Category Archives: Community
Welcome!
For more than two decades, we—Susan and Rob Burneson—have gathered, shared, and preserved stories of neighbors creating community through our project Voices of the Violet Crown. VVC grew out of community and history exhibits we created as we coordinated the Community Tent during the early years of the Violet Crown Festival. The first festival was held May 17, 2003, in Brentwood Park. THE LATEST Good Neighbors Remembered, 2025—Sylvia “Scooter” Rushing Blooming Where We’re Planted, 2024—New … Read more
WABAC Machine, Part 7
Copyright 2020 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. (What’s a WABAC Machine? Find out here.) 2020 • A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER Below is a snapshot of 2020 in the Brentwood/Crestview area of Austin. Treasured neighbors passed away and are fondly remembered; a few of them are mentioned below. By March, everyone’s lives were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, with hope on the horizon by the end of … Read more
Crestview Minimax IGA—63 Years of Local Service
Copyright 2016 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. On February 29, 2016, a new grocery store, Arlan’s, opened in the space that was the longtime home of Crestview Minimax IGA. Minimax (and Crestview Food Mart before it) was owned by the Prellop family—beginning with Herb Prellop, right—and part of Crestview Shopping Center for 63 years. It was the last Minimax IGA store in Austin. In 2014, Minimax … Read more
Neighbors-in-History, Part 3
Updated September 25, 2023 Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. Final blog post in this series, in which we introduce a few special neighbors-in-history who have contributed to our sense of place here. (See links for more info.) KOENIG • McCULLOUGH By 1946, Dr. Joseph Samuel Koenig (1885-1951) and Clarence McCullough (1898-1992) developed Section 1 of Violet Crown Heights, between Payne and Ruth in the … Read more
Neighbors-in-History, Part 2
Updated February 21, 2025 Copyright 2012-2025 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Please talk with us before reproducing any website content. The second in a three-part series, in which we introduce a some neighbors-in-history. (See links for more information.) A number of African American families lived in our area in the 1800s and early 1900s. A 1928 city plan established a “Negro district” in East Austin, and many, but not all, African Americans moved there. Segregation … Read more
Neighbors-in-History, Part 1
Copyright 2012 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. As we researched the history of the Brentwood and Crestview area—in newspapers, abstracts of title, the census, various websites, oral history interviews, and many other sources—we discovered more special Austin neighbors who have contributed to our sense of place here. In the first in a three-part series, we introduce you to just a few of them. We provide links, … Read more