Life in gardens: Austin, Texas

Pressler's Beer Garden, Austin, TX, ca. 1890s, via The Portal to Texas History

Five adults and two children at wooden tables beneath the large trees of Pressler’s Beer Garden, Austin, Texas, between 1890 and 1910, by Samuel B. Hillvia Austin Public Library and The Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).

Pressler’s (originally a brewery) was located at 1327 West 6th Street for more than 30 years, closing in 1910. Its grounds featured a concert hall and dance pavilion,  “ornamental shrubbery, arbors, and a fountain. . . . a boating ramp, a shooting club, and an alligator pond.” Pressler’s also hosted the German-American Austin Garten Association one Sunday every month.

Detail of photo above.
Detail of photo above. Click to enlarge.

The city had at least five biergartens at the time of the photo above“Austin’s beer gardens of the 19th century were tightly woven into the fabric of local social life,” according to an interesting article in The Austin Chronicle, “Gardens of Eden.” “They were convivial places, patronized by both men and women, their families, and children.” They were particularly loved for their musical performances.

Today, only Scholz Garten remains — the oldest operating business in Texas.

The Sunday porch: no idea

dwelling-with-laddernational-library-of-australia“Dwelling with ladder and wooden structure on top,” Dunbar, Queensland, between 1900 and 1951, by John Flynn, via Australian Inland Mission Collection, National Library of Australia Commons on flickr.

I have no explanation for the second-story (sleeping porch maybe?). . . but it’s kinda cool.

Life in gardens: Knoxville, Tennessee

dodson-front-yard-knoxville-tn-1899-library-of-congress“Home of C.C. Dodson, Knoxville,” Tennessee, ca. 1899, via African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Dodson was a jeweler who owned a shop on West Vine Avenue in 1899. ‘Exuberant’ is the word I would use for his family’s front yard.

The photos collected by W.E.B. Du Bois for the 1900 Paris international exhibition particularly featured middle-class African Americans and their homes and institutions. “The photographs of affluent young African American men and women challenged the scientific ‘evidence’ and popular racist caricatures of the day that ridiculed and sought to diminish African American social and economic success,” according to the Library of Congress’s online catalogue.

In 2003, the Library of Congress published a book of 150 of the images, entitled A Small Nation of People.  You can listen to a good NPR interview with its co-author, historian Deborah Willis, here.

Life in gardens: the cottage

1886-by-c-kerry-via-national-library-of-australia

“Three children and a white cat in the garden of a thatched house, Australia, ca. 1886, by Charles H. Kerryvia National Library of Australia Commons on flickr.

Los Angeles

arthur-peck-collection-c-1920-los-angelos-osu-on-flickr

Collegiate Institute, Los Angeles, California, ca. 1920, a hand-colored glass lantern slide, via Arthur Peck Photograph Collection, OSU Special Collections & Archives Commons on flickr.

Arthur Peck was a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Oregon Agricultural College* from 1908 to 1948. This picture was part of his teaching library of 24 boxes of glass lantern slides — now in OSU’s archives.

I like the hose left out on the grass in this otherwise very neat picture. It would illustrate to a class the major problem in maintaining a lawn in Southern California.

Unfortunately, I can’t find anything about a “Collegiate Institute” in Los Angeles.


*The college later became Oregon State University (OSU).