Happy Birthday Wooldridge Square!

On June 18, Wooldridge Square celebrated its 100^th birthday as a city park. Though the site of the square was designated as a public park when the City of Austin was first laid out in 1839, for nearly seventy years the park served intermittently as a city dump and a lake/pond, but rarely was it used as a park. In 1909, A. P. Wooldridge had a vision to recapture and renew this space. His vision transformed the space, and on June 18, 1909, the park officially opened as Wooldridge Square, named in his honor.

In honor of the Square’s Centennial, the Austin History Center presents “Wooldridge ~ Our First Park: Celebrating 100 Years, 1909-2009,” a photograph exhibit on the history of Wooldridge Square. The exhibit, through historic photographs from the History Center collections, shows the history of the park and its use from many vantage points. The exhibit is on display in the David Earl Holt Meeting Room in the History Center and runs through October 18, 2009.

[picture from the Austin History Center Archives, image number C06049]