Prominent Upon a Hill

The Unlikely Birth and Growth of Austin

December 2020-May 2022 

In 1838, the site that would be come Austin, TX was unincorporated, home to four families and a stockade of animals. It was thirty miles west of the western-most Central Texas settlement (Bastrop), the land wasn’t particularly fertile for crops, and there was no navigable river. The landscape was indeed beautiful, with off-white limestone cliffs, rolling hills, and the lazy, shallow Colorado river running through it, but you would have been called crazy if you had suggested that, one day, it would be among the most populous cities in the United States.

This exhibition chronicles Austin history from President Lamar's 1839 decision to establish a national capital out on the frontier, to the establishment of the University of Texas, to the city's segregation in the 1920s, to the explosive growth of more recent years.

Learn why Sam Houston called Austin “the most unfortunate site on earth for The Seat of Government,” and decide for yourself whether you agree!