Austin, TX

From the Statesman archives: How Mueller neighborhood streets got their Austin names

Published

8 months ago

March 30, 2025

From the Statesman archives: How Mueller neighborhood streets got their Austin names

Tooling through Mueller, have you ever wondered how the streets of this 21st-century neighborhood, such as Camacho, Taniguchi and Scarbrough, earned their names?

We offer partial historical answers in today’s column.

By way of background, a stroll through the American-Statesman archives reveals several strata of history about Austin street names.

1839: The original map of Austin, drawn by master surveyor L.J. Pilie, reveals three types of street names: 1) north-south streets named after Texas rivers, which is still the case; 2) east-west streets named after Texas trees (changed to numerals in 1886, but a change adopted slowly); 3) other names, including the grand-sounding Congress Avenue for the wide street that bisected the new capital of the Texas Republic, as well as names that represented different types of boundaries (East, West, Water).
1886: City leaders replaced the tree names with numbered streets on Sept. 21, 1886. Edwin Waller, charged with hacking the city out of the wilderness, had actually preferred numbers for east-west streets, as a July 11, 1839, letter to Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar proves. Some maps from the late 19th century and early 20th century show both numbers and tree names for the same streets.
Late 1800s-early 1900s: As Austin slipped outside of the downtown grid and the garden plots to the east, more streets were named after early Texas leaders and Austin residents (Lamar Boulevard, Barton Springs Road); or nearby towns already named after early Texans (Burnet Road, Cameron Road); local landmarks (Asylum Road, later renamed Guadalupe Street); or nearby communities (Dessau Road, Old Fredericksburg Road, later renamed South Lamar Boulevard).
Late 1900s: Three major trends: 1) New freeways named by federal, state or city transportation entities (at times confusing, such as the doubly dubbed MoPac, named for the parallel Missouri Pacific railroad, but also known as Texas Loop 1); 2) new suburban streets named by developers after faraway, fanciful or imaginary people and places, or conversely, actual local geography; and 3) throughways, some later expanded, named after local politicians (Ben White Boulevard) or highway officials (Ed Bluestein Boulevard).
2000: The new Mueller redevelopment provided a singular opportunity to name a lot of new streets under the scrutiny of a public-private project. The plateau east of Interstate 35 had already been associated with several key historical events — the scalping of settler Josiah Wilbarger in 1833, the purchase of land by twice-enslaved Newton Isaac Collins in 1872, and the opening of the city’s first civilian airport there in 1930. It was named after City Council Member Robert Mueller (pronounced Miller), who died in office in 1927.

Austinites revved up efforts to move Mueller Municipal Airport, located a few miles from downtown, in 1984. A leading candidate for a replacement was land near Manor, which helps explain some of the industrial, commercial, office and hotel space built on speculation during this period near Interstate 35 and U.S. 290. The city, however, chose the federal offer of Bergstrom Air Force Base in Del Valle. It became Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, which opened in 1999.

At that point, what to do with the hundreds of acres that had been the main footprint of the Mueller Airport?

The city of Austin entered into a partnership with Catellus Development Corp. to create a neighborhood based on ideas associated with “new urbanism.” Those ideas included urban-like density, walkable streets, sensitive landscaping and a mix of resident incomes. Also clustered around the former airport were movie studios, a children’s hospital, a children’s museum and Rathgeber Village, home to several social service groups.

Meanwhile, a committee was convened to choose Mueller street names from the names of significant Austin figures, some of them not well known, especially to newcomers.

Here are just a few of those street names (I’ll return to the subject in future “From the Archives” columns):

