the Colorado River.
• There's also parking on the north side of the river under the MoPac and closer to the start of our walk, but that's reportedly no longer free.
• Official walk map

Thank to walking group member Chris "McChris" for proposing this walk and identifying the historic sites along the way.