Celebrating Community Heritage
Historic preservation typically focuses on safeguarding physical places. Community heritage also includes traditions, stories, gatherings, and performing arts that add meaning and a sense of belonging to places. Through legacy businesses, cultural districts, community archives, storytelling projects, and more, community heritage is recorded to share with future generations.
Your Austin Landmarks
Your Austin Landmarks celebrates the places that matter to people in Austin. This series of video shorts invites Austinites to share what they consider to be their local landmarks, whether they are formally designated as historic landmarks or not. Share a place that’s important to you!
- Holiday Inn at Town Lake: Opened in 1967, the Holiday Inn was one of the U.S.’s earliest circular-plan hotels. Hear Tisha Vonique speak about this landmark from her childhood during family trips to Austin from Dallas.
- Oakwood Cemetery: Dennis Jacob Berry speaks about his connection to Oakwood Cemetery as the resting place of his ancestor, the Reverend Jacob Fontaine — a pastor, educator, civic leader, and founder of six Black Baptist churches and Austin’s first Black newspaper The Gold Dollar.
- East Austin Legacy Home: Austin resident Ami Galvan shares memories and stories about her family home in East Austin, where her grandparents have lived for over 60 years.
- CoCo’s Café: CoCo’s is a legacy business that brought bubble tea to Austin in 2000. Hear from owner Joyce Yang about how CoCo’s started and its role in the community.
- Fannie Davis Gazebo: Architectural historian Lori Martin shares why the Fannie Davis Gazebo is an important representation of women’s history in Austin.
Translating Community History
The Translating Community History project asked community members in two East Austin neighborhoods about important places and stories.
- Watch short videos featuring College Heights and South East Austin residents.
- Download heritage books that knit together the past and present through archival research, present-day resident portraits, and personal stories:
- See a map with locations and photos of posters featuring community portraits.
- Read applications to list Huston-Tillotson University and Parque Zaragoza in the National Register of Historic Places.
We Saved You a Place
We Saved You a Place: Conversations about Preserving Austin's Past for Our Future explores how preservation intersects with other community priorities — sustainability, affordability, and more — and highlights the people working to preserve Austin’s places and culture. The talk show is produced in collaboration with ATXN.
- Episode 1: Preservation's Role in a Changing City features a conversation between guests Council Member and former Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, Historic Landmark Commission Vice-Chair Roxanne Evans, and Preservation Austin President Miriam Conner, facilitated by Historic Preservation Office Division Manager Kim McKnight.
- Episode 2: Why Cemeteries Matter delves into the importance of historic cemeteries with Sue Spears-Martin (Bethany Cemetery Association), Joaquin Rodriguez (San Jose Montopolis Cemetery Association), and Adelaide Roueche-Beard (Save Austin’s Cemeteries), facilitated by Alan Garcia (Texas Historical Commission Cemetery Preservation Program).
Interactive Maps and Exhibits
- Underrepresented Heritage - ATX
Underrepresented Heritage - ATX uses maps and narratives to highlight places associated with three communities whose stories have limited documentation: Indigenous peoples, LGBTQIA+ communities, and women. The project was developed by the Historic Preservation Office in partnership with Preservation Austin in spring 2024.
- Oakwood Cemetery Story Map
The Oakwood Cemetery Story Map explores the history of Austin’s oldest municipal cemetery, established in 1839. The story map delves into Oakwood’s rich history through archival photos, historic maps, and burial records. The map was created by Austin Parks and Recreation.
- Historic and Cultural Resource Inventory
The Historic and Cultural Resource Inventory documents nearly 500 sites, buildings, structures, and objects in Austin parks. The map was created by Austin Parks and Recreation, the City department founded in 1928 to steward these essential public resources.