The West Line Historic District is a residential community in central

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, United States. The district encompasses an approximately 90-block tract of land located west of downtown. Bounded by Baylor Street to the east, Fifth Street to the south, Thirteenth Street to the north and Texas State Highway Loop 1 to the west. It is located south of the Old West Austin Historic District and southeast of the Clarksville Historic District. The district comprises more than twenty-five subdivisions platted between 1871 and 1948, out of the George W. Spear League and Division Z of the government lands west of the original city center. Early settlement in the area consisted of expansive estates, later subdivided in response to the city's burgeoning population. After the 1887 construction of the West Sixth Street Bridge over Shoal Creek, the West Sixth Street streetcar line, commonly referred to as the West Line, extended into the district from downtown and facilitated the development of suburban tracts. Due to the piecemeal development and hilly topography of the area, the streets form an irregular rectilinear grid. A number of notable nineteenth-century residences and institutional buildings exist throughout the district, but the preponderance of resources consist of Craftsman and

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

-influenced bungalows built during the height of the area's development from the 1910s-1930s. In keeping with the original developers' intentions, the historic district maintains strong residential characteristics. The area was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2005. It includes the neighborhoods of Raymond Heights, Raymond Plateau and Shelley Heights.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Neighborhoods in Austin, Texas National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas