Rosewood Park
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African American enclaves were spread throughout Austin, but the 1928 Austin City Plan codified segregation of communities of color to the east side of the city by restricting utilities and services elsewhere. As a result, the city established Rosewood Park as a recreational facility for African Americans. The land for Rosewood Park was carved from the 40-acre Boggy Creek homestead of local merchant, Rudolph Bertram, and his family, including a two-story limestone house built in the 1870s. Rudolph's daughter, Emmie Huppertz, sold 17 acres to the city in 1928 to establish the first public park for African Americans in Austin. When Rosewood Park opened in 1930, it featured a swimming pool, clubhouse (the remodeled Bertram-Huppertz home), and baseball diamonds. Segregated sports leagues, concerts, pageants and holiday festivities were frequent and popular uses for the park. Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, has been celebrated here each year since the park opened. During the Great Depression, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided partial funding for park improvements ranging from roads and lights to the bandstand. During World War II, the city's recreation department provided African American servicemen stationed in central Texas with dances, picnics, and sing-alongs, culminating in construction of Doris Miller Auditorium in 1944. After the war, the auditorium was a popular stop on the "Chitlin' Circuit" of African American performers. In the summer of 1963, Austin city pools and parks integrated. Today, Rosewood Park continues to serve as the heart of the neighborhood and as an important space in the cultural history of Austin. (2018)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Austin's 1928 city plan pushed communities of color to the east side by withholding services elsewhere, and in response the city established Rosewood Park in 1930 as its first public park for African Americans. Carved from the Bertram family's Boggy Creek homestead, it opened with a pool, ballfields, and a clubhouse in a remodeled 1870s limestone home, and it has hosted Juneteenth celebrations every year since. Its Doris Miller Auditorium, built in 1944, later became a noted stop on the "Chitlin' Circuit" before Austin's pools and parks integrated in 1963.
Why it matters
Rosewood Park is a landmark of both segregation and Black community life, where a space born of exclusion became a proud cultural heart of African American Austin.
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Related people
- · Rudolph Bertram
- · Emmie Huppertz
Related events
- · Juneteenth
- · Great Depression
Themes & tags
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