Giesecke & Harris Sites

The main building of the old Austin High School was erected in 1916 and was originally the John Allan Junior High School. The existing Austin High School campus, built in 1900, became overcrowded, and in 1924, the decision was made to swap the students in Austin High with Allan Junior High. This happened after the Thanksgiving holiday in 1925. In 1939, the school district added an annex of twenty-four classrooms to the Austin High School building using partial funding from the Public Works Administration. The two-story addition was separated from the main building by a courtyard and connected with a covered...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the House Park football stadium in Austin. House Park was built between 1938 and 1939 and has served as the home stadium for several Austin Independent School District high schools. The project was part of a larger grant made by the PWA to the City of Austin on October 31, 1938. The grant, up $613,127 under PWA Docket No. Texas-2134-F., was to cover 45% of the costs of construction of school facilities, school repairs and additions, athletic facilities, and land acquisitions. The architects of record were Giesecke & Harris and the contractors were J. R. Blackmore & Sons.

On October 31, 1938, the Public Works Administration offered the City of Austin a grant not to exceed $613,127 to cover 45% of the costs of school buildings, a stadium and field house, a central heating system, an underpass, an arcade and additions and alterations to existing school buildings, including necessary equipment and acquisition of necessary land under PWA Docket No. Texas-2134-F. Robert E. Lee Elementary School was one of the new schools built with this grant. In May 2016, the Austin School Board changed the name of the school to Russell Lee Elementary in response to community concerns about honoring...

On September 1, 1937, President Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act of 1937. This created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) and provided $500 million for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families. The Austin City Council established the Austin Housing Authority on December 27, 1937. The housing authority made an application to the USHA for $500,000 to build 186 units of public housing at three sites. Austin’s housing agency became the first in the country to receive funding and to start construction on its USHA...