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Barton
Springs, page 4
Of
historical interest is the story of the Butler Brick Company
whose history is intertwined with Barton Springs. The Butler Brick
Company was founded by Michael Butler in 1873 when he came from Limerick,
Ireland to join his brother Patrick in Austin. The first plant was
located between Congress Avenue and East Avenue (now IH35) but was
washed out by repeated floods. Butler built another plant south of
the river along Barton Springs Road. Butler and Zilker had land that
bordered each other where the fence line met at the old rock bridge
over Barton Creek. If one built a fence, the other did, too. When
one planted alfalfa, the other soon followed. One fenced in Robert
E. Lee Road, so the other told city council to take it down. The Colorado
River filled with deposits of red clay which were eventually used
by Butler to construct bricks for the Paggi House. Bricks were hauled
across the river on a cable (some of the support towers can still
be seen on the shores of Town Lake). Eventually, a city dump was built
on the old brick quarry and then Zilker Park was developed over it.
The pit is still visible along the hike and bike trail and is marshy
and sulfurous. The Butler family finally moved their plant to Sandy
Creek near Elgin because the soil had more clay. Butler's
bricks were used in the construction of City Hall, the capitol building
of 1888, the train depot on Congress Avenue, and the Board of Trade
building.
For more information about Barton Springs, I highly recommend Barton
Springs Eternal, by Turk Pipkin and Marshall Frech; Softshoe Publishing,
The Hill Country Foundation, Austin, Texas, 1993.
Copyright Chandra Moira Beal and La Luna Publishing
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