While leaders of the Austin Public Library prepared to kick off the ceremony for the reopening of the Austin History Center, the automatic door that serves as the entrance to the facility continued to slide open, letting in more and more attendees. It was clear this event was a big deal for a lot of people.
After eight years of development, the history center opened its doors to the public on Dec. 7, and Austinites showed up. Volunteers of the feted organization scrambled for seating arrangements. And although they never managed to wheel out enough seats for all of the hundred or so attendees, their efforts did not go unnoticed.
The surprising number of community members who made their way to 800 Guadalupe that Sunday afternoon is a testament to what the space means to the city and how far the Austin Public Library and Austin History Center have come to reach this point.
Between 1933 and 1979, the building that sits at Ninth and Guadalupe served as the city’s central public library. In 1955, the Austin-Travis County Collection was established within the library. A quarter century later, the building got a next-door neighbor: the John Henry Faulk Building, which would open to the public as the new central library in 1979. Shortly after, in 1983, the building that served as the city’s central library branch for nearly 50 years formally became the Austin History Center.
Over the last 40 years, the 40,000 square feet that make up the original history center have been put to the test. As the records rapidly grew, open space became scarce. APL leaders and the city knew that expansion was needed. In 2006, voters approved funding for what Austinites now know as the Central Library branch that overlooks Lady Bird Lake. With the opening of the $126 million space in 2017, the process of moving the Austin History Center to the John Henry Faulk Building began.
Now, after a global pandemic, changes in leadership oversight, and $14.5 million later, the Austin History Center has officially reopened in the Faulk Building.
On the Move
Those who spearheaded the project are quick to say that the development was far from easy, yet necessary, nonetheless. After holding all of the city’s and community’s records since 1955, available space became scarce. “Frankly, the building was bursting at the seams,” said Adam Powell, executive director of the Austin History Center Association, a separate nonprofit associated with APL.
Jennifer Hecker, head of reference services at the Austin Public Library and Austin History Center, echoed Powell’s remark on the lack of space that was becoming a growing issue: “We were operating with just making do in that 1933 library,” Hecker said.
Luckily enough for Hecker and the rest of the staff that had been housed in the 1933 building, the move to their new HQ was just a few steps away. But that only made the process slightly easier. Hecker will be the first to tell you that moving the collection that reaches back into the 1800s was no light lift. And because the luxury of a functioning elevator was off the table, the staff was tasked with hauling the load down flights of stairs. Fortunately, friends and family, along with the everyday staff and volunteers, lent a helping hand.
“We had a bunch of volunteers from the community helping like physically move boxes over here and everything like that, and then cleaning up over there,” Hecker said.
Although the move took many days and maybe a couple of pulled muscles, everyone involved in the work that the Chronicle spoke to said that it made sense for more reasons than the fact that it was right next door.
The Faulk Building, originally designed as a library, had many of the necessary features that a facility must have in place in order to house archives, said Cody Scott, facilities process manager at APL. He said that the brutalist building was an innovative build for the time that it was constructed – open-floor planning, windows that were already suitable UV fits to protect archives, plenty of room for large shelving, and more.
All that was needed was a lot of dough and a little tender love and care. “That’s a tiny, tiny price to pay for preserving our city’s history and for making sure we have a real exemplar archive,” Powell said.
But that isn’t to say that there weren’t plenty of constructional developments that took place to reach this moment: HVAC system improvements, installing LED lighting, and plenty of other nitty-gritty changes that can easily go unnoticed by visitors.
Shaping the Space
The move across the parking lot to the Faulk Building made sense for a lot of reasons, including the convenience of being so close to the original location and already having facilities that are essential for any history center to have. But, on top of that, most of those involved in the project told the Chronicle that the space, which previously served as their main library location, holds true sentimental value. They are glad that the structure remains intact, continuing its service to the community.
Scott mentioned that, when he was a teenager, he found himself inside the building searching to solidify his personal identity. The project is particularly meaningful to him, having overseen operations over the past three years. “Fast-forward in time, I find myself walking back into the same building, walking up the same stairs, but this time, I’m responsible for renovating this building,” Scott said.
And it’s not just them, Hecker added: “It was the library, so people have real strong emotions about it.” She also said that it just made sense for the Austin History Center to call a historic space its home. “It’s the history center, so where else are you going to preserve a little history?” she mused.
Scott’s vision, along with his predecessors’, sought to design the space in a way that allows the cornerstones of the structure to remain – the columns, the coffered ceiling, and more. Even some of the original furniture has been restored and is in use, nearly a half-century later.
“Even though I have to build up the infrastructure in this building and bring it up to code and bring it up to the uses that we would like to see, it’s important that we maintain, and not just maintain, but we also showcase the history of this building, the architectural beauty of it,” Scott said.
