The Neill-Cochran House is one of Austin's oldest homes, but it was only in recent years that the museum staff discovered the two-story outbuilding behind the main house was originally used to house enslaved people. | marisacharp
This two-story building at the Neill-Cochran House Museum in West Campus is thought to be the last remaining slave quarters in Austin.
on racism and racial equity that are open to the public. The project started 12 years ago when McGill, who does preservation work in South Carolina, noticed how historic This weekend, McGill is staying at the slave quarters located at the Neill-Cochran House Museum, a Greek Revival house built in 1856 that now hosts art and Austin history exhibits. Hundreds of UT Austin students walk by the site daily. Located on San Gabriel Street in the heart of West Campus, the museum is surrounded by student apartment complexes and sorority and fraternity houses.
includes discussions and presentations on historic preservation and racial equity, as well as museum tours and community events“Most people don't know [the slave quarters are] here,” said Rowena Houghton Dasch, the museum’s executive director. “It's the last intact slave dwelling in Austin and a resource for all of us who would like to better understand our city's past.”The Neill-Cochran House Museum is a Greek Revival residence built in 1856.
Then, around 2016, Dasch was researching and writing about the house when it dawned on her that the original home had no space dedicated to the home’s upkeep — no space for laundry, cooking or storing cleaning supplies. So, she realized, all those things must have been done in buildings outside the main house. And at the time the house was built in the 1850s, a third of Austin’s population was enslaved.
“Being able to find these stories and to repopulate this site with some of those persons and their voices,” Dudley said, “that’s an extremely important part of this project and a practice that I think is helpful for more closely engaging with the history of Austin.”The slave dwelling is a two-story square building, and each floor is about 225 square feet. A hatch door in the ceiling connected the two stories.
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