Zach Scott Street: The movie and stage actor Zachary Scott (1914-1965), son of a prominent Austin family that included Dr. Zachary Scott (1880-1964), is perhaps best remembered for film roles in “Mildred Pierce” and “The Southerner.” He is the namesake for Zach Theatre, formerly known as Zachary Scott Theatre, the city’s largest resident theater company.
Barbara Jordan Boulevard: The former U.S. congresswoman’s early life and career are associated with Houston, but the fearless defender of the Constitution spent her later years in Austin as a professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs. Two large statues of Jordan (1936-1996) can be found in the city, one on the University of Texas campus, the other at Austin-Bergstrom.
Camacho Street: Lorraine Fuentes “Grandma” Castro Camacho (1917-1999) worked in food service for the Austin school district, but more than that, she was a volunteer and community organizer who took care of the youth in the Holly Street neighborhood for decades. Mother of beloved community historian Danny Camacho, she lent her name to the Lorraine “Grandma” Camacho Activity Center.
Taniguchi Street: A native of Japan, Isamu Taniguchi (1897-1992) immigrated to the U.S. as a teen. During World War II, he was forced into an internment camp at Crystal City, about 115 miles southwest of San Antonio, where he worked in the carpentry shop and maintained gardens. He retired to Austin in 1967, where his son and grandson became prominent architects and educators. In gratitude to the city, he almost single-handedly created the Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden at the Zilker Botanical Garden.
Scarbrough Street: Named after Lemuel Scarbrough (1889-1965), part of at least four generations of his family who turned a farmer-oriented general store into the city’s most glamorous and comprehensive department store. Like his relatives, Lemuel became a philanthropist and civic leader. The Scarbrough Building, including its art deco additions, still commands the southwest corner of Congress Avenue and Sixth Street.
Emma Long Street: While Austin city government was led by a club of white businessmen for more than a century, Emma Long (1912-2011), an American-Statesman reporter, broke that mold in 1948 by becoming the first woman elected to the City Council. Long was unusually progressive for her time and promoted many of the changes that redefined Austin during the 1950s and ’60s. She reactivated the Austin Parks and Recreation Department and is the namesake for Emma Long Metropolitan Park in Northwest Austin.

Source link

Click to comment

Austin, TX

Equine virus outbreak in Texas prompts statewide alert

Published

5 hours ago

November 19, 2025

Press Room

Equine virus outbreak in Texas

A viral outbreak that is hitting horses in Texas has canceled an upcoming rodeo event in Uvalde. The EHV-1 virus is highly contagious and has prompted a statewide alert from Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller.

TEXAS – A viral outbreak that is hitting horses in Texas has canceled an upcoming rodeo event in Uvalde.

The EHV-1 virus is highly contagious and has prompted a statewide alert from Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller.

Local perspective:

On the Double Spur Ranch between Leander and Liberty Hill, owner Steve Smith runs several heads of cattle on his 10 acres. He also has seven horses, which are available for public riding.

Lately, Smith has been focused on his cows because of the screw-worm threat. But now he must keep watch on his horses because of a viral outbreak.

“If I lost my herd, I’d be real pissed off. I would be very unhappy if I’d lost my herd, but I would be heartbroken if I even lost one horse,” said Smith.

Horse owners like Smith are being warned about the EHV-1 virus. It is highly contagious and typically transmitted by close contact. The virus can also be brought into stables, attached to tack gear, and from human clothing.

“I would say the largest shift that I’ll take is to put a little bit of a stop to people that experience and go and enjoy other barns and then one, and then coming here. Because we have a lot of cross-pollination in that way, where people might go volunteer at another barn and then come over here. We love those people, and we want them to hang out with us. However, this might not be the right time to go and pick up something and then bring it and spread it to other horses,” said Smith.

Sid Miller speaks on equine virus outbreak

Dig deeper:

Similar precautions are being taken by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

“For now, just lock down, stay down. I’ve closed my farm, no horses going out, no horses coming in,” said Miller.

Miller issued a statewide alert on Wednesday. It advises horse owners to do health checks at least twice a day. The alert is especially for horses that were at a competition in Waco earlier this month. It’s believed that’s where the outbreak started.

“It’s a biosecurity hazard. This is what we’ve got here,” said Miller.

Miller noted how officials with the San Antonio rodeo announced the cancellation of a qualifier in Uvalde this week. Other shutdowns may be necessary.

“We’re really worried about the National Finals Rodeo and the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity in Fort Worth. Those are two of the largest equine events in our nation during the year,” said Miller.

The Winter Rodeo season ramps up in December. Miller hopes the outbreak will pass before the 2026 season gets going.

“The good thing is we’re kind of in the lull of rodeo season. We’re at the end of one year and haven’t really started the next. The next big rodeo starts off at the Fort Worth Livestock Show in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin, the winter rodeos we call those. So, we’ve got a little time before those kick up, but those are huge events,” said Miller.

Livestock clinics across Texas are also posting alerts on social media. It’s all part of an effort to contain the virus. The original source of the virus has not yet been identified, according to Miller.

“Normally, drinking out of the same water trough is the most common way to spread it. Having horses co-mingled, like in a competition or a barrel race in this case,” said Miller.

What’s next:

It’s unclear how long the outbreak will last. The Texas Animal Health Commission is trying to determine how many horses are infected, and that will determine how long this alert will run.

The virus does not infect humans or dogs, cats, and animals like cattle and pigs.

