Historic Irene Hill-Thompson House, Landmark of Black History, Designated As Landmark
Preservation Austinis thrilled to announce that Austin City Council designated the Hill-Thompson House as a City of Austin Landmark at their May 28 meeting. The residence, located at 1906 Maple Avenue, was designed by pioneering Black architect John S. Chase, FAIA, for civic leader Irene Hill-Thompson, widow of Oscar Thompson, the first Black student to graduate from The University of Texas at Austin. The home is located in the Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross Historic District, Austin’s only historic district that exclusively honors Black heritage. Preservation Austin is honored to partner with homeowner Marilynn Poole Webb, niece of Irene Hill-Thompson, to prepare and bring forward this nomination.
“The designation of the Hill-Thompson House is Austin telling the truth about itself,” said Preservation Austin Board President Miriam Conner. “Built by the first licensed Black architect in Texas and rooted in a community long shut out of this city, this is not a footnote. This is Austin’s history. When only 16% of our landmarks reflect Black and Brown contributions, each designation is an act of correction. We preserve these places because erasure has consequences. For years, Marilynn Poole-Webb has fought to protect the Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross neighborhood, and that stewardship is rare and sacred. Preservation Austin is honored to stand beside her. This house asks Austin to confront itself. As James Baldwin reminds us, ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’”
Designating underrepresented heritage sites is one of Preservation Austin’s key advocacy priorities. Per 2021 data collected by Preservation Austin, only 47 of Austin’s 629 local landmarks honored Austin’s Black heritage. In working with property owners to designate underrepresented heritage sites, we aim to increase the presence of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, the LGBTQIA community, women, the disabled, and the working class in our city’s inventory of historic resources and better tell the full story of Austin’s diverse history.
About the Hill-Thompson House
The house at 1906 Maple Avenue is associated with several significant figures, including architect John S. Chase, FAIA, zoologist and geneticist Oscar Thompson, and civic leader Irene Hill-Thompson. John S. Chase was the first African American student to enroll at The University of Texas at Austin following desegregation, the first to graduate from UT’s School of Architecture, and the first licensed African American architect in Texas. When he was unable to find work at white architecture firms after graduation, Chase forged a practice for himself with residential and institutional commissions in Black East Austin that speak to his distinctive modernist vision, including the Teachers State Association of Texas Building (1952), David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church (1959), and the Della Phillips House (mid-1960s). Throughout his long and successful career as an architect and entrepreneur, Chase paved the way for future African American architects in Texas.
Like Chase, Oscar Thompson was among the first African American students to enroll at The University of Texas at Austin, and was the school’s first Black graduate in 1952. After Thompson’s passing in 1962, his wife, Irene Hill-Thompson, commissioned Chase to build her home in the Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross neighborhood. Hill-Thompson was a longstanding civic leader in East Austin, and the house served as a meeting place for political and community organizing. During Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 presidential campaign, Irene and her daughter, Ida Dawn, were selected as “Blue Birds,” a group of trusted community liaisons tasked with outreach and voter engagement efforts within Austin’s African American community. Irene hosted numerous political events at her Maple Avenue home for President Johnson, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, East Texas Black Republican operative Ernest Sterling, J.J. “Jake” Pickle, and Texas State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos.
Read the complete nomination prepared by Preservation Austin’s Advocacy Committee here.
Preservation Austin produced a documentary, Rogers-Washington-Holy Cross: Black Heritage, Living History, that documents the history of the neighborhood and their advocacy. Watch on YouTube here.
Marilynn Poole Webb (bottom center-left) with Preservation Austin, City staff, family, and neighbors at City Hall on May 28 (Photo: Preservation Austin)
Irene-Hill Thompson at her home, 2016 (Photo: Dustin Safranek, Austin American-Statesman)
Hill-Thompson House, 1906 Maple Ave, 2024 (Photo: Jenn-Rose Smith Photography)
John Chase on the day he enrolled as the first Black student at The University of Texas at Austin, 1950 (Photo: Austin American-Statesman)