AUSTIN (KXAN) — Last week, a more than 140-year-old house in east Austin was saved from demolition and instead received a historic designation. This happened against the owner’s wishes.
The owner, Eureka Holdings, bought the building, the Goins-Versea-Nitschke House, located at 907 E 13 St, in 2019 and applied for demolition earlier this year, according to Preservation Austin. Eureka Holdings is the Dallas-based developer that bought at least 70 properties from I-35 to Airport Boulevard, making it the single largest landowner on that stretch of road.
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However, Preservation Austin and neighborhood advocates in Swede Hill and east Austin worked to secure a recommendation from the city’s planning department to make part of the house a City of Austin Landmark, which council members voted unanimously to approve during their regular meeting last week. It needed a supermajority of at least nine votes.
The Goins-Versea-Nitschke House is only the sixth known property designated by Austin City Council over an owner’s objections, according to Preservation Austin.
According to Preservation Austin, the building, built between 1873 and 1884, is one of the oldest houses in the Swede Hill area of Austin and a “landmark of East Austin’s working-class German and African American history.”…