Hyper-local history series
“Icarus in Heels and Fur”
After Vera Barton inherited and expanded Ollie Barton’s post-prohibition entertainment businesses at 12th and Chicon, she was viciously murdered. The detective who charged her young husband ran for office on his new found fame, becoming Travis County’s longest serving Sheriff. Civil rights leaders galvanized around the likely-innocent defendant, who was ultimately freed. So who really killed Vera Barton and why?
Most recent past Zine
Meet Me at Hudspeth’s Corner
The first zine in the series is still available, for a limited time! Telling the story of the commercial district at 14th and Cedar, our first zine reveals, for the first time, details about the family that built the original homes on Cedar Ave and its cross streets. Walter and Silas Hudspeth built homes for incoming family, and ran a grocery business at the corner of 14th and Cedar. Walter’s daughter Essie May Barton (nee Hudspeth) expanded the businesses and named the redeveloped grocery after her father — Hudspeth’s Corner. The Hudspeth story, pulled together from never-before compiled primary sources (insurance maps, newspaper ads, the Chauffer’s Travel Guide, city directories and more) is a century long saga that illuminates the origin of a fast gentrifying central Austin neighborhood and the strength of those who originally built it. Art by local artist Lakeem Wilson.