Location
Pemberton Heights is bordered on the south by the historic Old Enfield/Pease area and Bryker Woods on the North. Lamar Boulevard and the University of Texas lie to the east, and Mopac on the West. Old Enfield is enclosed by Lamar Boulevard to the east, Mopac to the west, Windsor Road to the north, and Enfield Road to the south.
About the Pemberton Heights neighborhood
Pemberton Heights is a beautiful, established neighborhood located in the Old West Austin National Register Historic District just minutes from downtown Austin, Texas. Majestic trees form canopies over its graceful, immaculate streets. The community’s 613 residences are a diverse mix of charming cottages, spacious dwellings and grand estates. The schools that serve the area are amongst the most exceptional in the city.
Pemberton Heights’ central location provides convenient access of less than two miles to the main campus of The University of Texas at Austin, Texas State Capitol complex, the downtown Central Business District and the city’s main medical center area. Whole Foods, Central Market and Trader Joe’s also are located within two miles of the neighborhood. For those who enjoy the outdoors, the neighborhood is adjacent to the Shoal Creek Trail, a half-mile from Pease Park, two miles from the Lady Bird Lake/Town Lake Trail and just a short drive from Zilker Park, the Barton Creek Greenbelt, Mount Bonnell and Emma Long Park.
Pemberton Heights’ community-centered residents enjoy regular neighborhood get-togethers, including happy hours several times a year, and annual events such as Easter egg hunts, picnics and carriage rides.
History of the neighborhood
The land that Pemberton Heights is situated upon was originally part of the George W. Spear League. After Spear’s death, the league was sold several times and eventually divided. What is known now as the Pease Mansion, or Woodlawn, was built by James B. Shaw in the 1850s on a section of the land. Shaw sold part of the large property north of where the mansion sits to Judge John Woods Harris in 1859, and eventually this portion was developed into Pemberton Heights by the Austin Development Company. When it was first built, the neighborhood was considered outside of the Austin city limits.
The building of two major bridges across Shoal Creek connected Pemberton Heights with what was then the center of the city and allowed for the development of the neighborhood as one of the first Austin automobile suburbs in the 1920s. The Windsor Road Bridge spanning the creek at Windsor/24th Street was built in 1928 and widened in 1939. It is considered one of the most beautiful bridges in Texas and is one of the city’s historic landmarks. The old bridge at 29th Street was replaced with a reinforced concrete structure in 1926, repaired in 1933, and then replaced again in 1938. A smaller, two-lane bridge located at the bottom of Gaston Avenue also offers passage across the creek.
Pemberton Heights sits upon a limestone shelf overlooking Shoal Creek, offering expansive views of downtown, the Capitol, and The University of Texas to the homes along the eastern edge of the community. The first house in the neighborhood was built in the late 1800s, but full-scale development of the area began in the 1920s. Construction began in 1927 on Wooldridge Drive, Harris Boulevard, Hardouin Avenue, Jarratt Avenue, Westover Road, Northwood Road, and Oakhurst Avenue. Claire Avenue was platted in 1935 and Wathen Avenue in 1936, followed by Preston Avenue, McCallum Drive, Ethridge Avenue, and Gaston Avenue in 1938. Pemberton Place was established in 1945. The main entrance to Pemberton Heights is at Harris Boulevard where it intersects Windsor Road.
Unique Pemberton Heights landscape and design elements include towering century-old heritage trees, landscaped traffic islands, small parks designated as official and unofficial play areas and street names identified on curbs by inlaid white and black ceramic tiles.
Pemberton Heights Attractions
Pease Park was part of the 365-acre Woodlawn Plantation owned by former Texas Governor & Mrs. E.M. Pease. Their 1853 house of the same name still sits a mere two blocks west of the park’s boundary today. Governor Pease and his wife acquired it in 1857 and raised crops for their family on this property.
Originally from Enfield, Connecticut, the twenty-three year old Pease moved to Texas in 1835. He was an attorney and soon became active in the Texas Independence movement. He held several offices in the new Republic of Texas government, including serving as Texas Comptroller. After Texas was annexed to the Union in 1845, he served in both the House and Senate of the Texas Legislature, representing Brazoria and Galveston counties. Pease went on to be elected Governor in 1853 and 1855. He is remembered both as a progressive, the father of Texas public education who laid the financial foundation for the state’s schools and colleges, and as a fiscal conservative who paid off the state’s debts.
Pease was a slave owner who strongly supported the Union cause during the American Civil War. He and his wife remained in Austin for the duration of the conflict and kept a low profile in civic affairs. After the war, he became a leader of the state Republican Party. Union General Philip H. Sheridan appointed Pease as the civilian Governor of Texas during Reconstruction in 1867. Pease tried to steer a middle course between the more radical policies of some Republicans and his unreconstructed ex-Confederate fellow Texans. This proved an impossible task given the heated temperament of the times and he resigned in 1869.