The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Rudy Koski

HealthPets and AnimalsTexas

Source link

Austin, TX

‘Horizon’ Supercomputer Will Make Austin the Center of U.S. Research Power

Published

23 hours ago

November 19, 2025

Press Room

‘Horizon’ Supercomputer Will Make Austin the Center of U.S. Research Power

AUSTIN, Texas — The next wave of scientific discovery is being built right here in Central Texas.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is teaming up with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to launch Horizon, which will become the largest academic supercomputer in the United States when it goes online in 2026.

Designed to be a major engine for open science, Horizon will help researchers tackle some of the toughest problems of our time—from extreme weather forecasting to medical breakthroughs to national security.

A Texas-sized leap in computing power

Horizon will deliver 300 petaflops of performance—making it ten times faster than TACC’s current supercomputer, Frontera. For researchers, that means bigger projects, faster insights, and entirely new possibilities.

“It’s really exciting for Austin and for the University of Texas,” said Dan Stanzione, Associate Vice President for Research at UT and Executive Director of TACC. “We’ll have the largest academic computing resource in the country. Researchers will have unparalleled access to computing anywhere in the world.”

A supercomputer built in Central Texas

Horizon isn’t just located in Austin—it’s being built here, too.

Dell is designing the integrated racks.

Final assembly is happening in Georgetown.

The system will be housed in a Round Rock data center.

NVIDIA chips and VAST storage—both companies with Austin teams—power the hardware.

“Everyone involved has an Austin tie,” Stanzione said. “Finally deploying one of these major systems in the Austin area is pretty exciting.”

ALSO| What If Your Neighbors Were the Network? SpecFive’s Push to Rethink Connectivity

What Horizon will do

In its first year, TACC expects hundreds of research projects to run on Horizon. Some of the earliest will focus on Texas-specific challenges, such as:

More accurate hurricane and storm surge forecasts

Disaster resilience modeling for the Gulf Coast

Healthcare and drug discovery

New materials and battery development

Horizon will also become the AI hub for UT Austin, enabling breakthroughs in machine learning and large-scale data analysis.

Keeping a giant cool

Running a supercomputer this large takes serious engineering. Each cabinet draws around 225,000 watts, requiring advanced cooling solutions.

Propylene glycol will flow directly across the chips, while chilled water circulates through rear-door radiators. In total, the system will move about 400,000 gallons of water per hour to keep everything stable.

What Dell says

For Dell Technologies, Horizon is a major step forward for the region and the research community.

“Horizon delivers over 300 petaflops of performance—ten to twelve times faster than Frontera,” said Seamus Jones, Director of Server Engineering. “It will help researchers break boundaries and drive advancements in technologies we haven’t even imagined yet.”

A new era for Texas innovation

With Horizon, Austin is poised to become the nation’s center for high-performance academic computing. The supercomputer will serve thousands of researchers across disciplines—and could reshape how science is done for years to come.

Source link

Austin, TX

Volunteers build wheelchair ramp for resident, marking 40 years of Texas Ramp Project

Published

2 days ago

November 17, 2025

Press Room

Volunteers build wheelchair ramp for resident, marking 40 years of Texas Ramp Project

AUSTIN, Texas — Volunteers gathered in East Austin on Saturday to build a wheelchair ramp for a local resident, marking the Texas Ramp Project’s 40th anniversary of providing free mobility solutions to Texans in need.

Jimmy Garcia received the ramp at his home on East 22nd Street, where volunteers worked from morning through early afternoon to complete the installation. Before the ramp, he relied on his wife Jenny or their children to help him navigate the stairs.

“I feel grateful. I appreciate it,” Garcia said. “It’s a good program.”

Volunteers gathered in East Austin on Saturday to build a wheelchair ramp for a local resident, marking the Texas Ramp Project’s 40th anniversary of providing free mobility solutions to Texans in need. (Photo: Texas Ramp Project)

Jackie Gardener, the build team leader, said the organization has served more than 30,000 individuals across Texas since its founding in 1985. The nonprofit commemorated four decades of service by constructing one of 40 ramps planned across the state.

“It is such a special feeling of joy to be able to see a client take a look at their ramp and know that in less than a day, we’ve really changed somebody’s life,” Gardener said.

ALSO | Pflugerville fire crew aids statewide wildfire readiness as central Texas risks rise

More than 1.7 million Texans use wheelchairs or walkers, with nearly 23% of residents 65 or older living with mobility-limiting disabilities, according to the organization.

Jenny Garcia said the ramp would restore her husband’s independence after concerns about falls on the steps. “It’s going to be a big improvement with his walker to be able to come down by himself and have his independence back somewhat,” she said.

The organization depends entirely on its network of 3,500 volunteers. WellMed and the WellMed Charitable Foundation have contributed more than $100,000 and helped build over 100 ramps.

More information is available here.

Source link