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2023 • A FEW HIGHLIGHTS
JANUARY 7 • Former Brentwood neighbor Kay Nell Swenson Ramsey, below, died. Kay’s parents, Gladstone and Erna Swenson, built one of the first houses on Ruth Avenue in the late 1940s. Sixty years later, Kay contributed family photos and stories to our neighborhood’s mosaic wall and oral history projects. My remembrance of Kay appears here, under “2023.” Thanks to Diane Larson for including it in the October 2023 issue of the Brentwood Neighborhood Association newsletter.
JANUARY 27 • New update to Voices of the Violet Crown: Domino & The Little Red Hen.
MARCH 4 • It’s My Park Day, held in Brentwood Park, thanks to Friends of Brentwood Park volunteers, and in other Austin greenspaces.
MAY 17 • Twentieth anniversary of the first Violet Crown Festival, held in Brentwood Park. The festival and nonprofit Violet Crown Community Works were created to support neighborhood enhancement projects and events in Brentwood and Crestview, beginning with the mosaic Wall of Welcome, completed in 2008. VCCW continues with a microgrant program (apply here), Oktoberfest, and other projects.
MAY 23 • A new donation of project papers and digitized images from Voices of the Violet Crown was added to the Susan and Rob Burneson Recordings and Papers at the Austin History Center. Friends of Brentwood Park also made a new donation to that group’s collection.
JUNE 17 • Crestview neighbor Kathey Ann Ferland died. Among her many contributions, she was a volunteer with the local Friends of Brentwood Park. View her moving memorial service here.
JUNE 18 • Dia’s Market, on Justin Lane near North Lamar, celebrated its seventh anniversary. Dia’s is on land that once was part of the original Frank Richcreek farm and near where his farmhouse once stood. In 1947, the Richcreek property, from Justin up to Anderson Lane, began to be developed as the Crestview neighborhood.
JULY 11 • The Austin Monitor reported that the City of Austin was starting over with redeveloping the property on the northwest corner of North Lamar and Justin Lane, after years of effort by the city, developers, and the neighborhood-based Ryan Drive Working Group. For updates, the group can be reached on Facebook.
JULY 15 • A mission group from Violet Crown City Church arrived in Guatemala to assist with medical, dental, and construction projects. Other church activities through the year included a back-to-school event in August, a fall festival in October, and other events at the Big Chair, including a visit by Santa in December.
AUGUST • A history of Voices of the Violet Crown, written by Susan Burneson, was published in the Sound Historian, journal of the Texas Oral History Association.
SEPTEMBER 19 • New updates to Voices of the Violet Crown: Remembrances of Kathey Ann Ferland and Kay Nell Swenson Ramsey (scroll down to 2023).
SEPTEMBER 25 • New updates to Voices of the Violet Crown: Just What Is a Violet Crown? and Koenig, McCandless, and McCullough families.
OCTOBER 1 • New updates to Voices of the Violet Crown: Hancock and Wicks families and St. Paul Baptist Church and Cemetery.
OCTOBER 11 • KUT Radio’s ATXplained Live was held at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin. It included a segment on Austin’s moniker, “City of the Violet Crown.” The earliest known mention of it in print was in the January 31, 1888, Austin Daily Statesman newspaper, right. Read Just What Is a Violet Crown? to learn more about violet crowns—in Brentwood, Crestview, and beyond. Selected segments of ATXplained Live also appear on the KUT website.
OCTOBER 18 • New update to Voices of the Violet Crown: A Green History of Brentwood & Crestview (see May and September).
OCTOBER 20 • MassMutual Foundation’s “Stronger Communities Are Built Together” was filmed in a home and yard on Dartmouth Avenue in Crestview and other Austin locations. The nearby Crestview Baptist Church provided extra space for the film crew and its trucks and other equipment.
OCTOBER 21 • Oktoberfest, held in Brentwood Park, raised funds for the microgrant program of Violet Crown Community Works • Roots & Wings Festival, featuring the Austin Bike Zoo. was held at the North Village Branch of the Austin Public Library, 2505 Steck Avenue.
OCTOBER 28 • Faith Lutheran Church, 6600 Woodrow Avenue in Brentwood, held its fall festival.
NOVEMBER 4 • It’s My Park Day in Brentwood Park and other Austin greenspaces, the second held in 2023. Next one planned for March 2, 2024.
NOVEMBER 12 • Seventh anniversary of Brentwood Social House, southwest corner of Koenig and Arroyo Seco in Brentwood.
NOVEMBER 16-18 • Nineteenth Annual Women and Fair Trade Festival, held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover Avenue in Brentwood.
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR • Design work continued on a Burnet Road public art project being created by artists Michael Mendoza, Jeff Grauzer, and Courtney Bee Peterson, as part of the city’s Art on the Corridor. Community advisors include Allandale, Brentwood, and Crestview neighbors. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
EARLIER IN THE ‘HOOD
5 YEARS AGO • The Frisco Shop on Burnet Road closed in July 2018. It was the last of the Night Hawk chain of restaurants. Founder Harry Akin was one of the first Austin restaurateurs to hire minorities and women, in the 1930s, and to desegregate his restaurants and serve black customers before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it mandatory.
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YEARS AGO • 2013 • The Brentwood Park trail, a project of the Friends of Brentwood Park, was completed. It was coordinated by Emily Wilson, who co-founded FOBP in 2009 with Hedrich Michaelsen.
15 YEARS AGO • The mosaic Wall of Welcome, left, was completed and dedicated at Crestview Shopping Center along Woodrow Avenue in March 2008. The wall was envisioned and created by artist and Brentwood neighbor Jean Graham. The dedication event included the first public showing of the film A Community Mosaic at BriteLites Acting Studio in the shopping center.
30 YEARS AGO • Lucretia and Jonathan Doyer opened a food trailer at Crestview Shopping Center in 1993. Within a few years they opened Little Deli on the southeast corner of the center. Now owned by Tony Villani, it’s still going strong today. (Little Deli mosaic, below, on the Wall of Welcome created by Rob Burneson.)
50 YEARS AGO • The Chief Drive-in was torn down in 1973 to make way for the Commerce Park development, on the southeast corner of North Lamar and Koenig Lane. The Chief was one of four drive-ins in our area.
65 YEARS AGO • In 1958, Crestview neighbor Bill Williamson created the eight-foot-wide metal star, below, that still graces the top of the Capitol Rotunda.
70 YEARS AGO • Services were held for the first time in January 1953 at the new St. Louis King of France Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Road. Also that year, the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection was established near Burnet Road and Justin Lane. Both still are actively involved in the community.
90 YEARS AGO • 1933 • Kenneth Threadgill opened a gas station and beer joint at today’s 6416 North Lamar. Later owned by Eddie Wilson, former owner of the Armadillo World Headquarters, Threadgill’s closed in 2020. While new development continues on much of the property, the Austin Historic Landmark Commission decided in 2022 that the original Threadgill’s building will be restored and not demolished. The former home of Threadgill and his wife, Mildred, at 4310 Rosedale also is on its way to being designated historic.
130 YEARS AGO • 1893 • Esperanza School, a rural county school before Brentwood and Crestview were established, moved to Burnet Road a few blocks north of Koenig Lane. It closed in 1941.
135 YEARS AGO • First known mention of Austin as the City of the Violet Crown appeared in the January 1888 Austin Daily Statesman newspaper. (See October 11, 2023, above.) Brentwood and Crestview are home to many businesses and groups with “violet crown” in their names. (See “Just What Is a Violet Crown,” updated in September 2023.)