Detail from Augustus Koch,
Birds-Eye View of the City of Austin, 1873.
Center for American History, Univ. of Texas at Austin.
For the full map, click
here.
Little Shoal Creek cuts right through the block. Closer to San
Antonio there's a steep hill.
Sue McBee reports, "Folklore has it that Indians camped on this site,
which had a creek flowing just west of the bluff, and that two colonists' daughters
may have been carried away from the spot during Indian raids."
Source: Sue Brandt McBee, Austin: The Past Still Present, Heritage
Society of Austin, 1975, pg. 122. See also Samuel E. Gideon, Historic
and Picturesque Austin, 1936, pg.27 ("This spot on the hill breathes
romance. It is said that in the early days of Texas history, Indian
raids were staged, and at one time two Texas maidens were carried from its
vicinity into savage captivity, which, however, endured but for a short
time.").
