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Our neighborhood history series continues . . .
(What’s a WABAC Machine? Find out here.)

2006 • November 9: Brentwood Elementary held its tenth annual Veterans Day celebration, at which students wearing America-themed hats created a living version of the 1812 American flag. Photos of it were featured in the Austin American-Statesman. (More info about neighborhood veterans here.)

2007 • April 21: The groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new North Village Library on Steck Avenue; previously it was located in the Crestview neighborhood at Burnet and Anderson. • May 31: Responsible Growth for Northcross received a Liveable City Vision Award. RG4N also was recognized by the Austin Chronicle as the “Feistiest Neighborhood Rebellion.” • November: Sustainable Neighborhoods of North Central Austin was established to support sustainable and neighborhood-friendly development in the area. • In 2007, the population center of Austin was Northcross Mall at Anderson Lane and Burnet Road.

2008 • The mosaic Wall of Welcome (left), 7100 Woodrow Avenue, Austin, was completed March 25 and dedicated March 29 in a community-wide celebration. A Violet Crown Arts Festival was held nearby that fall at the Crestview Shopping Center.

2009 • The Crestview neighborhood successfully met the City of Austin Green Neighbor Challenge to become a Certified Green Neighborhood. You can read our history of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco, included in the Challenge documentation, beginning here. • Friends of Brentwood Park, Brentwood and Crestview neighbors dedicated to keeping the park maintained and to continuing its development as a community resource, was organized. • Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms, a neighborhood-based, community-run, urban agriculture network, was established in Crestview.

2010 • February 25: The Violet Crown TAG (Together Against Graffiti) Team formed a Yahoo group, to share information and help eliminate graffiti from our neighborhood • September 12: Faith Lutheran Church celebrated its 60th anniversary. • October 31: The first Trail of Frights, a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood event for local Halloween fans and trick-or-treaters, was held in the Brentwood/Crestview area. • October 3: Sustainable Neighborhoods of North Central Austin held its first of 11 tree plantings; by November 2014, volunteers planted and have maintained 170 trees. November 6: Friends of Brentwood Park planted 115 trees in the park, one of the group’s ongoing projects. (View our film about the event here.)

2011 • July 5: Voices of the Violet Crown website launched.

2012 • January: Food is Free Project, a community building and gardening movement, was established in Brentwood. • May 4: The new Brentwood Park pavilion, a project of Friends of Brentwood Park, was completed. It was dedicated on May 5 at the Violet Crown Festival. • October 28, 29, and 31: The latest neighborhood sightings of Domino the Pig.

2013 • January 5: The Voices of the Violet Crown community/history project formally ended; the website remains online, and history exhibits still are available for community events. • May 4: The tenth spring Violet Crown Festival was held in Brentwood Park. (There was no spring festival in 2008, because the Wall of Welcome dedication was held March 29 of that year.) • July: The new Friends of Brentwood Park walking trail was completed. • October 28: The 1951 McKown-James House at 1501 Richcreek Road was not approved for historic zoning by the City of Austin Historic Landmark Commission, making way for demolition by its new owner. • November: Congratulations to Crestview United Methodist Church on its 60th anniversary! The VVC neighborhood history was displayed at the church in November and December as part of the celebration. • Crestview Baptist, Crestview Minimax IGA, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, and McCallum High School also celebrated 60th anniversaries in 2013.

2014 • April: Brentwood and Crestview neighbors contributed photos, maps, and history to the City of Austin Community Character in a Box. • September 24: Margie Daugherty visited 1405 Justin Lane and confirmed it was the original farmhouse of her grandparents, Frank and Julia Richcreek. Their farm began to be developed as Crestview in 1947, when the house was moved from its original location northwest of Justin and North Lamar. It had been built in the 1930s. • December 21: Family, friends, and neighbors attended a memorial service at the Brentwood Park pavilion for Billie and Sidney Shelton, who died tragically in their Brentwood home on December 15.

2015 • July 9: Crestview Methodist Church held a special healing service for individuals, the community, and the earth—part of an ongoing series.

