The cemetery, located at 1300-1308 Springdale Road, is the oldest known Black cemetery in Austin and one of the city’s most significant sites of Black heritage. Preservation Austin is honored to partner with Bethany Cemetery Association President Sue Spears-Martin to prepare and bring forward this nomination. 

Austin City Council unanimously voted to designate the Goins-Versea-Nitschke House (907 E 13 St) as a City of Austin Landmark and protect the building from demolition by owner Eureka Holdings. The 140+ year-old building is one of the oldest houses in the Swede Hill area, and is a landmark of East Austin’s working-class German and African American history.

Sue Spears-Martin is a native Austinite and veteran community organizer. Sue has been involved with Bethany Cemetery, the city’s first cemetery exclusively for African Americans, since the 1990s. Since then she has been dedicated to safeguarding the site’s rich heritage through preservation and community engagement.

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.

Preservation Austin and Architexas established the JuanRaymon Rubio Preservation Fellowship to champion underrepresented heritage, empower underrepresented voices in preservation, and invest in future leaders. Learn more about our inaugural fellow, Aseel Al-Khdairat.

Preservation Austin is thrilled to announce that Austin City Council voted to designate the Calhoun House as a City of Austin Landmark. The residence was once the home of pioneering Black educators and civic leaders, Thelma and T.C. Calhoun.

Preservation Austin is thrilled to announce that Austin City Council voted to designate the Whitehall Cooperative Building as a City of Austin Landmark at their October 9 meeting. The cooperative residence, located on Nueces Street in West Campus, is a rare landmark of women’s history and one of Texas’s oldest housing co-ops.

Read a primer from our Indigenous Heritage intern on the relationship between historic preservation and indigenous heritage, reflecting on the evolution of preservation and how long Indigenous heritage has been overlooked by the field.