When Austin was chosen as the capital of Texas , it was n’t call Austin at all — it was a low village forebode Waterloo until its name was changed to respect Stephen F. Austin , the colonist known as the “ Father of Texas , ” in 1839 . Many of its neighborhoods also have colorful histories . Here ’s how seven of them got their names .
1. ZILKER
you may thank Andrew Jackson Zilker , a bootstrapping Texas politician and philanthropist , for the name of this south central Austin neighborhood . Zilker was the Methedrine king of Austin , pass water his luck with the parky stuff before beginning to buy up state around the area . In 1917 , he sell a 350 - acre tract of land to the metropolis of Austin andgave the proceedsto the Austin public schooling . Now the park — and the region that adjoins it — is named in his purity .
2. JUDGES HILL
Now a residential neighborhood in the heart of Austin , Judges Hill has been associated with the judiciary since before the metropolis had its current name — and before Texas was part of the United States . One other occupant wasThomas Jefferson Chambers , an American plunger and lawyer who bought much of his state in shady wad , then became a established Mexican citizen with the intention of practice law — the only foreigner to be granted a jurisprudence license . He was later on named chief justice of the newly form Texas Supreme Court , but never presided over a case . Nevertheless , for his service he was break country in the Austin area . After the appropriation of Texas , Elijah Sterling Clark Robertson — also a evaluator — bought property there , and other judge and attorneys followed . Voila : Judges Hill .
3. BREMOND BLOCK
Speaking of straight-laced - era luxury , the Bremond Block Historic District provides a rare glimpse of what Austin calculate like back in the day . The neighbourhood was nominate after the Bremond crime syndicate , merchants and bankers who constructed or qualify fancy houses therebeginning in the 1870s . Today , the Bremonds are known mainly for the blocking they make — a attraction for wealthy Austinites and family members that ’s now on the National Register of Historic Places .
4. CLARKSVILLE
Unlike the Bremond Block , Clarksville was not experience for its wealth . The land was granted and sold to the former slaves of Texas ’s own governor , Elisha M. Pease , in 1865.Charles Clark , a freed slave , also purchase some of the land that ’s now Clarksville from another former Confederate police officer , Nathan G. Shelley , and it became one of the four freedman ’s Town in Austin . Most of the region ’s little , wood - framed house are now gone , and asKristie Cantou of Hatch + Ulland Owen Architects drop a line , “ most African - American residents have been driven out of the neighbourhood by decades of body politic meditation , gentrification , expression of Mopac [ the Missouri Pacific Railroad ] and rise prop taxes . ”
5. JOLLYVILLE
You might cogitate thing are somewhat jovial in Jollyville , but stop right there : The north Austin neck of the woods commence its name from a person , not a state of mind . Jollyville was named afterJohn G. Jolly , a blacksmith who lived in the once - tiny townsfolk that is now a neighborhood in Second Earl of Guilford Austin .
6. MOORE’S CROSSING
Like many Austin vicinity , this historic district owes its name to one of the area ’s many creeks . The airport area start its name from a human identify John B. Moore ’s shop that , you guessed it , was near a brook intersection . In this case the creek was Onion Creek , which also lend its name to a ritzy country club vicinity to the south of downtown . Onion Creek , it ’s safe to assume , got its name from onions , though it’simpossibleto get over the name ’s origin .
7. SWEDE HILL
When it comes to obvious names , Brassica napus napobrassica or Swedish Hill may have Onion Creek pulsation . It was settled by Swedish people in the 1870s . At the fourth dimension , there were more Swedish mass in Texasthan in any other Southern state , perhaps because Swedish immigrant were n’t restrain by the harsh , arid climate . Many Texas Swedes hailedfrom the exact same county in Sweden , and in Austin the residential area flocked to a place they call in Svenska Kullen , or Swedish Hill . There are other reminders of Sweden in Austin , like the Govalle neighborhood , which is named after a cattle ranch that immigrant Swen Magnus Swenson named “ Ga Valla , ” or “ good pastures . ”
