State board to decide fate of historic UT-Austin school building

The fate of one of the University Of Texas’s most historic buildings remains uncertain as a grassroots group puts out a last-ditch effort to save the legendary building from being turned into a Longhorns football training facility.

The site of the first desegregated school in Austin, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work,  has delayed its demolition, but it still needs to obtain a State Antiquities Landmark status from a state board to survive. However, it could still be torn down even if it receives this status.

Save the Past for the fUTure, a coalition formed to save the school recently applied for that designation; the Texas Historical Commission will consider the request in late July. But even if the 91-year-old building were to get the designation, it’s not fully out of the woods. UT could still push for demolition, but it would take an extra step—undergoing a state review—which could delay but not stop completely its plans to build a new football practice facility, said former UT professor Barbara Anderson.

“What we’re counting on is the cultural and racial history that building embodies,” Anderson told Chron. “It’s a marker for both the dark history of segregation and the power of education to create an integrated school.”

The building, designed by the famous architect Paul Philipe Cret in the ’30s, was once the home of University Junior High, the first in the area to integrate students of different races. Inside, the building features a mural by beloved Austin artist Raul Valdez. For the last three decades, it has been the main learning facility of the College of Social Work. 

Anderson says that the school’s origin as the first desegregated school by choice still resonates in the lives of its alumnae even decades after it closed in 1967. 

“I’ve talked to kids who went there before they headed to high school, and uniformly, the message is this was a place where the children’s squad, the student council, all those groups, blended all these different kids together,” Anderson said.

The decision to demolish the school was announced last spring when the UT athletic department announced its plans to construct a new training facility at the location of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work building. The department shared renderings of the future facility. It justified its decision by stating that the team required a new facility as they were moving into the SEC this year, as reported by the Austin-American Statesman.

Anderson, who had been teaching students in the building for over two decades, along with another retired UT professor, Kathy Armenta, are leading the initiative to preserve the historic Hicks building. Despite receiving the landmark designation, there is a possibility that the building may still be demolished if UT convinces the state to do so. Anderson jokingly said they would have to rip her out of the trees when asked what the group would do if that came to pass.

“All of these things we’re trying to do take so much mental energy, that I think we just keep following any leads that we can get,” Anderson said. “How would it physically look like to have a 74-year-old woman up in a tree when the bulldozers come? UT has become so repressive about dissent.” 

Edwin Bautista, then a student, voiced his dissatisfaction with a plan to tear down the building in the Austin Chronicle. He was the one who, as a last-ditch effort, submitted a request to the Antiquities Advisory Board that would recommend the school for the landmark designation.

“For the university to disregard [the University Junior High building’s history] is just so disappointing because they are turning their back on our history, and that is something that I’m not willing to accept,” Bautista told Austin-American Statesman columnist Bridget Grumet.

Anderson claims that Hicks Dean Allan Cole informed the faculty that the demolition of a building was part of an offer that was difficult to decline. According to the offer, the athletics department would acquire the land to build a facility, and in return, the School of Social Work would receive $10 million to use as it wished. However, Anderson noted that no memorandum of understanding had been signed to finalize this agreement. 

Athletics director Chris Del Conte said this February at a town hall event that the money would be used to solve homelessness.

Chron attempted to contact Cole but was directed to the school’s marketing representative, who did not answer multiple requests for comment at the time of this publication. A university spokesperson, however, did speak to Grumet.

“We respect the process. There are multiple steps, and we’ll let it play out,” Assistant Vice President for University Communications Mike Rosen said.

In response to a question about why the university is not prioritizing the restoration of the school, he explained to the outlet that the building would be too expensive to restore. He pointed to a master plan by UT in March 2015 that estimated the cost to be $52 million.

Despite the high costs, Save the Past for the fUTure is still looking for any avenue that might preserve the Hicks building.

According to Anderson, the organization is in talks with Preservation Texas, a statewide organization dedicated to preserving historic structures. The group hopes to receive a designation for the most endangered places from this organization. Previously, the group has received support from Preservation Austin, a similar non-profit, but not a designation.