Texas' oldest psychiatric facility faces demolition but is eligible to be a historic landmark
This past legislative session, lawmakers identified the Austin State Hospital as a top health care funding priority and set aside $165 million for its refurbishment. Texas Health and Human Services and the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School are overseeing the modernization of the state hospital campus and moving forward with plans to demolish five historic buildings on the property to make way for a 400,000-square-foot modern facility that will comprise the Brain Health Campus.
“We’re looking at the planned loss of half the buildings in the potential district,” said Evan Thompson, the executive director of Preservation Texas. Thompson told the Austin Monitor that the five buildings slated to be razed are salvageable structures that are irreplaceable pieces of history. They are also among the few original structures left on the 95-acre property. “You wouldn’t believe how many buildings have been demolished on this campus in the last 40 years,” he said.
Nevertheless, even with only a fraction of the structures standing, the campus is eligible to become a National Register Historic District. According to Thompson, the Texas Historical Commission has already recommended the site for historic designation, and he said that the last step is simply to gather all the appropriate documentation paperwork and “just make it official.” This designation would not only protect the five buildings on track for demolition but also the rest of the property.
Christine Mann, a spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services, told the Monitor in an email, “The current site was selected because it created the least disruption to hospital and state employee functions. The site for the new hospital currently has several buildings that are unoccupied because of structural or mechanical deficiencies.”
Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2019/10/texas-oldest-psychiatric-facility-faces-demolition-but-is-eligible-to-be-a-historic-landmark/
