lemons.lemons.lemons...: Clarksville! (we used to be black, but now we're just gay for Satan)

Clarksville

As many of you know, Boyfriend and I recently moved to a new home in Clarksville. I thought I would write a nice post about my new neighborhood.

This is Clarksville…

These are Clarksville’s original residents...

(Okay so these aren't the exact slaves that lived on my street, but you get the idea...)

That’s right kids! My neighborhood used to be the plantation and slave quarters of Governor Elisha M Pease. (Yes, girly name. I know.) Interesting facts about Elisha.. (Manners and a respect for Texas Governors would say I should call him Governor Pease, but Elisha just rolls off the tongue and for some reason I have yet to spell Governor correct. Why are there two Rs???).. Anyway, Elisha was from Enfield, Massachusetts. Enfield Rd is the northern border of Clarksville. He was the fifth and the thirteenth governor of our great state. And he owned a large plantation in West Austin! After the Civil War and after Elisha’s slaves were emancipated he set aside a large area of land for his newly freed “employees” to live so they would keep working for him. In 1871 Charles Clark, a freeman, established the African American community of Clarksville. It was the first freeman’s town west of the Mississippi. You can still see Charles’ home on West 10th street. Wow! Austin is such a progressive city!

Yeah… not so much…

In the early 1900s the city of Austin decided that the Black residents of Clarksville had it too good.
“Look you guys, this is prime real-estate, and the white people are beginning to feel cramped downtown, and we’re going to have to start getting these streets ready for the hipster invasion in about 80 years… so… well… you’ve got to go. Like now.”
That was pretty much how the notice to the Black community started. It finished like this,
“YOU ARE FOREVER BANNED TO THE EASTSIDE!!! Oh, you don’t want to move? Well we’re just going to cut off your water, you will never get electricity, and I hope you like dirt roads…”
Most of the community moved, but a few stayed and used kerosene lamps and got their water from Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake) until the 1970s.

Guess who didn’t want to live in an old black neighborhood. White people! So in the 1950s the immigrants moved in. Anthony Colanetta opened Anthony’s Laundry. (Which is still there and has been a savor since the washer has been broken at my place. Thanks Anthony!) He also leased the place next door to Hylton Nau. I have already written about my love for Nau Pharmacy’s and their breakfast tacos, but the whole place is super awesome. Chocolate Malts and Shakes, funky toys, and the best candy counter in town! In 1979 Craig Weller and Mark Skyles open Clarksville Natural Grocery. As small grocery story which actually isn’t crazy overpriced. A year later they teamed up with John Macky and opened the first Whole Foods. Whole Food and its national offices are within walking distance of Clarksville and my new home.

(Inside Nau's Pharmacy)

(Whole Foods on 6th and Lamar)

The population is a little different now. Over priced student apartments line Enfield because of the very popular UT bus route that drives that road. Hippies still live in the small houses covered in ivy with beads hanging on the porch. Doctors, Lawyers, and their Mercedes driving wives tore down the other small homes to build large homes in all different types of architecture. Almost every home has a cat that lazily sleep on the fount step in the evening, and a dog they walk in the morning.

Clarksville was just recently voted One of the Great Neighborhoods in America because of the history and it’s people who want to keep it local. I agree. I love walking to Nau’s on a Sunday morning to sit in the diner and read the paper and magazines while listening to the local chatter. I can’t wait to take “future dog owned by myself and boyfriend” to the dog park across 10th street. We walk to Cheepos to buy used DVDs and video games. Our cactus friends are getting repotted and new soil this weekend with goods from Shedd Nursery. Boyfriend and I take a walk usually every night and here are some photos from our walk yesterday.