Texas’s Oldest Housing Co-Op Fights for 75 More Years
BY NATE ZAFFIRO
Whitehall yearbook photo, 1959
A unique aspect of the study of history is how easily we might walk right past it, as I did the first time I tried to visit Whitehall Cooperative. In Austin’s West Campus area — characterized today by towering apartment buildings, huge window panes, bright signs, and a boisterous population of 15,000 students — a medium-sized house tucked behind trees and a slightly overgrown yard was easy to miss, even with instructions from a resident. Now, after several years living at Whitehall myself, it has become for me, as for so many others before me, a beacon and a place of refuge in a fast and chaotic world.
Whitehall Cooperative was founded August 9, 1949, by a group of women from San Antonio seeking affordable housing in Austin while attending graduate school at The University of Texas. The 24 women of Whitehall originally resided at 2505 Whitis Avenue, in a former boarding house owned by UT, paying only $37 in monthly rent. This structure burned down in 1950 due to a kitchen fire, and the cooperative spent the next few years residing in dormitories on and off campus until their 1955 move into 2500 Nueces Street, where Whitehall has operated continuously to this day.
While Whitehall has weathered and often thrived amid the challenges of both communal living and nonprofit management, cascading economic effects of Austin’s rapid growth over the past two years have led to a sudden skyrocketing in our property’s market value and accompanying tax burden. This has put a great deal of pressure on our residents who fully own the house—largely students, service workers, artists, and people seeking sustainable, alternative ways of living—and has made the long term viability of Whitehall a front and center concern for our community.
Whitehall Cooperative at 2500 Nueces Street, 2024
The front facade of 2500 Nueces has remained mostly unchanged since its construction in 1896 by an unidentified architect commissioned by Sam Harlan. Son of the prolific Captain Samuel Harlan, who sailed the Brazos River by steamship, Sam Harlan was a local political figure who resided in the house with his wife, Sarah, and five children, including Annie Harlan, who welcomed the women of Whitehall and eventually sold the property to them.
Throughout its shifting use, the property’s residents largely maintained its original design, setting, and materials. In 1925, two bedrooms were added to the first floor and a second story with 11 bedrooms was built to accommodate students attending UT. In the 1970s, a group of architecture students demolished a bedroom wall and created a "glass bottle wall" made from five-gallon glass jugs, doubling as insulation. In 1981, a sundeck was added and the exterior kitchen — originally a freestanding building to prevent the potential spread of fire — was incorporated into the house. Artistic stained glass transoms, added over the front door and kitchen exterior door, were made in the 1980s by a Whitehaller. Maintenance was often performed by co-op residents — a crucial cost-saving measure in cooperative living.
In 1956, the university began racial integration for undergraduate students. Whitehall, along with many other cooperatives, and supported by the Inter-Cooperative Council (ICC), voted to integrate in 1956. However, this request was denied by UT, which wouldn’t allow integration of its approved housing facilities until 1965. Despite the university’s rejection of their vote to integrate, Whitehall was the first cooperative, along with the Powell House, to pass a resolution not to discriminate on the basis of race or religion. Later, in 1971, Whitehall decided to allow non-students and male residents, becoming a co-ed house.
Residents celebrating the 65th anniversary of Whitehall Cooperative, 2014
While our rent has increased substantially from the $37 per month paid in the 1950s by residents of the Whitis house, affordable and accessible low-income housing remains the priority of the house as an institution by and for Austinites. While some co-ops in West Campus, such as 21st Street Cooperative and the “Nueces Super Co-op” have been specifically constructed as high-density student housing, we took a diverging path, remaining a tight community 15-strong. Today, the house is operated communally, with residents taking on leadership roles such as Maintenance Coordinator and Kitchen Manager. Pooling our resources, we sidestep the unnecessary costs incurred by profit-motivated landlordism and demonstrate possibilities for providing much-needed affordable housing that lie outside the “housing for profit” model. Resident stakeholders and financial transparency ensure that maintenance of both core utilities and the house as a piece of history are at the forefront. Every dollar Whitehallers pay in dues directly benefits them, their home, and their community.
West Campus housing developers have been intent to purchase 2500 Nueces over the past decade, likely planning to demolish and replace it with another nine-story glass and steel behemoth. These offers have been promptly and emphatically rejected, as we do not view our house as a commodity to be bought and sold. Our steadfastness, unfortunately, has not been heeded by speculators and assessors, who have placed our house’s market value above $2 million—resulting in property taxes that seriously threaten Whitehall’s ability to remain affordable for our renter-owners. Thanks to the exceptional efforts of our current Treasurer Alessio Franko, we have applied for historical status with the City of Austin and are positioning ourselves to meet the formal qualifications for a low income housing tax exemption. These affordances would underscore Whitehall’s 75-year project: an accessible, affordable home for intentionally-minded residents; not a price tag on a tax plat. We are optimistic about the future of Whitehall and could not be more grateful for organizations like Preservation Austin for their support. It is safe to say that our prospects for the future would be much darker were it not for those working to preserve what has made our city a destination for people of all walks of life for so long.
Special thanks to Jessica Jackson-Stakem and Sonya Sehgal for contributing to this article through their historical research on our beloved house and home.