On Thursday, December 12, the Austin City Council will vote to designate 1500 East 12th Street as a City of Austin Landmark, protecting it from demolition. Preservation Austin is seeking the public's help to save the over 100-year-old building that was once a thriving center for Black business and culture in the state's capital city.

"We're going to bat for this one building, but it's really more symbolic of the fight to save this entire street and district, because if this building goes it's kind of like a green light for them to keep...bulldozing," Meaghan King, Preservation Austin's Policy & Outreach Planner, told MySA.

Dallas-based developer Eureka Holdings owns over three dozen properties along the historic 12th Street Corridor in East Austin, and 1500 East 12th Street could be the first of many to be demolished, according to Preservation Austin's website. The company reportedly issued eviction notices to commercial tenants to demolish the building and portions of the northwest block at 12th and Comal Streets, which is part of its plan to redevelop the area.

"Eureka just basically bought up all those properties and sat on them, and they want to demolish this building in particular and others, with no real plans for exactly what they're going to do, and especially not any plans to preserve or honor the heritage that's there," King explained.

Founded in 2001, Eureka acquires and renovates public and private "undermanaged apartment properties" to build affordable housing, according to its website. Over the past three decades, East Austin has experienced an unprecedented wave of gentrification that priced out its once-predominately Black and Hispanic community to neighboring suburbs.

Many Black Austinites who still frequent the area for church or to visit the very few Black-owned businesses still in operation, have said they lost a sense of cultural belonging to the area they grew up in since its landscape has changed substantially.

Since Eureka purchased 1500 East 12th Street in 2016, the building has remained abandoned and its condition has declined significantly. King said this also happened to another historic building Eureka owns nearby, the I.Q. Hurdle House, which was designated as a City of Austin landmark.

"If they wanted, they can't, they can't legally demolish the I.Q. Myrtle house because it's a landmark, so it's protected, and that's what we're trying to get for this property as well," King said. "They could still do nothing, but they at least can't demolish it."

The East 12th street building has served East Austin residents since it was built by German immigrants around the late 1800s but potentially early 1900s. It was first a produce store, restaurant and saloon called Eisenbeiser's; then in the 1950s, a Black businessman, Buford Johnson, purchased the building and transformed it into a community hub during the segregation era, limiting where Black Americans could go publicly. The property housed Fifteen Hundred Beauty and Barber Shops and Club Fifteen Hundred, a bar and music venue.

It also became the headquarters for the the first fraternity for Black, Gamma Eta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and by the 1960s, the building had undergone significant improvements and gained recognition as a music venue. In 2004, it was the Ministry of Challenge Rehabilitation Center before Eureka bought the building years later.

This property has been recognized by city staff as meeting the requirements for Historic Landmark designation due to its architectural significance, historical associations, and community value. In addition, it has received unanimous and thoughtful support from the Historic Landmark Commission and the Planning Commission, according to Preservation Austin.

Although Preservation Austin has received an "overwhelming" amount of public support for the building to stay, with over 1,200 petition signatures, King added that Thursday's vote will be challenging because "they have to clear a threshold of nine out of 11 council members to designate it over owners objections."

"That basically hasn't happened in recent history that they've designated over owners objections," King said. "So it's a pretty high hurdle to clear, but we've been having a lot of conversations with council members, and so it's definitely a very high profile case, and could go in our favor."