Wooldridge Park

Wooldridge Park
The gazebo in Wooldridge Park is a popular spot for outdoor concerts and weddings among other engagements.
Location Austin, Texas
United States
Coordinates 30°16′20″N 97°44′43″W / 30.27222°N 97.74528°W / 30.27222; -97.74528Coordinates: 30°16′20″N 97°44′43″W / 30.27222°N 97.74528°W / 30.27222; -97.74528
Area 1.8 acres (0.73 ha)
Built June 18, 1909 (1909-06-18)
Architect Page & Page
Architectural style Classical Revival
NRHP reference # 79003018[1]
Added to NRHP 1 August 1979

Wooldridge Park, also known as Wooldridge Square, is an urban park in downtown Austin, Texas. The park consists of a city block containing a natural basin whose sides slope inward to form an amphitheater with a bandstand at its center. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[2]

History

Wooldridge Park is one of four original public squares designated in downtown Austin in the 1839 master plan for the city drawn up by Edwin Waller, but it lay vacant for seventy years. In an era of civic pride in 1909, however, Austin Mayor A. P. Wooldridge sponsored the cleaning of the square and the construction of a classical revival-style gazebo for public engagements, which officially opened the same year.[3] The park was dedicated on June 18, 1909 to considerable aplomb with dedicatory address being made by the Mayor.

Wooldridge Park is unique as the only public square in Austin to have retained its original function since its establishment more than one hundred thirty years ago. When the first city plans were drawn in 1840, four such squares were included. The other three underwent various uses over time, hosting parking lots, a fire station, a church, a museum, and businesses. Wooldridge Park alone has remained an essential element of Austin's outdoor social, musical, and political life.[4]

The view of the Texas State Capitol from Wooldridge Park is one of the Capitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings since 1983.[5]

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Wooldridge Park". Austin Parks Foundations. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Wooldridge Park". Texas Historical Commission. 1971.
  4. ↑ "TEXAS - Travis County Historic Districts". National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Downtown Development and Capitol View Corridors" (PDF). Downtown Austin Commission. June 27, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
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