Clarksville
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Historic Black neighborhood. Settled in 1871 when Charles Clark, a freedman, bought two acres of land on present Tenth Street. This formed the nucleus of the community that Clark, according to tradition, wanted to start for his people. For years Clarksville lay in a wilderness on the outskirts of Austin, crossed only by a few country roads. Gradually it grew into a closely knit village, with activities centering on the Sweet Home Baptist Church. At first members met in the home of Mrs. Mary Smith. Then, in 1882, they purchased this site. Religious fervor was strong in those days, and the residents often stood on their porches at dawn to begin the day with a hymn. The first church building was erected in the 1880s; present (fourth) one in 1935. Among Clarksville's distinguished citizens was Elias Mayes, who served in the Texas Legislature in 1879 and 1889. One of the first ministers of Sweet Home, The Rev. Jacob Fontaine, was instrumental in unifying Negro Baptist churches in Austin and started the first Negro newspaper, "The Gold Dollar," in the city. As of 1973, Clarksville encompassed over 9 square blocks, bounded by Tenth, West Lynn, and Waterston streets and the Missouri-Pacific Railroad tracks. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Clarksville took root in 1871 when Charles Clark, a newly freed man, bought two acres on Tenth Street and set out—so tradition holds—to build a community for his people on Austin's wooded outskirts. Life gathered around the Sweet Home Baptist Church, whose members famously greeted the dawn with hymns sung from their porches, and the freedom colony produced figures like legislator Elias Mayes and the Rev. Jacob Fontaine, who founded Austin's first Black newspaper. By the 1930s the fourth church building stood, anchoring a close-knit village of nine square blocks.
Why it matters
Clarksville is one of the oldest surviving freedom colonies west of the Mississippi, a living record of how emancipated African Americans built self-governing communities from the ground up during Reconstruction.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Clarksville was born in 1871, in the fragile, hopeful years after emancipation. Across the South, formerly enslaved people were making the most consequential decisions of their lives as free men and women — where to live, how to worship, whom to gather with, and how to build something that belonged to them. The community that took root here was one answer to that question, on the wooded outskirts of Austin.
The marker paints the early setting vividly: for years Clarksville "lay in a wilderness on the outskirts of Austin, crossed only by a few country roads." That remove was both a hardship and a kind of shelter. On land at the edge of the growing capital, a Black community could take shape somewhat on its own terms, gradually knitting itself into "a closely knit village."
This was the Reconstruction era and the decades just after, a time of enormous promise and real peril for African Americans in Texas and across the South. Communities like this one were built in that charged air — with faith, labor, and a determination to endure.
People & events
It began with Charles Clark, a freedman who in 1871 bought two acres on what is now Tenth Street. According to tradition, he wanted to start a community for his people, and that small purchase became the nucleus of everything that followed. His name still marks the neighborhood.
Life gathered around faith. The Sweet Home Baptist Church became the center of community activity, though at first there was no building — members simply met in the home of Mrs. Mary Smith. In 1882 they purchased the church site, and the first sanctuary rose in the 1880s. The marker preserves an image too good to lose: in those days of strong religious feeling, residents "often stood on their porches at dawn to begin the day with a hymn." The present church, the fourth, was built in 1935.
Among the community's distinguished citizens was Elias Mayes, who served in the Texas Legislature in 1879 and again in 1889 — a Black lawmaker in an era when such service was hard-won and precious. And one of Sweet Home's first ministers, the Rev. Jacob Fontaine, reached beyond the neighborhood: he was instrumental in unifying Black Baptist churches in Austin and started the city's first Black newspaper, The Gold Dollar. As of 1973, Clarksville stretched over more than nine square blocks near the Missouri-Pacific Railroad tracks.
Its place in the American story
Clarksville belongs to a remarkable chapter in American history: the founding of freedom colonies, the communities that formerly enslaved people established for themselves after the Civil War. Rather than remain dependent on the plantations and towns of their former enslavers, freed men and women pooled what they had, bought land, and built villages centered on their own churches, schools, and leadership. These settlements were acts of self-determination, and many struggled simply to survive the pressures of the surrounding society.
The institutions that anchored Clarksville — a church at its heart, a legislator among its citizens, a newspaper founded by one of its ministers — map onto the pillars that sustained Black American life after emancipation: faith, political participation, and a free press. Each was a way of claiming a full place in the nation, often against fierce resistance.
The Rev. Jacob Fontaine's founding of Austin's first Black newspaper and his work unifying Black Baptist churches echo a national story in which African Americans built parallel institutions to serve and empower their own communities. Clarksville is a local, living record of how emancipated people turned freedom from a legal fact into a built and governed reality.
If you visit
Come with the founding image in mind: two acres bought in 1871, a wilderness of country roads, and a determination to make a home. As you take in the neighborhood — bounded, as of 1973, by Tenth, West Lynn, and Waterston streets and the old railroad tracks — try to feel the distance the community traveled from those first quiet, wooded years to a village of more than nine square blocks.
Let the church be your anchor, as it was the community's. Sweet Home Baptist Church has stood at the center of Clarksville's life since members first met in a private home, and the present sanctuary carries that long continuity forward. Picture the dawn hymns sung from front porches, and you'll understand something essential about how this place held together.
This is a stop that rewards reflection more than sightseeing. Walk it slowly, read the names — Charles Clark, Mary Smith, Elias Mayes, Jacob Fontaine — and remember that you are standing in one of the enduring freedom colonies, a neighborhood that ordinary people willed into being and sustained across generations.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Charles Clark
- · Elias Mayes
- · Jacob Fontaine
- · Mary Smith
Related events
- · Founding of Clarksville freedom colony
Themes & tags
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