Rosewood Courts, along with Santa Rita Courts, is the nation's oldest oldest public housing project constructed under the 1937 Housing Act. Austin's housing authority, the nation's oldest, built the development between November 1938 and September 1939. One of Austin's original three housing projects, Rosewood Courts initially consisted of sixty units reserved for African-American families. The property is historically significant on multiple levels: ethnic heritage, social history and government, community planning and development, and for its unique and important International Style and landscape architecture. In addition, Rosewood Courts was built atop Emancipation Park, Austin's original black owned Juneteenth Parade Ground.
Community efforts to list Rosewood in the country's official list of historic properties have been fought vigorously by the Austin Housing Authority, which seeks to demolish and densify the property instead of rehabilitate and upgrade it. At the State Board of Review meeting in February of 2014, the housing authority shuttled in two vanloads of residents at taxpayer expense to testify against the nomination and in favor of further delay. The review board took the unprecedented step of voting for the delay, for reasons that had nothing to do with historic preservation or the evidence presented in the nomination. The nomination will be taken up again by the board at its next meeting in May of 2014 in Austin.
We urge you to recommend the listing of this property on the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A, B, and C. The property should have been listed under these criteria many years ago, as federal law requires public agencies to list their eligible buildings.
