Reimagining Austin’s French Legation
BY ELLEN CONE BUSCH
In honor of the recent re-opening of the French Legation Historic Site following its restoration and pandemic closure, we are re-publishing this article from our Spring 2020 newsletter written by Ellen Cone Busch, Texas Historical Commission Director of Historic Sites Operations, on the THC’s vision for the future of Austin’s oldest remaining home.
People generally recognize the importance of historic places in our lives, landscapes, and collective heritage. But as we seek to preserve them, we should be mindful that the stories they represent are not static or unchanging, but reflect as much of the present as they do the past. In the retelling of history our own concerns and values invariably color how the past is remembered and how the present is understood. Ultimately, it can impact the continued preservation of the places where these stories live. In working to restore and plan for the reopening of the French Legation State Historic Site, we have closely examined its place in history and how to convey the stories it represents in a way that is compelling enough to ensure it remains a place of value to the whole community, both today and tomorrow.
The site’s significance had never been forgotten, as its last resident, Miss Lillie Robertson, offered tours of her lifelong home as “the Old French Embassy” in the first decades of the 20th century. France was the first to recognize the sovereignty of the young Republic of Texas and sent fledging diplomat Alphonse Dubois as the King’s chargé d’affairs to see what agreements and common objectives could be established between the two nations. Dubois began construction on the Legation in 1840 as he lobbied the Republic’s Congress to pass the Franco-Texian Bill, and hastily completed the house in 1841 after departing Austin in the wake of personal conflicts and the bill’s failure. He sold the property to Father Jean Marie Odin, who worked to reestablish the Catholic church in the new Republic. Odin brought such notable guests as Sam Houston and Henri Castro to the site, and their efforts continued to bridge cultures as they built communities in Texas.
The French Legation Museum, 2021
After annexation to the United States, physician and former Texas Ranger Joseph W. Robertson acquired the property and moved his family to the site, making it their home for nearly a century. He and his son George expanded the original 21.5 acres with the purchase of various undeveloped parcels, or “outlots,” near the property line, which stretched from present-day I-35 to San Marcos Street and from 7th to 11th streets. Following the death of the elder Robertson in 1870, the family began selling off parcels of the land to business associates, freedmen, and recent immigrants from Mexico and Europe.
What had solely been the family seat grew into the Pleasant Hill/Robertson Hill neighborhood of East Austin, a diverse and thriving community. Even after the 1928 Koch and Fowler city plan designated the neighborhood part of East Austin’s “negro district,” the community continued to welcome Latinx, Lebanese and Southern European residents. Still today, the neighborhood is changing and reflects a mosaic of cultures. History is, after all, the story of change over time. At the French Legation, we are choosing to embrace change as a means to do what the site was built for: bring people together, find common ground, and build community.
The main bedroom of the main house at the French Legation State Historic Site. Image courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission.
The work underway by the Texas Historical Commission very much reflects a continuation and renewal of this vision. While stabilizing and preserving the French Legation and documenting its history has been of primary importance, the guide star for the project has been a focus on the visitor experience. Community feedback to the questions “what does this neighborhood / community need?” informed decisions made in every phase of the project. Surveys and discussions revealed a desire for more passive-use greenspace, intimate gathering places for individuals and small organizations, space for emerging visual and performing artists to be seen, and preservation and acknowledgement of the neighborhood’s history. When asked what the French Legation meant to them, neighbors spoke of a general sense of history as it related to their memories of the area, a calm oasis amid tremendous change, and a place to learn more about the past and see themselves as a part of this history’s continuum.
In response, we have included project components to improve the site’s accessibility and improved visitor amenities like restrooms and indoor seating. Entrances and pathways have been improved to ensure ADA compliant access from both the San Marcos and Embassy Drive gates, and a new ramp on the west side of the Legation building not only improves the north façade but allows all visitors to enter through the front door. Understanding how important the grounds are to our neighbors, admission to the Legation’s grounds will be free of charge, and stories of the past will be told on interpretive panels both inside and outside of the stone wall surrounding the site.
The visitor’s center at the French Legation Historic Site. Image courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission.
This visitor-centered focus will extend to the historic French Legation building as well. Though the preservation work undertaken has restored original 1841 features, period room displays will make way for changing exhibits and small programs. Historic furnishings will be featured in rotating exhibits instead of permanent, static installations as we make space for a more diverse and inclusive array of stories from the Republic of Texas to the present day. While original features such as window openings, casements, stone hearths, and chimneys have been carefully researched and restored, accommodations have been made for modern use. The restored canvas wall finish was painted to match the original color scheme with modern oil-based paint rather than the less durable, but historic, water-based calcimine paint. Doors accessing the hallway from rear rooms, which were added by the Robertsons, have not been removed as they provide necessary emergency egress. Swatches of surviving wall papers will be preserved behind Plexiglas windows to illustrate the decorative changes over time, with contemporary lighting illuminating a new era of activity in the Legation’s rooms.
The project’s preservation focus has been to enhance the French Legation’s original Republic Era features as the building speaks to what Austin was at that time: a frontier capital city with great expectations. However, the interpretive and programmatic focus of the site’s reimagining is about how those expectations have been realized in present-day Austin. It is about the diversity of the neighborhood, celebrating the achievements of the whole community, and remembering even the difficult stories that can inform efforts to make a better future. We aim to tell history backward – beginning with the present day lives of our community and following the stories back to the Republic Era and beyond to the breezy hilltop overlooking the Colorado River valued by indigenous peoples.
It is a story about change; about development and redevelopment. It is about reaching across the siloes of culture that can divide us to build community by bridging communities, as was the original intent of the Legation: a place where we can find common ground and see ourselves in a shared heritage. Collaborative programming and rotating exhibits will welcome our community to be active participants in the storytelling that happens here and to value this place as they continue to forge its history.
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR PRESERVATION AUSTIN’S SPRING 2022 NEWSLETTER. READ OUR FULL NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE HERE.