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Feb. 5th, 2005 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabWoot! I saw a notice in the paper last Thurs about a session at the Austin History Center about researching one's old house and how to apply for city, county, state, and national landmark status. So S and I went, last Saturday afternoon (and ran into ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_curmudgn there). We had a great time, and afterward stayed in the history center till they gently shoved us out at closing time, starting in on the research we meant to do 8 years ago. Found a picture of the house during a snowstorm in the 1920's - Austin had a LOT of snow in the 20's, probably more in the period 1923-1930 than in all the years since added together. Found some flood records about when Riverside Dr. was under water in 1929 - a tough decade!! And more about the first owners of the house. The guy who owned it was a postal clerk in 1920, and rose to Assistant Superintendent of Mails by 1927, the last listing for him at that address!! All around, a fun afternoon. Now that we're leaving, we're doing all the stuff we should have done years ago...
We probably qualify easily for city landmark status - one of the possible criteria is "unique location or physical characteristic that represents and established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood or city..." Well, I would say that having a house where EVERY time we tell people where we live, they squeal "I know that house!!" qualifies. And for significant owners, the asst. supt. of mails probably qualifies, and he was followed by the family that owned WL Parsley One Day Service Cleaning, Pressing and Hatters. That was followed by James Baggett, who owned J. O. Baggett Realty. It was vacant for a couple years during the depression, then in 1935 owned and occupied by the owner of a dry goods and grocery store. Who was then followed, in 1937, by the long-time manager of the Texan Hotel, which was in the Norwood Building downtown. They lived there through 1945, it looks like ( during the war, directories didn't come out every year, so we'll have to see the deeds to get exact dates.) Looks like after that, by 1947, it was rent property; by 1952 had been divided into two rent units. That covers everything more than 50 years ago, pretty much. Looks like there's enough significant business owners to count as significant occupants. Nothing of state or national historical significance, however. That's OK; it's the city landmark stuff that qualifies for a tax break. Which, if we had done this research 8 years ago, we could have been enjoying the break for these years, instead of paying our ridiculous taxes (this year's were $7408). Oh well. Laziness tax.
the_curmudgn there). We had a great time, and afterward stayed in the history center till they gently shoved us out at closing time, starting in on the research we meant to do 8 years ago. Found a picture of the house during a snowstorm in the 1920's - Austin had a LOT of snow in the 20's, probably more in the period 1923-1930 than in all the years since added together. Found some flood records about when Riverside Dr. was under water in 1929 - a tough decade!! And more about the first owners of the house. The guy who owned it was a postal clerk in 1920, and rose to Assistant Superintendent of Mails by 1927, the last listing for him at that address!! All around, a fun afternoon. Now that we're leaving, we're doing all the stuff we should have done years ago... We probably qualify easily for city landmark status - one of the possible criteria is "unique location or physical characteristic that represents and established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood or city..." Well, I would say that having a house where EVERY time we tell people where we live, they squeal "I know that house!!" qualifies. And for significant owners, the asst. supt. of mails probably qualifies, and he was followed by the family that owned WL Parsley One Day Service Cleaning, Pressing and Hatters. That was followed by James Baggett, who owned J. O. Baggett Realty. It was vacant for a couple years during the depression, then in 1935 owned and occupied by the owner of a dry goods and grocery store. Who was then followed, in 1937, by the long-time manager of the Texan Hotel, which was in the Norwood Building downtown. They lived there through 1945, it looks like ( during the war, directories didn't come out every year, so we'll have to see the deeds to get exact dates.) Looks like after that, by 1947, it was rent property; by 1952 had been divided into two rent units. That covers everything more than 50 years ago, pretty much. Looks like there's enough significant business owners to count as significant occupants. Nothing of state or national historical significance, however. That's OK; it's the city landmark stuff that qualifies for a tax break. Which, if we had done this research 8 years ago, we could have been enjoying the break for these years, instead of paying our ridiculous taxes (this year's were $7408). Oh well. Laziness tax.
