As I walk down the cracked concrete sidewalk to my one-bedroom house, I become far away from Austin traffic, my 9-to-5 job, and the incessant news of the economic recession. At the Wilson Street Cottages, I am closer to what life is really about.
Several times a day I walk this path that separates the two rows of cottages. Along my way, I often encounter my friendly neighbors sitting on their porches and their cats sleeping on worn lawn chairs. The smell of food cooking and incense slowly burning can be smelled in the air and the sound of instruments and voices seeps out of the cottages’ old wooden walls. This peaceful and laid-back environment exemplifies a lifestyle rare in our modern and growing city and with an affordable price, it is also a home for many local musicians. Owner Mitch Ely, however, has had something else in mind for the land on which the cottages reside–a new condo development.
“For them, it’s all about the aesthetic of the neighborhood,” says Miranda Brown, a resident for five years and musician in several bands, including Crooked Fingers and AC Newman. “It’s not about making Austin an affordable place to live for musicians.”
Tucked away in South Austin, the Wilson Street Cottages have always had many artists and local musicians as residents, including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Carolyn Wonderland. At $495 a month, the rent is affordable for creative people who have low-paying jobs. The cheap rent is an essential part of the atmosphere but the real reason why we love it here lies in the people.
“I like my neighbors and I like that I know who my neighbors are,” Miranda says to me as a small gas heater in her bedroom provides us with a little warmth on a cold December night. This atmosphere and community are hard to find in other residences, she adds.
My next-door neighbor Scrappy Jud Newcomb, a musician in several Austin bands including The Resentments and Ian McLagan’s Bump Band, likes the affordable price. A long-time Austin resident, Scrappy says he is not aware of any other dwellings in the city that resemble the cottages, and it’s that atmosphere that keeps him here.
“I like the energy in the air,” he says. “There is no denying that this is a unique place.”
Because of the condo project, residents have spent years with the looming threat of demolition. Scrappy says that when he moved into the cottages about five years ago, there was talk that they were to be torn down soon. But Ely Properties had to plan the development, get permission from the neighborhood planning team, and find a way to get the residents out.
Our demolition blues were eventually replaced with thoughts of relocation, however, when resident and musician Charlie Faye joined with non-profit Design Build Alliance and planned to move the cottages and start a new musicians’ enclave.
But during the past holiday season, there was another change in plans when my neighbors and I received notes from Ely Properties scotch taped to our front doors. I returned home on New Year’s Day to find mine sitting on the old brown bench on my porch. The notes informed us that Ely is indefinitely delaying the once imminent condo project “due to current economic conditions.” A revised development date has not been set and no changes are forecasted for at least six to 12 months.
This notice was not expected yet not surprising. Sitting on my porch drinking a glass of wine one evening, I am glad that I have more time with this home and small community. Several of my neighbors passed by and we chatted about the most recent news. Dan, who works for the Austin Housing Authority, said he was happy, and Deanna, a waitress and bass player, is also happy and feels hopeful that somehow the current land can be purchased.
When Ely eventually begins the condo development, Charlie and the alliance plan to continue their musicians’ community project. They are looking into buying land to put the cottages on, including the current land in South Austin, though that seems unlikely given it is rumored to cost more than $1.5 million.
So once again we residents do not know the future of our home—a familiar uncertainty. Even when Ely decides to start his 62-unit condo project, making the old Austin a little bit harder to find, the spirit of the Wilson Street Cottages will continue on. Just as Austinites today still reminisce about creative landmarks lost in the march of time, such as the Armadillo World Headquarters, Raul’s, Les Amis, and more recently, the Showdown Saloon, so too will people continue to remember this place. With the work of Charlie and Design Build Alliance, hopefully the cottages will exist in a form other than memory, though not on Wilson Street, but somewhere inside Austin city limits.
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For more information, photos, and updates on the Wilson Street Cottages, please visit its Myspace page by Clicking Here.
*Editor’s Note: To be fair, I did request a comment from Ely Properties. However, the manager who I spoke with, whose name I believe was Charles, refused to comment. He also refused to give his last name.
3 Comments
February 4, 2009 at 2:46 am
Fair and balanced.
What a joke.
Not you, Fox News that is.
February 4, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Thank you for this. I had no idea. I love hidden gems in our cities – neighborhoods like this are what make Austin interesting and different from other cities.
March 10, 2009 at 3:05 am
By and by.