2016 • January 27: Friends of Brentwood Park, established in 2009, added info about the park’s memorial trees and benches to its website. • February 29: Arlan’s Market opened in the space that housed Crestview Minimax IGA for 63 years in Crestview Shopping Center. Since then, Arlan’s has continued Minimax’s longtime tradition of supporting community events. March 5: Spring It’s My Park Day, an Austin Parks Foundation citywide event coordinated in our neighborhood by Friends of Brentwood Park. March 6: Celebration for Crestview Minimax IGA and Prellop Family, Crestview Shopping Center. March 20: Spring Mingle and Egg Hunt, Brentwood Park, coordinated by the Crestview Neighborhood Association. April 3: The TLC program “Who Do You Think You Are?” revealed the connection between actress Aisha Tyler, who is black, and her third-great-grandfather John Hancock, an Austin lawyer, district judge, and state legislator who once owned land that became Brentwood, Crestview, Allandale, and Rosedale, and was white. April 14: Crestview United Methodist Church held a healing service for individuals, community, and world, the latest in an ongoing series. April 30: Two firsts in 2016 for the Preservation Austin Historic Homes Tour—It featured Brentwood, Crestview, and Allandale homes and includes neighborhood history in its tour booklet. May 7: Violet Crown Festival, Brentwood Elementary, the 14th spring event since 2003 (13 festivals and the Wall of Welcome dedication, held March 2008, so no spring festival that year) coordinated by Violet Crown Community Works, a local nonprofit that helps build and sustain community in Brentwood and Crestview by supporting neighborhood enhancement projects. May 15: Welcome Party for Top Drawer in Crestview Shopping Center, the thrift store’s second location. Proceeds of the two stores benefit Project Transitions, also in the center. June 18: Grand Opening, Dia’s Market, 812 Justin Lane. Later in the year, it held several community events, including a holiday craft workshop for kids on November 26 and market holiday festival on December 10. June 19: The McCallum High School Band played New York’s Carnegie Hall, its sixth appearance there. July 10: Longtime annual Crestview Neighborhood Association Ice Cream Social, Crestview Shopping Center. Arlan’s Market provided ice cream and supplies, many other local businesses donated gift cards, and Voices of the Violet Crown displayed a neighborhood history. August 26: Crestview Neighborhood Association added local history to its website. Brentwood Neighborhood Association also adds a local history page. • Austin History Center received a donation of Brentwood, Crestview, and other Central Austin community and history files. September 5: Labor Day Parade and Watermelon in the Shade, Brentwood Park, coordinated by the Brentwood Neighborhood Association. September 26: Roger Beck, longtime Austin musician and barber at Crestview Barber Shop, died. October 4: National Night Out, an annual tradition for more than three decades, was held in dozens of Brentwood and Crestview yards and homes. October 16: Oktoberfest, Crestview Shopping Center, coordinated by Arlan’s Market, Brentwood and Crestview neighborhood associations, and Violet Crown Community Works. November 5: Fall It’s My Park Day, an Austin Parks Foundation citywide event coordinated in our neighborhood by Friends of Brentwood Park. Longtime FOBP supporters Joanna Raye Fried and Joel Fried (of Eldorado Cafe) and Genuine Joe Coffeehouse and newcomer Dia’s Market donated food and drinks. • Fire Station 16 Workday and Mural Painting, Reese Lane, enhanced a project begun there in 2010. December 3-4: Violet Crown Arts Festival, Brentwood Elementary—the last fall VC arts festival, at least for now. December 21-25: Luminarias on Arroyo Seco—a 23-year tradition—began 12/21 with a Holiday Mingle in Crestview and continued in Brentwood 12/22-25.

2017 • February 28: Crestview Pharmacy, owned by the Harper family and in the same shopping center location for more than 50 years, closed. According to the former owners, a new business, Violet Crown Clubhouse, was planned for the space. April 30: Feeling grateful to our longtime good neighbor Billie Herron for planting and caring for a majestic magnolia tree that provided beauty and shade to our Crestview street for more than 60 years. On this quiet Sunday morning, after several days of high winds, without warning the tree was uprooted and fell, narrowly missing a house, car, and neighbor working under it. In true Crestview-neighborhood style, people gathered to trim and clear limbs and brush, visit with Billie and give her a hug, clip and share remaining flowers (including the one at left), and be sure the tree was stabilized. The bulk of it rested on two massive elbow-like limbs until it could be cut down and cleared away later that day and the next. July 21: Craig Ray Cherico, 59, step-grandson of original Crestview developer Ray Yates, passed away. Craig lived in the Yates home on the southeast corner of Woodrow and Yates for many years. He was a good neighbor and well loved by family, friends, and co-workers. September 30: James (Jim) Bauer, husband of Frances (Mickey) Bauer, passed away. Jim and Mickey are among the people we interviewed for our Voices of the Violet Crown project. Except for a few months, they have lived in our area for more than 60 years; Mickey moved here with her family originally in 1936, to a farm facing today’s Burnet Lane. Jim and Mickey are among the original members of St. Louis Catholic Church. November 4: Friends of Brentwood Park held another successful It’s My Park Day, as part of a citywide service project to maintain and enhance Austin parks. FOBP, formed in Summer 2009, participated in its first park workday in December 2009. December 22: Tommy Cockrell retired after almost 55 years as a barber at Cockrell’s Barber Shop in the Violet Crown Shopping Center on the northwest corner of North Lamar and Brentwood St. (We hear he’s cutting hair in Georgetown these days, as of June 2018.) December 27: David Glenn Cooke Jr., 93, passed away. We interviewed his wife, Louise Cooke, for our Voices of the Violet Crown oral history project. They were charter members of Crestview United Methodist Church. Their son Robert William Cooke died in 2014, and their granddaughter Rachel Cooke disappeared near Georgetown, Texas, in 2002 and has never been found.

