One parcel of land is all that's left of the more than 150-year legacy of the St. John Regular Baptist District Association. A $6 million project hopes to renew the mission that's been a cornerstone of the church since 1867.
The St. John Regular Baptist District Association has owned land off Blessing Avenue in Northeast Austin for nearly a century and a half. It's fallen into disrepair, but now the Hungry Hill foundation aims to renovate the campus to serve Austinites experiencing homelessness.Wright knew there’d been unhoused people sleeping in the vacant sanctuary, where he’d effectively taken over as a caretaker. He knew they’d set fires to stay warm amid a late December freeze.
In response, Wright started what's now Hungry Hill, which connects people with resources to get jobs and get off the streets. By his estimation, the organization has helped 187 people get employed and into stable situations.But in 2021, he ventured north to help folks camping illegally at the St. Johns property during the freeze that crippled Austin.
Wright, who went to that elementary school, said he had no idea who it was named after. Discovering the founders' history, he said, was"insane." "Those rights ... were suddenly taken away by exclusion and by violence and intimidation," he said."Organizations like the association were very important to combat that and deal with that as it was a very strong force for a lot of years in America that legal sanctioned discrimination was in place."The St. John's Orphanage closed in 1946. An unsolved fire in 1956 capped decades of land speculation surrounding the high-value property. For nearby residents and the St.
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