With any eight-year construction project, there are bound to be a few obstacles along the way. This was no different for the development of the new facility. Around the middle of the project’s life cycle, Scott took over responsibility of overseeing all developments from John Daniels, after Daniels served in the role for a short stint following longtime facilities process manager John Gillum’s retirement. Scott said that the transition was not too big of an issue, as he was already involved in the work. The bigger challenge was switching gears in certain aspects where he had a differing vision from Gillum and Daniels. That took time and delicate decision-making.
“The obstacles really are just making sure that we take our time to get it done right and not rushing to meet a deadline and then selling something short,” he said.
The archival team’s day-to-day tasks were drastically altered throughout the process, having to completely close access to the archives during times when the facility was not open to the public. This led to them creating a pretty hefty wait list for those attempting to conduct research.
“Having to send them emails in September that say, ‘I’ve got you in my queue, and I’ll get back to you by the beginning of November,’ instead of like, ‘Come on down, we’re open.’ Stuff like that was stressful,” Hecker said.
Part of the history center’s collection is sourced as donations from the community through the history center’s community archivist program that builds relationships with underdocumented communities to preserve their history. Those donations had to go on hold during the closures. “There were a couple of times when we had to make exceptions because we can’t let history go in the dumpster,” Hecker said.
Prioritizing Preservation
The reopening of the Austin History Center comes at an interesting time. In an era where widespread disinformation is at an all-time high, having a welcoming, modernized space for community members to access historical context is a necessity, those involved say. U.S. Rep. of District 37 Lloyd Doggett emphasized this at the reopening ceremony.
“Its whole being and experience is so appropriate for the day we live in when we have a president bound for tyranny,” he said.
Mayor Kirk Watson also recognized the cruciality of the archival access, now more than ever. “We live in a day and age where I have never seen so much disinformation. … Having a place like this where we can actually get to what are the facts in an age of disinformation becomes extremely important,” he told the Chronicle following the ceremony.
Powell said that there is a sense of comfort in holding physical documents and records in a time when information found online can be manipulated. “This is what it was, in black and white, in ink, on paper,” he said. “This is something you could feel really reliable about.”
Preserved within the four walls of the 1933 building and now the John Henry Faulk Building, there is no opportunity for the historical context to be altered by technology. While the internet continues to dive deeper into a dark age of disinformation, the archives remain in the same form that they were in when they were lugged inside.
“All of this AI, all of these algorithms and Instagram and everything else, it’s constantly moving, constantly changing,” Scott said. “But this historical information is kept intact.”
The archivists at the Austin History Center understand that their work may be more important than ever before. Hecker takes great pride in the service that she provides to the community, stating that it is her and the team’s duty to offer any information available to anyone wanting access. Throughout this past year, public access to necessary resources has been under threat. Hecker is determined to ensure that Austin’s history will always be accessible, even if she has to fight for it.
“As much as I do not want to go to jail or fight physically over the cultural record and preserving it and providing access to it, that honestly is our job,” Hecker said.
Looking Ahead
Now that the history center is officially open to the public on Thursday through Saturday from noon to 5pm, there is plenty for the staff and the community to look forward to. Getting normal procedures back on track is the first step for Hecker and her team. Along with decreasing their list of research requests, re-immersing students from UT’s School of Information into the work is on the way. Hecker said that the college students help process collections through volunteering with the organization.
“They bring their new knowledge that they’re learning in school to somebody who graduated 25 years ago, and you’re like ‘Oh, that’s a great idea,’” Hecker said.
As the staff continues to work on resuming typical procedures, the rollout of new features is also well underway. The first floor of the Faulk Building will serve as a rotating exhibit space, the first being “Unboxing the Archives: Our Records, Our Stories,” which will be on display through May of next year.
There is an emphasis from the Austin History Center Association on community engagement, which they hope to further through the community historian program. Along with the professionals working within the spaces, there are community members who spend thousands of hours researching and now have a space and opportunity to present what they’ve found through physical or digital demonstrations. “We’re working to empower those folks, help them review, edit, and also, ultimately, exhibit,” Powell said.
The hope is for the exhibit to draw the everyday individual in, while the center continues to serve those wanting to connect with stored collections. Along with the exhibit space, the staff at the history center says that the possibilities seem endless with the 100,000 square feet that the Faulk Building offers.
In time, the team has a vision to get the 1933 building up to snuff to establish what Powell calls the Austin History Center campus. He said that the history center has established partnerships with architecture firm Steinberg Hart and museum planning firm M. Goodwin Museum Planning to craft a formal vision plan for how the building will be used, along with plans for a couple of areas in the Faulk Building.
Scott said that, with the lack of a museum that solely focuses on Austin history, the intent of the campus is to fill that gap, with the goal of having the 1933 building open to the public sometime next year.
As the Austin History Center continues to welcome community members eager to dig into its collections, those involved highly anticipate what the future holds. “Having a big space like this and the one next door, where these kinds of things can be showcased so the history of Austin can really be seen by the public, by people who are here just coming in town, or people doing research at UT or whatever,” Scott said, “that’s what I look forward to.”
This article appears in January 2 • 2026.