Preservation Austin Awards $21,000 in Summer 2023 Grant Cycle
Preservation Austin is proud to announce our June 2023 grant awardees! This summer’s grantees care deeply for places and stories in Austin and these projects, all rooted in local communities, demonstrate the incredible preservation efforts happening all across our city. We are so pleased to be able to provide the following five worthy projects with $4,200 each this grant cycle: 1907 Chestnut Avenue, Roberts Clinic, Chateau Bellevue, the Stolle-Sweatt House, and Jump: Swim-ins at Barton Springs, a documentary film project.
Preservation Austin’s grants program fuels essential projects across three categories: education, bricks and mortar, and planning/survey/historic designation. By providing funding to important projects citywide, we aim to financially support our fellow Austinites as they preserve our shared past. Click the link below to learn more about our Grants Program.
1907 Chestnut Avenue | $4,200 Brick & Mortar Grant
Photo: Preservation Austin
This contributing resource to the Rogers Washington Holy Cross Historic District in East Austin was once the residence of the current homeowner’s grandmother. Today the owner is devoted to honoring her late grandmother’s home, which fell into disrepair after she passed away.
Using a brick and mortar grant from Preservation Austin, she is working to restore the house to its exceptional beauty, and carry on her grandmother’s legacy. She states, “this project is close to my heart because many hard-working African Americans worked tirelessly to maintain beautiful dwellings for their families. I know these families, am fully aware of the neighborhood's past, and as a descendant, I must pay it forward.” Funding from Preservation Austin will go towards foundation repair, siding replacement, and additional interior and exterior restoration work.
Roberts Clinic, 1174 San Bernard Street | $4,200 Brick & Mortar Grant
Photo: Preservation Austin
The preservation-minded owners of the Roberts Clinic are receiving their second grant from Preservation Austin, this time for structural restoration, HVAC repair, and attic decontamination. After successfully completing the scope of an architectural planning grant and commissioning a master plan for restoration work, the building’s stewards will receive a brick and mortar grant for the continued preservation of this important City of Austin Landmark.
Roberts Clinic is an excellent local example of the small proprietary medical clinics built by Black physicians during the period of segregated medical practices in the United States. Dr. Edward L. Roberts, founder of the clinic, opened the medical facility in 1937 and administered treatment, performed minor surgeries, and offered labor and delivery services for Austin’s Black community until his death in 1967. The only remaining example of this property type extant in Austin, Roberts Clinic is seen by many longtime East Austin residents as a symbol of the Black community’s history and resilience during times of transformative change.
Chateau Bellevue, 708 San Antonio Street | $4,200 Brick & Mortar Grant
Photo: Preservation Austin
The North-Evans Chateau Bellevue, built in 1874 and today the home of the Austin Woman’s Club, is one of our city’s oldest residential buildings and has served as a venue and meeting space for local organizations for decades. A brick and mortar grant from Preservation Austin will fund the much-needed restoration of a beautiful set of French doors located on the building’s third floor.
These doors are severely deteriorated and exterior paint is worn and peeling, so this restoration project is a small, but necessary step in preserving the building’s historic fabric. Grant support will contribute significantly to both the project’s completion and the building’s further protection from the Texas climate, allowing the Austin Woman’s Club to further its mission to preserve the historical and architectural heritage of the Chateau.
Stolle-Sweatt House, 1209 E. 12th Street | $4,200 Brick & Mortar Grant
Photo: Preservation Austin
This Folk Victorian-style home has a powerful legacy that embodies the diverse histories that have shaped East Austin. The Stolle-Sweatt house, named for the home’s builders and its most famous resident, respectively, was constructed over 134 years ago by a German-American family of bakers and grocers.
Decades later, after the 1928 City Plan segregated people of color to East Austin, Mary Ella Brown Lewis, a Black woman, purchased the house and supplemented her income by taking in boarders. One of these boarders was civil rights activist Heman Marion Sweatt who lived in the home while attending and desegregating the Law School at the University of Texas from 1950 to 1952. Sweatt’s fight for equal educational opportunities challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine of racial segregation, leading to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Grant funding from Preservation Austin will support painting, siding repairs, and window screen replacements at this essential Austin landmark.
Jump: Swim-ins at Barton Springs | $4,200 Education Grant
Civil Rights Activist Joan Means Khabele. Film still from interview by Karen Kocher.
This animated documentary film, created by award-winning media producer Karen Kocher, will track the essential role of youth activism in the desegregation of Barton Springs. Pairing interviews with original animations, Jump will tell the story of students in the 1960s who banded together to fight the racist policies that prohibited the Black community from buying tickets to Barton Springs Pool.
“Swim-ins” led by Black high school and university students were ultimately successful and these efforts ultimately led to the desegregation of all Austin Parks and Recreation facilities. After the film is completed it will air on Austin PBS, be incorporated into AISD high school sociology courses, and become part of a permanent exhibit at the Beverly S. Sheffield Center at Barton Springs.