THE ORGINS OF CLARKSVILLE (CV1871) HISTORIC DISTRICT

In 1871, Charles Clark, a former slave, purchased two acres of land from Nathan Shelley, a Confederate general. He built his home on the north side of what is now the 1600 block of West 10th Street. He sold the rest of his acreage to other freedmen. This area formed the nucleus of what would become the community of Clarksville. Clarksville was one of the first and the oldest surviving freedman's towns established west of the Mississippi. Sadly, Traces of this post-Civil War settlement, founded by former slaves, have all but disappeared from the neighborhood.

At least six communities of emancipated slaves existed around Austin including Wheatville (founded by James Wheat and home to celebrated Austin black leader Reverend Jacob Fontaine), Pleasant Hill, and Clarksville.

Early Clarksville was a densely wooded area located west of Austin, far outside of town. It quickly became a tight knit, highly self-sufficient community. Residents built very simple wood-frame homes, hunted in the area, fished in the Colorado River, grew their own food, kept cows for fresh milk and raised hogs and chickens. They also hauled water from the river and caught drinking water in barrels and cisterns.

Soon after settling in Clarksville, early residents informally organized the Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church, which became the focal point of their lives. Prayer and fellowship meetings were held in the home of Edwin and Mary Smith, who were among the organizers of the church. In July 1882, residents paid $50 cash to buy the land where the current church is located. Initially, services were held under a brush arbor, but it was not long before the congregation was able to build an actual church. Jacob Fontaine, who began the Gold Dollar, Austin's first Black newspaper, was its first minister.

Clarksville residents had little or no education and so most of them held jobs that involved physical labor. For example, they picked cotton, worked on farms, labored at the rock quarry in Round Rock, worked at the Zilker Brickyard, or held down construction jobs. Some had jobs at the Pease mansion, took in laundry and did ironing. Other residents worked at the home for Confederate soldiers that was built just south of Clarksville, while another resident began a community store that was located at what is now 1710 West 10th Street.

During Clarksville’s early days, Maggie Mayes, wife of Elias Mayes, taught Clarksville children in the couple’s home. Later children attended school at Sweet Home. Then in 1917, the Clarksville Colored School was constructed where Mary Baylor Clarksville Park is now located at 1807 West 11th Street. The one-room elementary school operated until 1965 when it was closed after the Austin public school system was fully integrated. Originally, the school offered 1st through 4th grade classes, but later it added classes for 5th and 6th graders.

However, early in the twentieth century developers began to realize the land value of Clarksville, which lay near growing downtown Austin. Austin city policy aimed to concentrate the local black population in the east, and pressured black communities in west Austin, such as Clarksville and Wheatville to move. In 1918 the Austin school board closed the Clarksville school. Clarksville residents were later forced to use city services in east Austin or none at all. The 1928 Austin city plan embraced Jim Crow and recommended "that all the facilities and conveniences be provided the Negroes in this district, as an incentive to draw the Negro population to this area." Most Clarksville residents endured the lack of services, however, and refused to move. In 1968 Clarksville residents unsuccessfully protested a state and local plan to build a highway along the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which extended along the western boundary of Clarksville. The completed Mopac Expressway sliced through the community, forcing 33 families to leave.

Despite pressure to move to segregated east Austin, Clarksville retained its African American identity throughout the 20th century. Residents of Clarksville began requesting Austin city funds for the improvement and preservation in 1964, but dirt streets crossed the area until 1975, and a creek carrying sewage periodically flooded homes. However, in 1975 the Texas Historical Commission designated a two-block-wide strip of Clarksville as a historic district, and the city paved the streets with asphalt. In 1976 the Austin City Council approved the use of $100,000 from a federal housing and community-development grant to pave streets permanently, improve drainage, and expand the neighborhood playground. Another $100,000 was designated for housing rehabilitation. The same year Clarksville residents and supporters defeated a plan to build a thoroughfare through the community connecting Interstate 35 and the MoPac Expressway. Later in the 1970s, as rising land values drove lower-income residents out of the area, the Clarksville Community Development Corporation was established to provide low-income options to preserve the community's character. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, which would provide protection from demolitions like the MoPac project.

Clarksville today…