AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is blessed with some remarkable public land, including 515 city parks, and the largest and best known of them all – Zilker Park – lies in the very heart of the Capital City.
But the park as we know it today almost didn’t happen.
Turn the clock back, way back, to the 1800s and imagine this: cattle roaming the banks of Barton Creek. That’s how William Barton used his land and from whom Barton Springs got its name.
By the late 1800s, there was a new landowner who built flour and rice mills there. But what was once destined to become an industrial area eventually became the park we know today as Zilker, thanks to Andrew Zilker who bought the land and built a house there with the idea of eventually selling it to the city of Austin.
He did in 1917, and Zilker Park was born. In the 1930s, city hall had ambitious plans to make the park the envy of other cities. To create jobs during the Great Depression, construction projects sprung up at Zilker. Art deco and stone marvels still stand today.
Who hasn’t been to this versatile park in the heart of the city? Tens of thousands attend the annual ACL Music Festival there. For others, the lure of Barton Springs Pool can be irresistible. Look up as kites swarm the sky for the annual spring kite festival, or celebrate the holidays with the dazzling displays of The Trail of Lights.
Nearly 110 years after it was given to the city, the pride of Austin – Zilker Park – is alive and stronger than ever.