Delwood Duplex Historic District

The Delwood Duplex Historic District is located just over two miles northeast of the state capitol in Austin, and is comprised entirely of duplex apartment buildings constructed in 1948. The duplexes are two?story boxes constructed of concrete masonry units, covered with stucco and few decorative details, but their porch configurations and roof forms — front-facing gable, side-facing gable, or hipped—lend them the appearance of minimal or stripped Colonial Revival style houses. Each building contains two apartments, one per floor, with two bedrooms and one bathroom. Arranged with uniform setbacks, most buildings are accompanied by a freestanding two?car garage of concrete block. Each duplex has developed an individual character over the years, as many of the building exteriors have been painted bright colors or slightly modified; however, the vast majority of these small alterations are compatible with the historic materials. Of the 77 duplexes in this district, 72 of them (93 percent) are classified as contributing properties. There are 62 garages within the district boundaries, of which 53 (85 percent) are contributing. With no teardowns or major additions, the Delwood Duplex Historic District retains a remarkably high degree of integrity.

The Delwood Duplex Historic District in Austin, Texas, is a wholly intact example of a residential development constructed to meet the housing needs of moderate income families after World War II. The neighborhood illustrates post-war suburban development patterns fueled by the “baby boom,” advances in building technology, federal incentives for home ownership, and trends in mass production and tract development occurring throughout the nation. Representative of national housing trends during the mid-twentieth century, it is the only concentration of duplex tract housing in the city of Austin. The period of significance is the date of construction in 1948. The Delwood Duplex Historic District is nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development.

The Delwood Duplex Historic District is located northeast of downtown Austin between U.S. Interstate Highway 35 and the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport site, which is now the Mueller mixed?use development. The southwest boundary of the historic district wraps Maplewood Elementary School, constructed in 1952, and the west boundary abuts the Delwood shopping center, constructed in 1951 but rebuilt extensively in the 1990s. The larger neighborhood is known today as Cherrywood and features predominantly single-family homes, executed in wood and stone in minimal traditional or ranch styles.

The Delwood Duplex District encompasses all of the Delwood III subdivision and a strip of lots along the western edge of the neighboring Willow Brook Addition. The other homes in Willow Brook are single-family residences that typically were constructed to an owner’s specifications, or by the developer who offered to build a two bedroom, one bathroom house on the lot for $10,000. Delwood I and II are architecturally unrelated subdivisions directly north of the duplexes developed during the same period.

The multi-family, two-story concrete duplexes of the district stand in contrast to the surrounding single-family housing stock. The duplexes differ not only in materials and form, but in function as well, offering a lower-cost option for families of modest means during the post-war housing boom.