Austin's historic Palm School is still empty. What will it become?

Members of East Austin’s longstanding Mexican American community will have a say in the redevelopment of the historic Palm School.

On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court agreed on a list of residents and partner organizations that will have a seat on the site’s steering committee and propose concept plans for the site. It also approved funding for an oral history project of the school’s alumni.

The former elementary school building’s future has remained in limbo since Travis County moved its health and human services department out of the building in 2020. The county originally considered selling the building. It eventually rejected a bid from the city and later took the building off the market after pushback from many East Austin Mexican Americans, who opposed the private development of the site. The school served primarily Mexican American students during the last decades of its original life due to segregation and is seen by some as a cultural heritage site.

New committee members applauded the chance to create a community-oriented site.

“Now we get a chance to see what the community wants to see,” committee appointee and former Travis County Commissioner Marcos de Leon said. “The community fought for quite a few years.”

De Leon previously feared the building would be integrated into the Rainey Street entertainment district. Though the original school building is historic, its additions and the parking lot are not, which made it a potential site for developers.

De Leon said his priority would be to ensure that some component of the neighborhood’s Mexican American history is included in the building’s final purpose.

“It should have the names of the Mexican American families who grew up in East Austin … what impact they had on the fabric of East Austin,” he said.

Many ideas for the site have been pitched. The Save Palm School Coalition has called for the construction of a local history museum at the site. Paul Saldaña, one of the coalition’s members, said that a museum could tie into the city visions for a cultural district in the area. Saldaña said he believes planning for the school site will intersect with plans to rebuild the adjacent city-owned park and potential cap-and-stitch projects over Interstate 35.

Most importantly, he said, was moving forward a plan that has “been on pause for three years.”

If a historical component is included within the final plans, it could benefit from the Palm School oral history project the commissioners also approved. They awarded $75,000 to the University of Texas' Latino-focused Voces Oral History Center.

Voces Director Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez said oral history interviews could begin as soon as August. The aim, she said, would be to record alums’ life histories to tell a broader story of the community that once used the school.

Why are Palm School and its park associated with Austin’s Mexican American community?

The Palm School building dates to 1892 and its history, along with that of the adjacent park, helps tell the history of segregation and displacement in Austin.

During the first three decades of the 20th century, the Waller Creek and Rainey Street neighborhoods were ethnically diverse, according to a Texas Department of Transportation historical survey. Early suburbanization and the 1928 master plan made the area less so, with white residents leaving for suburbs and the neighborhoods’ Black residents moving east of East Avenue — later, I-35.

Michael Barnes: Filling out the long history of Austin’s Swante Palm School

This left the neighborhoods around Palm School largely Mexican. Thus, during its final years, the school and park were particularly intertwined with the history of Mexican American life in Austin.

During segregation, Mexican American youth complained about not being allowed to swim at the Palm Park pool. Eventually, it became one of the few pools Mexican Americans were allowed to swim in.

In the 1950s, the construction of I-35 during urban renewal and the city’s push of commercial development west of the freeway further vacated the neighborhoods that used Palm School.

The school closed in 1976, when George Sanchez Elementary School opened on the other side of I-35.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Committee to propose plans for historic Austin Mexican American school