AUSTIN (KXAN) — A 75-year-old housing cooperative nestled in the West Campus neighborhood near the University of Texas at Austin will receive a historic designation after a Thursday vote by the Austin City Council.
The Whitehall Cooperative Building, located at 2500 Nueces Street, originally served as a residence for female students attending UT Austin. The cooperative association got its start in 1949 in order to help them find affordable housing.
It was also one of the first UT Austin co-ops that voted to integrate in 1956. However, UT would not allow them to do so until 1965.
In 1960, four of the co-op’s members purchased the building for $25,000.
A Preservation Austin press release on Friday said that it was “thrilled” at the council’s decision.
The historical nonprofit wrote a letter of support to the council ahead of Thursday’s meeting. In it, Preservation Austin President Miriam Conner said that Whitehall was “one of the very last affordable housing options in West Campus.”
“Preservation Austin is proud to support Whitehall Cooperative in its pursuit of historic designation so it may continue its historic mission of providing affordable housing to the people of Austin,” she wrote.
According to co-op member Nate Zaffrio, developers have offered several times to buy Whitehall. The co-op has rejected those offers.
“These offers have been promptly and emphatically rejected, as we do not view our house as a commodity to be bought and sold,” Zaffrio wrote. “Our steadfastness, unfortunately, has not been heeded by speculators and assessors, who have placed our house’s market value above $2 million—resulting in property taxes that seriously threaten Whitehall’s ability to remain affordable for our renter-owners.”
According to the cooperative’s website, the group is a “democratically run, vegetarian, multi-generational housing cooperative.”
“Our members have varied a great deal over the years. We have had families with children, octogenarians, and everything in between,” its website reads. “The average duration of occupancy is 18 months, with some staying for much longer. We prefer for members to stay for at least a year.”
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