These Austin historic sites received nearly $33M for upgrades, rehabilitation work
Austin City Council approved Thursday the nearly $33 million allocation for historic preservation and restoration projects for fiscal year 2024-25. That funding amounted to:
Nearly $14 million for capital improvement projects at historic sites
Just over $3 million for staffing resources to aid operations
$3.2 million for heritage preservation grants at certain historic sites
$10 million for land appropriation for 'potential future historic acquisition or major preservation project,' per city documents
$2.5 million for a contract with Rally Austin 'for the implementation and disbursement of the Iconic Venue Fund and associated support fees'
Some of the sites receiving city dollars include the Old Bakery & Emporium, Evergreen Cemetery, Austin History Center, Deep Eddy Grocery & Cabaret, Huston-Tillotson University and the Neill-Cochran House. A breakdown of those capital improvement projects and heritage preservation grant recipients is detailed below.
From an operations standpoint, council approved nearly $3.2 million for the following facilities:
13 temporary staff, 10 full-time employees, program administration and general historic property maintenance personnel at: Old Bakery & Emporium, O. Henry Museum, Susanna Dickinson Museum, Elisabet Ney Museum, Oakwood Chapel Visitor Center and Montopolis Negro School
Security personnel at Brush Square
2 full-time employees along with personnel in contract and program administration, education and outreach, promotional programming, tourism marketing training and tourism advertising for the Parks and Recreation Heritage Tourism
Content and digital asset management and tourism marketing at the Austin History Center
The Heritage Tourism Division under the city's Parks and Recreation Department helps overseeing tourism programming and funding initiatives to support historic sites and museums in Austin. Funding for these efforts come courtesy the city's special revenue historic preservation fund, which receives 15% of the seven-cent portion of the city's Hotel Occupancy Tax, per council documents.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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