After leaving politics, he and his wife Lucadia looked to their legacy in their adopted state. Mrs. Pease had always enjoyed carriage rides along the banks of the Shoal Creek below their plantation house. She regarded it as the “prettiest part” of their property. The Pease family traveled back to the East frequently to visit relatives and were certainly aware of the development of Central Park in New York City and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, designed by fellow Connecticut-born Frederick Law Olmsted. Public parks were being developed in cities all across the country after the Civil War as part of the nascent “City Beautiful” movement and the Pease’s wanted their adopted home of Austin to keep up with the times.
On August 25, 1875, Governor & Mrs. Pease signed a deed to 23 acres of land along Shoal Creek to the citizens of Austin “for use as a public park.” However, improvements to the space were not immediately forthcoming. Governor Pease died in 1883 without seeing his dream of a developed park become a reality. Lucadia wrote a letter recounting that the family had opened a road through their pasture to the city but it has become a dumping ground for neighbors. She wrote “… dead horses, cows and pigs are brought and deposited there.”
Lucadia Pease lived on Woodlawn until 1905, long enough to see the park fully appreciated and used by Austin residents. She and her daughter Julia attended the annual Volunteer Fireman’s picnic in the park on San Jacinto Day, April 21, 1903. A.P. Wooldridge, who later became Austin’s mayor, gave a speech on the occasion extolling the Pease’s generous gift in the long-winded fashion typical of the time. His prepared remarks were reported in the Austin Statesman:
“How grateful should our people be the noble founder of the park. In giving this spot, Governor Pease thought alone of their contentment and pleasure and happiness. He loved Austin and her people and took great pride in her beauty and progress…He had great faith in Austin… [I]s it not a duty for the health and happiness of our people that we should provide ample and appropriate places for their recreation and leisure?” He summed up by calling on the City to “… forever maintain a large and beautiful park [at Pease] for the health and happiness of our people.”
In 1926, the Austin Kiwanis Club committed to beautifying Pease Park. Club member Frank Rundell, who lived on Wooldridge Drive for many years, served as general contractor for the project. According to the Austin Statesman, $4,500 was appropriated for a restroom, $1,000 for the memorial entrance gates, $1,200 for the wading pool, and $1,600 for a low water dam.
After its 1926 beautification, Pease Park thrived with parties, concerts, Easter Egg Hunts, and many other public and private functions.
Pemberton Castle, also known as the Fisher-Gideon House, is located at 1415 Wooldridge Drive. It originated as a water tower used for fighting fires and then for watering crops on surrounding farms. In 1925, construction began to convert it into a Gothic Revival castle.
From the historic landmark plaque at the property:
“Pemberton Castle began in the 1890s as a cylindrical water tower. It was converted into a small castle in the mid-1920s by Samuel (Budley) Fisher for use as the Pemberton Heights subdivision sales office. The castle was acquired in 1937 by Samuel Gideon and his wife Sadie Cavitt. Gideon, a respected professor of architecture at The University of Texas, added many distinctive features to the structure. The house is an asymmetrical gothic revival style structure with a rough stone face and prominent castellated parapets.”
Public schools in Pemberton Heights
Casis Elementary School is a highly rated elementary school with 569 students in grades PK-5 with a student teacher ration of 13 to 1. 76% of students are at least proficient in math with 82% proficient in reading.
O. Henry Middle School is a highly rated middle school with 924 students and a 16 to 1 student teacher ratio. 57% of students are proficient in math while 56% of students are proficient in reading. O. Henry Middle School is named for short story writer William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name of O. Henry. Located in central west Austin, the school offers strong academic programming and a focus on social and emotional learning as well as band, orchestra, athletics and pre-AP courses. O. Henry was named a 2012 Schools to Watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The school earned the recognition for challenging students to use their minds well, being sensitive to the unique developmental challenges of early adolescence and providing every student with high-quality teachers and resources.
Austin High School is a highly rated public school with 2,349 students and a 18 to 1 student teacher ratio. 46% of students are proficient in math while 74% of students are proficient in reading. Located in the heart of the city, Austin High School, is the oldest continuously operating public high school in Texas. Austin High’s long tradition of excellence aims to recreate the urban school experience and assure that all students gain the skills and experience to be successful after high school. By embracing our small learning community academy programming, diversity of our students and faculty, and Social Emotional Learning, we educate the whole child and espouse that “everybody is somebody” at Austin High
