D.4.0 - 2500 Rosewood Ave — original pdf

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HISTORIC LANDMARK COMMISSION DEMOLITION AND RELOCATION PERMITS NOVEMBER 15, 2021 PR-21-148307; GF-2021-164895 2500 ROSEWOOD AVENUE D.4 – 1 PROPOSAL Demolish a ca. 1948 house. ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH One-story, roughly rectangular plan flat-roofed, masonry house with mid-century Modern details, including a prominent masonry chimney. Windows were replaced in 2013. The house was built in 1948 by contractor Oliver Street for Huston-Tillotson music professors Bertrand and Hazel Poole Adams, who lived in this house almost until the time of their deaths. Both were very active in the music and band departments at Huston-Tillotson. Bertrand Adams was also a bandleader in Austin playing music recitals for the community. After graduating from Wiley College, he entered the military and came to central Texas. He began his work at Huston- Tillotson in 1945 and taught music there until 1955. He left the world to become an agent for an all-Black insurance company, and formed the Austin chapter of the National Business League. Hazel Adams continued teaching at Huston- Tillotson in the music department. They contributed heavily to promoting Austin’s Black musicians. PROPERTY EVALUATION The property is beyond the boundary of the 2016 East Austin Historic Resources Survey and was not included in any previous survey. Designation Criteria—Historic Landmark 1) The building is more than 50 years old. 2) The building appears to retain high integrity. 3) Properties must meet two criteria for landmark designation (LDC §25-2-352). Staff has evaluated the property and determined that it may meet two criteria: a. Architecture. The building embodies some of the tenets of mid-century Modern design in its long and low configuration, its exaggerated chimney, and its horizontal composition. b. Historical association. The property is associated with Huston-Tillotson professors Bertrand and Hazel Adams. More research will be necessary to evaluate their significance and contributions to the community. c. Archaeology. The property was not evaluated for its potential to yield significant data concerning the human history or prehistory of the region. d. Community value. The property does not possess a unique location, physical characteristic, or significant feature that contributes to the character, image, or cultural identity of the city, the neighborhood, or a particular demographic group. e. Landscape feature. The property is not a significant natural or designed landscape with artistic, aesthetic, cultural, or historical value to the city. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Postpone to December 13, 2021 to further evaluate the significance of Bert and Hazel Adams as well as alternatives to demolition. LOCATION MAP D.4 – 2 D.4 – 3 PROPERTY INFORMATION 2500 Rosewood Avenue Ca. 1948 1957 Mrs. Hazel P. Adams, owner Teacher, public school 1952 Hazel P. Adams, owner 1949 Bertrand and Hazel Adams, owners Instructor, Samuel Huston College Music director D.4 – 4 D.4 – 5  D.4 – 6 D.4 – 7 D.4 – 8 Building permit for the construction of this house (1947) Ex-business leader, professor of music Bertrand Adams dies Ja n u a ry 6, 1999 | Au s tin Am e rica n -Sta te sm a n (TX) Bertrand ``Bert'' Adams, a former Huston-Tillotson College music professor who also dedicated many years to promoting African American entrepreneurship, died of heart disease Monday at home in Austin. He was 86. ``He was a great musician himself, and he inspired the young men and young women who D.4 – 9 took music,'' said John Q. Taylor King, the former president of Huston-Tillotson College. ``He could play anything, but he was a great jazz musician." Adams was inducted into the Clarksville West End Jazz and Arts Festival's hall of fame in 1994, an honor that he said surpassed the dozens he had received during his long career in government service and as the founder of the Cen-Tex chapter of the National Business League. Adams was born in Waco, graduated from Wiley College in Marshall and earned a master's in education at Texas Southern University. He spent the next three years as a trombone player in a U.S. Navy band. He began teaching at Samuel Huston College in Austin in 1945 and continued after the merger that created Huston-Tillotson College in 1952. In 1955, he left the college for a job with the State of Texas. He worked in the office of minority business enterprise and held several other positions during a 26-year career in government. During a break in his government work, he was the co-owner of an East Austin car dealership. In the early 1980s, he retired as the procurement director of the Texas Industrial Commission. His survivors include his wife, Hazel Poole Adams, of Austin and one daughter, Brenda Shepherd, of Plano. A funeral will be at 11 a.m. today at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1160 San Bernard St. Burial will follow at Evergreen Cemetery. Ca p tio n : July 7, 2005 Hazel Hazel Madre Poole Adams was born March 22, 1913, to the late Dr. H. H. Poole and Mrs. Anna Romby Poole. She received her Bachelor's degree in Education from Wiley College in East, Tex., and a Master's in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She had been a member of Wesley United Methodist Church in Austin, Tex., but more recently was an active member of Kingdom Hall's Springdale Congregation in Austin, Tex., and Kingdom Hall's Preston Park Congregation in Plano, Tex. Mrs. Adams was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Jack and Jill of America, Her beloved husband of fifty-six Inc. and The Links, Inc., Austin Chapter. years, Bertrand Adams, preceded her in death. Surviving family include daughter Poole Adams D.4 – 10 III; Scott "Trey" Cameron Shepherd, July 9, 2005, Brenda Adams Shepherd; son-in-law Charles A. "Chuck" Shepherd, Jr.; grandson Charles Shepherd. great-grandson A. Services Friday, July 8, 2005, 7:00 p.m. in the chapel of King-Tears Mortuary, Inc. at Evergreen Cemetery. Interment Saturday, In lieu of flowers, please send donations in the name of the Bertrand and Hazel Poole Adams Memorial Scholarship Fund to Huston-Tillotson University, Attn: Vickie Minor. (King-Tears Mortuary, Inc.) 10:00 a.m.