On Sunday, June 22, the Austin History Center Association (AHCA) held its 46th Annual Meeting in the Austin Central Library. Adam Powell, the association’s executive director, made opening remarks and gave an overview of the center’s Impact Report with excellent visual displays, including high-quality drone videos of the 1933 Building at 9th and Guadalupe and the Faulk Center immediately to the south, which will soon open as the Austin History Center’s new home. He mentioned that anyone wanting to see the presentation online should visit https://austinhistory.org/
Jennifer Chenoweth, Division Manager for the Austin History Center, presented updates about special gifts it has received and spoke about what the reopening in the Faulk Building will bring. Alicia Perez-Hodge, AHCA vice president, and Charles Peveto, AHCA president, also made remarks.
Two Austinites who have made important contributions to preserving Austin’s history and telling its story were given recognition during the program.
Ted Eubanks, owner of Fermata and an interpretive planner, writer, and photographer, received the Katherine Drake Hart Preservation Award, presented by Martha Hartzog, AHCA co-founder, for his extensive efforts to provide interpretive messaging in Austin public spaces.
Recently, Eubanks finished an interpretive master plan for the Neill-Cochran House Museum about the last remaining intact slave quarters in the city. He also created Our Austin Story, which focuses on the heritage of Austin’s four historic squares (Brush, Republic, Wooldridge, and Hamilton) and Congress Avenue. This interpretive plan documents the stories of the people and places that shaped these important civic spaces and offers an important framework for celebrating Austin’s diverse heritage. Eubanks researched and developed this Interpretive Master Plan (IMP) for the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) in cooperation with the Parks and Recreation Department of Austin (PARD). The Our Austin Story interpretive plan led to the installation of the first interpretive panels (designed by Fermata as well) dealing with Mexican American and African American histories in Republic Square.
Eubanks has also created and installed interpretive panels in Woodridge Square Park and has researched the history of Mount Calvary Cemetery, the oldest Catholic cemetery in Austin. He has worked on many other projects of this nature and has received numerous awards for his efforts.
Robert Godwin received recognition from the Austin History Center Association for his long career of covering Austin's history -- both with his camera and his writing. The Austin History Center will benefit greatly from his body of work accumulated over 44 years. Robert is donating a massive number of documents to the Center including 20,000 black and white and color prints, 44 years' worth of negatives and digital images, 20+ years of work calendars, 12+ membership directories, 1000+ columns from the West Austin News – in all, 100+ pounds of newspapers, magazines, programs, and invitations. This material will serve as an encyclopedic research resource for generations to come.
