Building 519 at Austin State Hospital

BUILDING HISTORY

The Austin State Hospital, originally titled the Texas State Lunatic Asylum and renamed in 1925, was established in 1856. The hospital campus is located on a tract of land between Guadalupe street and Lamar Boulevard, north of 38th Street and south of 45th Street, adjacent to the Hyde Park Neighborhood of Austin, Texas. The development of residential care facilities and their landscaping and architecture were heavily tied to the philosophy of mental illness at the time. The original structure on the Austin State Hospital campus, the Main Building #501, was designed to conform to the ideas of psychiatrist Thomas Kirkbride and improve the daily life and well-being of resident patients.

Building 519 served as an African American Women’s dormitory or ward while the institution was still segregated, and was constructed in 1936-37, when the ideas of treatment and residential housing of patients had shifted to smaller scale, sex and condition segregated buildings. It was designed by Austin architecture firm Page & Southerland, and constructed by the E.B. Snead Company. As Austin State Hospital was not racially desegregated until the 1960s, additional facilities were needed for black patients. Overcrowding was a constant problem for this, and many care facilities. Prior to 1910, only two wards housed black patients at the hospital, accommodating no more than 150 people. By 1953, the hospital housed 1049 black patients, which was more than a third of its total patient population. As of 2018, it is now used as storage space and no longer houses patients.

Most of the related structures that also served the segregated African American population of the hospital have been demolished. According to historic aerial photographs of the site, the adjoining dorms were both demolished or lost to fire before 1985. The African American Dining Hall, circa 1954, is still standing. Both have been recommended for inclusion in a National Register Historic District that would encompass the structures on the campus built from 1857-1966.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

The earliest Sanborn maps for the site date to 1935, which confirms that the building was constructed no earlier than 1936. Following maps detail the building’s construction as ‘fire proof’ and confirm its construction date as ‘36-37.’ It is constructed in an ‘E’ shape with two small additional porches, one in each of the bays facing west. The ‘E’ shaped building was a common plan for institutional style buildings, as it allowed for windows facing an interior courtyard. It is built on a poured concrete, crawl space style foundation with steel reinforced concrete footings, floors and concrete roof tiles. The exterior brick masonry is a non-load-bearing curtain wall.

The building also shows several hallmarks of the International and Modern styles popular at the time, especially in its use of clean lines, its flat roof and its overall simplicity. Its front façade is monolithic, with two straight lines of windows designed to resemble ribbon windows, while they are in fact simply blocks of three double hung windows evenly spaced between 12 brick pilasters. Where the windows reach the corners of the front facades, they “wrap” the corners, supported by a hidden steel column. The remainder of the building’s windows are six pane, double hung in groups of two or single windows.

Different tones of brick and molded concrete blocks are used to accentuate the building’s horizontal character. Its east facing façade bears the vast majority of its minimal ornamentation. Throughout almost the entire building, there is a repeating sequence of three lighter brick courses evenly spaced through the darker yellow brick that makes up the façade. These bricks are raised no more than an inch from their surroundings, and these courses run along the bottom of the building and above both levels of windows. Beneath those windows is a course of molded and painted concrete blocks that serve as both a sill and as ornamentation. It appears they were painted and molded to appear to be Cordova Cream limestone at a significantly lower cost. This line of faux limestone is only interrupted by the brick pilasters, made of the darkest tone of yellow brick, on the front façade.

The remaining facades show significantly less detail. They feature either single pane double hung or six pane double hung windows. While historic photos are few and so it is difficult to confirm, it seems that the double hung six pane windows are the original window on every façade except the front, east facing façade. It seems that in the construction of this building, on the African American portion of a public institution, effort was made to make the front of the building appear modern and fashionable, while the main goal of construction was economy. The timing of its construction in 1936, during the height of the work by the Public Works Administration, means it is possible that this building was part of a government incentivized building program. A style titled “PWA Moderne” is often associated with Public Works buildings that call upon Art Modern themes, but “PWA Moderne” is most often associated with more recessed windows, smooth stone curtain walls or stucco, and a much more vertical character.

BUILDING CONDITION

Building 519 is in poor condition. This evaluation and a visual inspection of the exterior revealed several points of entry for animals, evidence of cracking concrete, potential settlement and mortar damage, and substantial biological growth. Poor maintenance of the building is playing a significant role in its deterioration. Simple actions like patching holes, ensuring windows are closed, and removing vines, rodent debris and nests would go a long way to slowing the rate of damage. Several mechanical and architectural additions are also contributing to that deterioration. Air conditioning units secured with metal fixtures are causing some corrosion and staining on the surface of the brick.

The presence of a large tree in the southern bay of the building is almost certainly contributing to the issue of squirrel damage to the wooden components of the building, and their access to the interior. Removal of the branches that allow easy highways to the facades, or the removal of the tree altogether, will make the building substantially less vulnerable to rodents. Removal of the vines in this bay will also significantly reduce the growth of biological material on the surface of the building, and the accumulation of leaves atop the entrance awning.

Original drawings of this building were not available for reference during this study. This raises some concern, as there are aspects of the building that suggest a significant renovation was completed to the front, east facing façade of the building. An image found at the Austin History center and attached to this report shows a very similar building labeled “ward building” and listed as constructed in 1937. The building has wrapped corner windows, and the same number of windows and pilasters and building 519. The most significant difference between these two buildings is that the African American Women’s Ward has its entrance one bay farther north. A close examination of the extant building shows that the brick tone changes slightly on that east façade, with the brick becoming very slightly more yellow in the bay at the center of the façade, where the entrance is pictured in the historic image. The existing door exits out onto a concrete landing that serves as a loading dock, which was almost certainly an alteration completed when the building transitioned to being used primarily for storage.

Additionally, while the building fits within the style of the firm at that time, as Page & Southerland designed several modern, international style buildings, there is no firm confirmation of their involvement on this project beyond the names engraved on the building’s “cornerstone.” Austin History center houses several hundred drawings from the firm of Page, Southerland & Page dating to 1935 though no drawings for this building or reference to it can be found there. Buildings listed on the finding aid from the early years of the firm’s work include many residences, several church and office buildings, and a small number of municipal and city buildings for the towns of Round Rock and Austin. Further investigation will be required to confirm the design of Page & Southerland, or to consider the involvement of a different architect.

REFERENCED WORKS

1. Handbook of Texas Online, John G. Johnson, “Austin State hospital.” http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sba07.
2. “History of the Austin State Hospital.” Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and HumanServices., 31 Mar. 2016, www.dshs.texas.gov/mhhospitals/AustinSH/ASH_About.shtm.
3. Sitton, Sarah C. Life at the Texas state lunatic asylum, 1857-1997. Texas A & M University Press, 2012.
4. “Page Southerland Page, LLP of Austin.” Page Southerland Page, LLP of Austin | THC.Texas.gov - Texas Historical Commission. http://www.thc.texas.gov/page-southerland-page-llp-austin.
5. New Location Options for Austin State Hospital and Austin State Supported Living Center. Report. Health and Human Services. September 2016.