State preservation case may halt plans for new athletic facility on UT campus

Plans to bulldoze the historic Steve Hicks School of Social Work building on the University of Texas campus may soon be derailed, with an alumni-led campaign to secure landmark protections winning over the state’s Antiquities Advisory Board last month.

Next, the case will advance to the Texas Historical Commission, where a favorable vote could trigger a lengthy state review process for the project, which was initially slated to begin in June. While the state-owned property is outside the jurisdiction of Austin’s own Historic Landmark Commission, commissioners voiced their unanimous support for its preservation this past Monday.

The 91-year-old building was originally home to University Junior High School, a mutually beneficial arrangement between Austin’s Depression-struck school district and the newly petroleum-rich university, which envisioned the site as a laboratory for future generations of educators. After shuttering in the late 1960s, the former school assumed a number of roles before housing the university’s School of Social Work, which has remained there since 1994.

Now, the building’s proximity to the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Center has caught the eye of the university’s football program, whose leaders hope to see the site converted into an additional practice facility. Currently, players must practice either at Royal Memorial Stadium or make the 10-minute trek to Denius Fields on Red River Street, a lose-lose scenario that Athletic Director Chris Conte says wastes time and kills long-sought prospects of reintroducing real grass to the stadium.

But critics, led by UT alumnus and District 7 City Council candidate Edwin Bautista, say the move would rob the campus of a landmark to one of its brightest historical achievements. In 1957, nearly a decade before passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, University Junior High School became the first public school in Austin enrolling nonwhite students.

“The value of the Spanish Renaissance Architecture of this 1933 structure … is clear even to the untrained eye,” reads a letter penned by Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission to UT and the Texas Historical Commission. “But perhaps its greatest value is as a symbol of the social progress forged through great effort in this city in the 1960s, as one of the first schools to desegregate. This having taken place on University land at the center of the City of Austin is a history worth honoring.”

The case will advance to the Texas Historical Commission sometime in the coming months. Even if the former University Junior High School is awarded landmark status, demolition is not entirely off the table. Still, Austin’s Historic Landmark commissioners hope the additional red tape and public pressure could be enough for the university to reverse course.

“While the University has long been hesitant to formally designate its properties under the various designation systems available, the System has long been a good steward of its historic properties,” reads their letter. “Surely the developments on the east side of campus offer other options for consideration to support the University’s football program, in an area already used for similar purposes.”

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.

Posted In: Preservation, District 9