Hyde Park Local Historic District
Platted in 1891 by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Land and Town Co., Hyde Park was marketed
under the direction of Monroe Martin Shipe as an affluent suburb featuring large, majestic
residences. The 1891 completion of Shipe's streetcar line provided reliable transportation to
downtown. Trees were planted, parkland, lakes, and a theater pavilion augmented the pastoral
quality of the area, marketed as the "fashionable part of the wealthiest and most aristocratic city in
the land." The first houses built in the neighborhood were stylistic examples of late 19th-century
domestic architecture. Many, such as the Oliphant-Walker House at 3900 Avenue C, were built in
the Queen Anne style by locally prominent citizens.
Shipe's vision of Hyde Park as a self-sufficient community led him to provide municipal services,
including mail delivery, street lighting, and sanitation, as well encouraging churches, schools and
stores to locate in the neighborhood. Residents had access to establishments such as the Avenue B
Grocery and the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church.
Sluggish land sales prompted considerable changes in marketing strategies within 8 years of Hyde
Park's founding. Shipe began portraying it as a neighborhood for the middle and working classes. In
response, Hyde Park’s architectural character shifted to smaller, more modest frame houses. While
fairly steady growth characterized the area throughout the first part of the century, its greatest
building boom occurred between 1924 and 1935. And this cache is near Austin's first moon tower! Erected by Monroe Martin Shipe.