City of Austin - Austin Treasures: Hyde Park

In developing Hyde Park, Shipe provided all the amenities necessary to create a desirable place to live. He built miles of graveled streets and took particular pride in maintaining them, claiming that "no city west of Boston can boast of finer drives."

By 1910 Hyde Park had become virtually a town in itself, with its own school, churches, and all manner of shops and services. Contributing to this sense of self-sufficiency was the prevailing rural lifestyle. Almost every household kept livestock and grew its own fruits and vegetables. Grocery stores did not stock these perishable items.

Shipe arranged to have Austin's first tower light (moonlight tower) installed at 41st and Speedway. One hundred and fifty feet high with six lights each producing 2,000 candle power, it "cast a mellow glow" for hundreds of feet, allowing newspapers to be read at midnight.

Map of all Moonlight Tower locations

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"Boss" Thorp posed with the family's chickens about 1925. Almost all residents of Hyde Park kept chickens at that time. As Lewis Beck of 400 West 38th Street asked, "If you wanted eggs or fried chicken how else would you get them?"

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Photograph of Herber Family seated on porch

Shaded front porches helped Hyde Parkers keep cool in the summer and provided a place for socializing. The Herber family of 201 West 39th Street relaxes on their porch in 1925.

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Photograph of Shipe residence in distance and streetcar entering scene on right

Only the Shipe home is visible on what later became Avenue G. The streetcar is about to turn north off 40th Street at the eastern edge of its loop.

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		Streetcars entered the "loop" for Hyde Park at 40th Street, traveled east to Avenue G, then north to 43rd, west to Avenue B, finally turning south to 40th and back to Guadalupe. Following M.M. Shipe's completion of the system in 1891, the streetcars provided Hyde Park with transportation downtown for fifty years.
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Photograph of open-air electric streetcar with Conductor McKinney and Motorman Campbell in front of car

Conductor Joe McKinney and motorman Buddy Campbell operate a summer streetcar in 1912. Unlike the winter cars, which had windows, the summer cars were open to allow air to circulate.

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Photograph showing sidewalk and street with hackberry trees alongside

M.M. Shipe took particular pride in Hyde Park's streets. He kept them well maintained and even planted a double row of hackberries alongside to beautify them.

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		Lois Ellis drives her kiddie car on the graveled sidewalk in front of her parents' caf� about 1925. Other shops in the background were part of Hyde Park's main business district on Guadalupe.
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Photograph of Shipe Residence in background

Monroe M. Shipe, who developed Hyde Park as Austin's first planned suburb, completed his home at 39th Street and Avenue G in 1902. He and his wife Adele often held parties in their backyard.

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Photograph of woman and six children kneeling among plants in garden

Neighborhood children crouch among the cabbage of Emmert's Garden at 4300 Avenue D.

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