Fiesta Gardens
2101 Jesse E. Segovia St., Austin, TXFiesta Gardens is a historically significant site in Austin, Texas that was originally built as an event and entertainment complex in 1966. The site is significant in the areas of Community Planning and Development, Social History, and Entertainment and Recreation.
Opened in 1966, Fiesta Gardens in Austin, Texas, is a faux Mexican-themed event and entertainment complex in Central East Austin on the northeast shore of Lady Bird Lake. Designed by architect William C. Holmans, Fiesta Gardens was constructed by Austin Aquatic Gardens, a syndicate funded by the Perkins Group, a coalition of local and regional investors led by businessman and Austin Chamber of Commerce staffer, Tom Perkins, and Ed St. John, former Austin Chamber of Commerce President and Austin Aqua Festival Commodore.6Conceived in 1960 as an inter-regional tourist attraction on par with Alabama’s Bellingrath Gardens and Florida’s Cypress Gardens, both of which featured show-skiing entertainment,Fiesta Gardens opened to the public in May of 1966 after hosting the annual Texas Medical Association convention that April.7The functionally related complex consisted of several principal buildings, a meticulously designed botanical landscape of tropical, flowering, and native vegetation; fountains;a man-made lagoon and accompanying25-seat excursion boat dubbed the “Chaparral;”a hiking trail with scenic overlooks; and a spectator stand overlooking the lagoon.8As a private venture operating on public land, the project was controversial from the start. Nor was Fiesta Gardens as profitable as bullish Perkins Group forecasts had initially predicted, leading the City of Austin to purchase the Perkins Group lease in December 1967 after a City Council vote to recapture the site for public benefit. Despite its unprofitability, Fiesta Gardens served as a popular water-based entertainment, event, and shopping center for tourists from the time of its opening, catering to Anglo visitors in the early days and later expanding, under the city’s ownership, to serve as home base for the city’s annual Austin Aqua Festival, Austin Boat Club races, and other civic and community events.10The complex has been in continuous operation since 1966, and while it no longer serves as a tourist venue, it is still utilized as an event space, hosting large music festivals as well as smaller community-based events.
The Fiesta Gardens district is nominated to the National Register under Criterion A (local level) in the areas of Community Planning and Development, Social History, and Entertainment and Recreation.With respect to Community Planning and Development, the Fiesta Gardens project was pivotal in shaping the development of the northern shore of the then newly created Lady Bird Lake (known contemporaneously as Town Lake) east of Interstate Highway 35, beginning with the construction of the Longhorn Dam in 1960.11Fiesta Gardens is also significant in the context of the city’s community planning and development history as a (failed) public-private venture experiment and the first Austin City Council’s public site repurchase (in 1967) involving development on Lady Bird Lake.Fiesta Gardens is further significant in the context of Social History and Entertainment and Recreation as an “exotic” entertainment venue and tourist attraction that, though based in a Mexican-American residential enclave, catered primarily to Anglo patrons during the Civil Rights era, with a design and programming that relied on only vague references to (as well as outright stereotypes of) authentic Mexican culture.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.