Wooldridge Park
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Wooldridge Park
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The gazebo in Wooldridge Park is a popular spot for outdoor concerts and weddings among other engagements.
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| Location | Austin, Texas, USA |
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| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Built | 1909 |
| NRHP Reference # | 79003018 |
| Added to NRHP | August 1, 1979 |
Wooldridge Park, also known as Wooldridge Square, is a park in Austin, Texas, United States. It is one of the four original public squares incorporated into Downtown Austin through the 1839 city master plan drawn up by Edwin Waller. This area was designated as a public square on original 1839 plat of City of Austin, but lay vacant for 70 years.
In an era of civic pride in 1909, however, Austin Mayor A. P. Wooldridge sponsored the cleaning of the square and the construction of a classical revival style gazebo for public engagements, and it officially opened the same year.[1] The park was dedicated on June 18, 1909 to considerable aplomb with dedicatory address being made by the Mayor. Mayor Wooldridge was instrumental in organizing the city's first public school system, in bringing the Austin & Northwestern Railroad here, and in building the first dam on the Colorado River within the city limits.
Wooldridge Park is unique as the only public square in Austin to have retained its original function since its establishment more than one hundred thirty years ago. When the first city plans were drawn in 1840, four such squares were included. The other three underwent various uses over time, hosting parking lots, a fire station, a church, a museum, and businesses. Wooldridge Park alone has remained an essential element of Austin's outdoor social, musical, and political life.[2]
Wooldridge Park consists of a city block, a natural basin whose sides are sloped inward to form an amphitheater. In its center is a bandstand. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[3]
