Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, Texas)

City Cemetery
The entrance to the cemetery off Comal Street
Location16th & Navasota
Austin, Texas, US
Coordinates30°16′36″N 97°43′35″W / 30.27667°N 97.72639°W / 30.27667; -97.72639
MPSEast Austin MRA
NRHP reference No.85002297[1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 17, 1985

Oakwood Cemetery, originally called City Cemetery, is the oldest city-owned cemetery in Austin, Texas. Situated on a hill just east of I-35 that overlooks downtown Austin, just north of the Swedish Hill Historic District and south of Disch-Falk Field, the once-isolated site is now in the center of the city.

History

The cemetery was established in 1839. Its oldest currently-standing monument commemorates two victims of a Comanche attack who perished in 1842.

The cemetery was renamed Oakwood in 1907 per city ordinance. It spreads over 40 acres (160,000 m2), including an annex across Comal Street to the east established in 1914, and includes sections historically dedicated to the city's black, Latino, and Jewish populations. Paupers were historically buried in unmarked graves on the cemetery's south side. Graves without permanent markers were subject to reburial after a given period.

In 1914, the Oakwood Cemetery Mortuary Chapel was built on a design by Texas architect Charles Henry Page as a site for memorial services. The chapel was later renovated and remodeled in 1944 under the direction of local architect J. Roy White.[2]

The cemetery became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1972 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; its annex was added on October 30, 2003. The view of the Texas State Capitol from Comal Street in the center of the cemetery became one of the Capitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings in 1983.[3] Despite its protected status, the cemetery had been subject to crime, vandalism, and decay for decades until significant restoration efforts began in the mid 2010s.

Notable burials

References

  1. ^ "NRHP nomination form" (PDF). Texas Historical Commission (FTP). (To view documents see Help:FTP)
  2. ^ "City of Austin Cemeteries – Introducing the Master Plan Process" (PPT). City of Austin (FTP). Retrieved July 19, 2017. (To view documents see Help:FTP)
  3. ^ "Downtown Development and Capitol View Corridors" (PDF). Downtown Austin Commission. June 27, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
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