Waters Park (also known as Waters and Watters) was a village located eight miles north of downtown Austin, Texas defined by the boundaries of Farm to Market Road 1325, MoPac, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. [1] It is now part of the City of Austin.
The village was originally known as Summers' Grove, and the origin of the name Waters Park is unknown. [1]
The land at Waters Park was originally owned by Silas and Parthenia Summers who purchased the land in 1872. [1] Right-of-way was sold to Austin and Northwestern Railroad in October 1881. The railroad built a park with a swimming pool, gazebo, baseball field, picnic grounds, and concessions stands in the summer of 1882. [1] The area's railroad tracks were used to transport pink granite from Granite Mountain to the Texas State Capitol in Downtown Austin. [1] Due to a bend in the tracks, trains would occasionally derail, accidentally dumping some of the pink granite. [2] The rocks which remain are a local point of interest. The local post office opened in 1883 and closed in 1905. [1]
The town was a popular vacation spot as it was easy to access via train from Austin. [1] An advert in the June 14, 1882 edition of the Austin Daily Democratic Statesman read:
GRAND EXCURSION AND PICNIC to the town of WATERS
Fifteen miles by rail from Austin, on the NORTHWESTERN N.G. RAILWAY on Wednesday, June 21, 1882
Lots will be Sold on that Day–Terms Cash.
Waters is on Walnut Creek, seven miles from Round Rock, five from Pflugerville, in one of the richest parts of Travis County.
Trains leave Austin at 7:00 o'clock a.m. returning in the afternoonRound trip tickets 59 cents only
— June 14, 1882, Austin Daily Democratic Statesman [2]
The town proved historically to be Austin's fourth most popular day trip destination after the Austin Dam, Seiders Springs, and the then existent lake at Hyde Park. [2]
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 10th most populous city in the United States, the 4th most populous city in Texas, and the 2nd most populous state capital city. It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Beta-level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
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Manor is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States. Manor is located 12 miles northeast of Austin and is part of the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. The population was 13,652 at the 2020 census. Manor is one of the faster-growing suburbs of Austin. The city was the 7th fastest growing suburb in America in 2018 by Realtor.com and the 17th best small suburb to live in by U.S. News and World Report in 2019.
Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin.
Cedar Park is a city and a suburb of Austin in the state of Texas, approximately 16 miles (26 km) northwest of the center of Austin. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 77,595.
Pflugerville is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States, with a small portion in Williamson County. The population was 65,191 at the 2020 census. Pflugerville is a suburb of Austin and part of the Austin–Round Rock– Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was named after the original German settlers who farmed the area; Pflüger means "plowman".
Lady Bird Lake is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power plant. The lake, which has a surface area of 416 acres (168 ha), is now used primarily for recreation and flood control. The reservoir is named in honor of former First Lady of the United States Lady Bird Johnson.
The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, it was constructed from 1882 to 1888 under the direction of civil engineer Reuben Lindsay Walker. A $75 million underground extension was completed in 1993. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
John Ireland was the 18th Governor of Texas from 1883 to 1887. During Ireland's term, the University of Texas was established, and construction on the Texas State Capitol began. Ireland is credited with the selection of local pink granite as the construction material.
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officially stylized as CapMetro, is a public transportation provider located in Austin, Texas. It operates bus, paratransit services and a commuter rail system known as the Capital MetroRail in Austin and several suburbs in Travis and Williamson counties. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 21,145,300, or about 74,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2023.
Capital MetroRail is a hybrid rail system that serves the Greater Austin area in Texas and is owned by Capital Metro, Austin's primary public transportation provider. The Red Line is Capital Metro's first and currently only rail line, and connects Downtown Austin with Austin's northwestern suburbs. The line operates on 32 miles (51 km) of existing freight tracks, and serves nine stations. After a series of delays, Capital MetroRail was inaugurated in March 2010. Capital Metro added Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and evening regularly scheduled service on March 23, 2012. In 2022, the line had a ridership of 466,800, or about 1,500 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2023.
Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites are two state historic sites managed by the Texas Historical Commission. They are located at 29.888° -96.876°, just off U.S. Route 77, south of La Grange, Texas. The sites sit on a sandstone bluff 200 feet above the Colorado River. Monument Hill is a memorial to the men who died in the Dawson Massacre and in the Black Bean Episode of the ill-fated Mier Expedition.
After declaring its independence from Mexico in March, 1836, the Republic of Texas had numerous locations as its seat of government. This being seen as a problem attempts were made to select a permanent site for the capital. January, 1839, with Mirabeau B. Lamar as the newly elected president, a site selection commission of five commissioners was formed. Edward Burleson had surveyed the planned townsite of Waterloo, near the mouth of Shoal Creek on the Colorado River, in 1838; it was incorporated January 1839. By April of that year the site selection commission had selected Waterloo to be the new capital. A bill previously passed by Congress in May, 1838, specified that any site selected as the new capital would be named Austin, after the late Stephen F. Austin; hence Waterloo upon selection as the capital was renamed Austin. The first lots in Austin went on sale August 1839.
The Austin and Northwestern Railroad began construction on a rail line west of Austin, Texas, USA, toward Llano on April 20, 1881. The railroad was originally built as a 3 ft narrow gauge line with plans to connect to the Texas and Pacific Railway at Abilene. Construction reached Burnet, Texas, by 1882 and the line was later extended to Granite Mountain by 1885 - when the railroad was contracted to haul pink granite for the new Texas State Capitol building in Austin. The company later extended its line 2.3 miles (3.7 km) to Marble Falls by using the charter of the Granite Mountain and Marble Falls City Railroad. Due to a bend in the tracks, trains would occasionally derail, accidentally dumping some of the pink granite. The rocks which remain are a local point of interest.
The Austin Western Railroad is a short-line railroad headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. AWRR is a subsidiary of Watco.
Granite Mountain is a solid dome, also known as a bornhardt, of pink granite rising over 860 feet one mile west of Marble Falls, Texas. Since quarry operations began in the late 19th century, the distinctive pink-red colored rock has been used in the construction of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, and also for the construction of the Galveston Seawall. In 1882, three businessmen and the owners of Granite Mountain, G. W. Lacy, N. L. Norton and W. H. Westfall, donated the amount of granite necessary to build the Texas State Capitol. The mountain no longer looks like a geographic feature because of the heavy mining, which has fully covered its surface. A similar but much larger area known as Enchanted Rock State Natural Area can be seen in its undisturbed state west of Marble Falls near Fredericksburg, Texas.
The Antlers Hotel is a hotel and resort built in 1901 by the Austin and Northwestern Railroad on the Colorado River in Kingsland in Llano County in Central Texas. After a brief heyday, The Antlers closed in 1923 and fell into disrepair. It was eventually resurrected by a couple from Austin and reopened in 1996. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as part of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad Historic District-Fairland to Llano historic district.
The Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building is a state library and historic landmark in Downtown Austin, Texas.
The Capitol View Corridors are a series of legal restrictions on construction in Austin, Texas, aimed at preserving protected views of the Texas State Capitol from various points around the city. First established by the Texas Legislature in 1983 and recodified in 2001, the corridors are meant to protect the capitol dome from obstruction by high-rise buildings. While supported by cultural and historical preservation organizations, the corridors have also been criticized for limiting the potential for the development of new tall structures in downtown Austin.
The Third Street Railroad Trestle is a historic wooden railroad trestle bridge crossing Shoal Creek in downtown Austin, Texas. Built around 1922 by the International–Great Northern Railroad, it replaced an earlier bridge in the same place. The bridge was used by the I–GN Railroad, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad until 1964, when commercial rail traffic stopped; after 1991 the bridge was abandoned. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.