National Register Listing

Wilshire Historic District

Bounded by SPRR, Ardenwood Rd., Wilshire Blvd. & the Delwood III subdivision, Austin, TX

Wilshire Historic District is a collection of architect-designed Ranch houses built in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Wilshire Wood and Wilshire Park neighborhoods represent a significant local example of auto-oriented suburban development during the 1940s and 1950s. The neighborhood was among the first in Austin to deviate from a rectilinear grid plan and feature irregularly sized and shaped lots on streets that curved with the changes in topography. Subdivision restrictions stipulated that houses would be architect-designed, set a minimum house size and cost, and required generous setbacks. Most houses were ranch style. The Wilshire Historic District is nominated to the National Register at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development, and under Criterion C in the area of Architecture.

Although topography is the primary reason for the curving street patterns of the Wilshire Historic District—one of Austin's earliest residential developments to deviate from the grid plan—its origins also can be traced to the picturesque, winding streets of the streetcar suburbs of the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which began with Frederick Law Olmsted's plan for Riverside, to the southwest of Chicago. Transportation, from streetcars through the automobile, played a significant role in the development of housing removed from the city center, allowing commuters to live in park-like settings surrounded by grass lawns and gardens. Suburbanization in the United States continued with the development of metropolitan motorways during the 1930s, but slowed during the nation's involvement in World War II. Residential development exploded throughout the country after the war's end, however, due to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944, which authorized a system of interstate highways and metropolitan expressways, making commutes from suburb to city much easier. The return of veterans from military service, many of whom had growing families, also spurred this period of intensive suburbanization, as they strove to obtain a secure place among the middle class, complete with the idealized single-family home.

Even as building materials and styles varied across the country, consistencies in development patterns and construction methods may be observed in post-war neighborhoods like Wilshire Wood and Wilshire Park, due to the Federal Housing Authority's planning guidelines. The FHA encouraged appropriate lot sizes and setbacks, street sizes and formation, and access to services and amenities, such as the nearby Delwood shopping center. For their picturesque qualities, curvilinear street layouts and consideration of existing topography were recommended as preferred alternatives to the common gridiron pattern of streets.

The Ranch house—which is often traced to the experimental designs of California architects practicing between the wars—was designed as a sprawling, low-lying, linear dwelling well-suited to spacious suburban lots like those in the nominated Wilshire Historic District. Characterized by asymmetrical, one-story forms with broad facades and low-pitched roofs with deep overhangs, the Ranch house typically incorporated integral garages or carports, emphasizing the importance of the automobile to this neighborhood and housing type. Natural materials, including brick, stone, and wood painted or stained in neutral colors, were the standard for this architectural style. The Ranch house often wrapped around a patio or courtyard space, which were private havens away from the street and ideal for entertaining and family barbecues. Open floor plans provided a luxuriant feeling of spaciousness, even in the smallest of tract homes, while large expanses of glass allowed a visual connection to the outdoors. At the same time, these aspects of a typical Ranch style home also allowed young parents to observe their children at play in dens and "family rooms," and outdoors on neighborhood streets, front lawns, and in backyards. These features are found among the architect-designed Ranch houses of Wilshire Wood and Wilshire Park, as this type became the dominant house form in American suburbs from the late 1940s through the 1960s.

The Wilshire Historic District is an excellent local example of an evolving suburban residential development, with influences from early automobile suburbs to postwar tracts. The curving streets, generous setbacks, large lots, and deed restrictions represent national suburban development trends applied to a Texas town in the 1940s and 1950s. The Wilshire Historic District is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development as an early curvilinear subdivision in Austin and representative of the city's postwar development It is also nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as a highly intact collection of early to mid-twentieth century Ranch housing styles.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.