Masontown (Shoal Creek)

Travis County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: 1889

Council of Governments: CAPCOG

Public History: Masontown was a black community located in what is now east Austin in Travis County. It was bounded to the south by what is now Third Street, to the north by Sixth Street, to the west by Waller Street, and to the east by Chicon Street. Sam and Raiford Mason, the two brothers for whom the community was named, bought the first property in this area in 1867. Former slaves from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia settled in Masontown. At one time the community had two Baptist churches and as many as 200 residents. By the 1980s, however, Masonville was no longer identifiable as a distinct neighborhood. (https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrm80)

A freedmen community was established on the east side of Shoal Creek and roughly concentrated around Nueces, San Antonio, and Guadalupe Streets, north of E. 4th Street. The Metropolitan African Methodist Episocopal (AME) Church was established nearby in the 1970s at W. 9th Street and San Antonio (the site of the Austin History Center today). An African-American school also developed in the area. There does not appear to be an official name for the community, but it was well established by the nineteenth century. … Until fairly recently, a small cluster of frame houses remained on Wood Street adjacent to Shoal Creek. These were the last vestiges of the former African- American community, but the houses have since been razed. A request for an Official Texas Historical Marker was submitted to the Texas Historical Commission in 2016 to commemorate the area. The Metropolitan AME Church remains an active congregation on Austin’s eastside at 1101 E. 10th Street. (African-American Settlement Survey Travis County, Texas (October 2016) Prepared by the Travis County Historical Commission; Mears, 44, quoting Jane Manaster, “The Ethnic Geography of Austin, Texas, 1875-1910.” Master’s thesis, University of Texas at Austin, May 1996; available at the Austin History Center; Mears, Michelle M. And Grace Will Lead Me Home: African American Freedmen Communities of Austin, Texas, 1865-1928. Texas Tech University Press. 2009. p. 3.)

Community History: There are no current community descriptions of Masontown. Please consider sharing your own knowledge of the community with us.