NRHP Reference # 79003018 Area 7,300 m² Added to NRHP 1 August 1979 | Opened 18 June 1909 Architectural style Neoclassicism Architect Charles Henry Page | |
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Location Austin, Texas
United States Built June 18, 1909 (1909-06-18) Similar Royal Arch Masonic Lodge, Judge Robert Lynn Batt, Henry Hirshfeld House an, Brizendine House, Lundberg Bakery | ||
Wooldridge Park, also known as Wooldridge Square, is an urban park in downtown Austin, Texas. The park consists of a city block containing a natural basin whose sides slope inward to form an amphitheater with a bandstand at its center. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
History
Wooldridge Park is one of four original public squares designated in downtown Austin in the 1839 master plan for the city drawn up by Edwin Waller, but it lay vacant for seventy years. In an era of civic pride in 1909, however, Austin Mayor A. P. Wooldridge sponsored the cleaning of the square and the construction of a classical revival-style gazebo for public engagements, which officially opened the same year. The park was dedicated on June 18, 1909 to considerable aplomb with dedicatory address being made by the Mayor.
Wooldridge Park is unique as the only public square in Austin to have retained its original function since its establishment more than one hundred thirty years ago. When the first city plans were drawn in 1840, four such squares were included. The other three underwent various uses over time, hosting parking lots, a fire station, a church, a museum, and businesses. Wooldridge Park alone has remained an essential element of Austin's outdoor social, musical, and political life.