2018 • February: Kristin Mitchener, great-granddaughter of Gladstone and Erna Swenson and granddaughter of Kay Swenson Ramsey, shared with Voices of the Violet Crown memories of these original Brentwood neighbors. We feature her stories here (toward the bottom of the page). March 22: The Austin Genealogical Society reprinted the VVC blog feature “Just What Is a Violet Crown?” in its Spring 2018 quarterly. May 28: Original Crestview neighbor Emory Emil Wilhelm Muehlbrad, 92, died. He was a longtime member of Faith Lutheran Church in Brentwood, a World War II veteran, father of four, and foster father to hundreds more. You can read more about him on our website here and here (under Faith Lutheran) and view videos featuring him and his wife Wanda here, here, and here. We interviewed Emory and Wanda on February 8, 2008; a DVD copy of their videotaped interview is at the Austin History Center. Emory and Wanda also appear in our film A Community Mosaic. June 12: Another original Crestview neighbor, Eva Mae Waggoner (known to neighbors as Mae), 92, died. She and her husband helped plant and care for the original sycamore trees in Brentwood Park beginning in the early 1950s. Well into her 80s, she visited the park and the Violet Crown Festival when it was held there beginning in 2003. You can read more about her on our website here; her obituary is here. Neighbor Nancy Schuler interviewed Mae in 2005. July 29: Brentwood neighborhood restaurant Frisco Shop closed. It first opened in 1953 at 5819 Burnet Road, south of Koenig, then on the northern edge of town, and moved in 2008 to its final location at 6801 Burnet Road, formerly a Curra’s Grill. In April 1959, founder Harry Akins became the first white restaurateur in Austin to serve blacks in his restaurants; Harry also served as Austin mayor from 1967 to 1969. Frisco was the last of four original Night Hawk chain of restaurants in Austin, the first of which opened in 1932 at Riverside and Congress. At one time, there also were two in San Antonio and one in Houston. The July 20, 2018, Austin American-Statesman featured an article by Michael Barnes about the Frisco. Another article, by Virginia B. Wood, appeared in the Austin Chronicle in 2001. August: The Brentwood Neighborhood Association featured an article about Emory Muehlbrad and Mae Waggoner, “In Memoriam,” in its August 2018 issue. November 15: After a request by Preservation Austin, Voices of the Violet Crown researched the source of the name “Ryan” in Ryan Avenue and Ryan Planting Strip, near the southeast edge of the Crestview neighborhood in Austin. What we found—the park and the street likely were named for George L. Ryan, who worked in the A. B. Beddow real estate agency at least from 1947 to 1949. A. B. Beddow and Ray Yates began developing Crestview, from Justin Lane north to Anderson Lane, in 1947. There also are streets in Crestview named for Beddow’s wife (Justin Lane), Ray Yates (Yates Avenue), and the Richcreek family (Richcreek Road), whose farm became Crestview. The Ryan Planting Strip, at less than a quarter of an acre, is one of Austin’s tiniest parks. It is owned by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department.

2019 • The First Cumberland Presbyterian Church property, at 6800 Woodrow Avenue, was offered for sale. It was established in Brentwood in 1956. • March 21: Howard Darwin Pringle, an original homebuilder throughout our area and a World War II veteran, died. He built his brick home at 1501 Princeton Avenue in Crestview in 1955 and lived there the rest of his life. One friend remembered him this way: “He will be missed by the coffee group every morning at Dart Bowl Cafe and myself Carl Kowalczyk an old friend at coffee. He was a very well liked individual.” • March 24: At Crestview United Methodist Church, 1300 Morrow, a proposal to become a Legacy Church passed with 75% of the vote, paving the way for a new beginning for the longtime church community, established in Crestview in 1953. • March 29 • Voices of the Violet Crown became a Bronze Sponsor of the Violet Crown Festival, held Saturday, May 4 in Brentwood Park. Proceeds of this year’s event benefit the Brentwood Playground Project. April • Brentwood neighbor James Gavin created a film about the history and importance of our neighborhood’s canopy of trees, which he describes as “the roots of the community.” • June/July/August: In recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Friends of Brentwood Park, Voices of the Violet Crown compiled A Green History of Brentwood & Crestview. It was posted to the VVC website in June, donated as a booklet to the Austin History Center for its collections and for its “Know Your District History” community event in July, and published in excerpted form in the Brentwood Neighborhood Association newsletter in August. • November 4: Dave Shulder, longtime IBM employee and Friends of Brentwood Park volunteer, died. • December 10: Steve Boemer, longtime Crestview neighbor and son of gardener Al Boemer, died. Both are remembered for their warmth, energy, and dedication by their many family members and friends.

Next time: WABAC Machine, Part 7: 2020—A Year Like No Other, on Voices of the Violet Crown