PARD’s Historic Preservation and Tourism Program (HPT) leads the restoration, stewardship, interpretation and promotion of the irreplaceable historic and cultural resources of Austin’s park system allowing visitors and residents to discover and experience an authentic connection to the city’s diverse history.
The funding for many HPT projects is made possible through Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) funding to support projects and initiatives that meet allowable uses as defined under Chapter 351 of the Texas Tax Code. HOT revenue is an essential tool for the promotion of tourism and supports the growth of the tourism, convention and hotel industry. PARD is an important partner in this effort as public parks, museums and cultural centers are among the top tourist attractions in the City.
Visit this link to learn more about some of Austin's historic sites.
If you would like assistance with a historic site or cultural resource in a park, please fill out the HPT General Request for Assistance form.
- Historic Parks In The News
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May 09, 2022
June 29, 2020
June 25, 2020
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January 29, 2020
Historic and Cultural Resource Inventory
Central to the core mission of the PARD is to protect and preserve the park system, which requires the active management of the historic and cultural resources of the park system. The basis of our stewardship of PARD's historic assets is our inventory, which tracks almost 500 sites, buildings, structures, and objects. The inventory is a work in progress--as we acquire new park land, make discoveries in parks, and update the landmark status of our resources, we will continue to grow the inventory and provide the correlated data. The PARD geospatial historic and cultural resource inventory can be found here.
Help Rosewood Park Make History!
Austin Parks & Recreation’s Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism program is working with the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture to list Rosewood Park to the National Register of Historic Places. If you and/or your family ever spent time at Rosewood Park, we would love to hear your story!
Do you have old photos or videos you can share? With your permission, we can scan them and create digital files to share with you. Shoe boxes of loose photos, Scrapbooks, VHS, Beta, and film are all welcome.
Did you see a show at the Doris “Dorie” Miller Auditorium? Did you play baseball or football on the fields? Did you participate in a Civil Rights march at the park? Did you come to Juneteenth or Jump on It? We need to hear your voices in order record the real history of Rosewood Park!
Please contact Dr. Tara Dudley at taradudley@utexas.edu with any personal history, photographs, video, and/or ephemera you are willing to share about this historic park. Rosewood Park’s history is not complete without yours.
Historical Biographies of Austin Cemeteries 