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We just released a new film on YouTube! Watch ‘Austin’s Oldest Neighborhood’ here!
Clarksville
We titled the film ‘Austin’s Oldest Neighborhood’ knowing Clarksville is likely not that. It’s a catchy, clickable title that will increase the likelihood of viewers – hopefully (but probably not).
Clarksville is, however, one of Austin’s most historically significant neighborhoods. In 1871, Charls Clark, a freedman, purchased the 365-acre tract of land from Texas Governor Elisha Peace, and created what is today the longest surviving freedman’s town west of the Mississippi River.
The neighborhood has been commandeered three times: first by the city in 1928, cutting off basic city services in an attempt to force and concentrate the black community in east Austin.
Most of Clarksville’s residents endured the lack of running water and absence of schools, refusing to leave the coveted neighborhood.
In 1968 Clarksville’s community attempted but failed to prevent a state and local plan to build a highway along the western boundary of the neighborhood, which would run parallel with the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
The Mopac Expressway divided Clarksville, reducing the original size of the neighborhood and forcing 33 families to leave.
Despite this, and future attempts to force the community to segregated east Austin, Clarksville and its inhabitants remained resilient. The residents began requesting Austin city funds for the improvement and preservation in 1964 to pave dirt roads, improve drainage on a creek that carried sewage and flooded homes, and obtain Historic Place status.
In 1975 the Texas Historical Commission designated a two-block-wide strip of Clarksville as a historic district, and the city paved the streets. In 1976 the Austin City Council approved the use of 100k from a federal housing and community-development grant to pave streets permanently, improve drainage, and expand the neighborhood playground.
The third commandeering of Clarksville is far less consequential: today, most of the area west of downtown, prior to Tarrytown and east of Lady Bird Lake, considers itself Clarksville.
And by this definition, Clarksville is perhaps one of the most quintessentially quant and endearingly odd neighborhoods in the country (admittedly a stronger title for the film).
Clarksville is affable and ironically charming, as if someone forgot to call ‘cut’ on a Robert Altman film.
I’ve seen Lyle Lovett at the dry cleaners, Terry Malick at the coffee shop, and the same cast of enigmatic, yet lovable, neighbors on a seemingly daily basis.
This note isn’t a history lesson and neither is the film. It’s a reflection of a neighborhood I’ve lived in since 2017, knowing very well that in the eyes of my neighbors I represent a similar enigmaticism, and hopefully equally as loveable.
Both are a reminder that we all take from others to create something of our own. I took what Geroge Nelson created in 1970 with his documentary, ‘Clarksville’, to create something that personified the neighborhood I love, while honoring the history it rests on.
And you may take what I created to challenge and potentially change your perspective on the neighborhoods we call home, for the ones that came before us fought to make it as great as it is today.
Thank you for letting me sit with you.
– mills
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