Monthly Archives: September 2011
History of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco, Part 3
Copyright 2011-2022 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any content you find on the website. IS IT ARROYO SECO OR ARROYA SECA OR ARROYO SECA? When it was first named, the street Arroyo Seco, which runs along either side of Hancock Creek in much of Brentwood and Crestview, somehow was incorrectly spelled “Arroyo Seca” on street signs and in official documents. In the early 1950s, Brentwood Elementary School students taking … Read more
History of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco, Part 2
Copyright 2011-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any content you find on the website. Arroyo Seco means “dry creek” in Spanish. The term also refers to an intermittently dry creek — a good description of the waterway through our area today. Many neighbors still call this waterway Arroyo Seco (or Seca). On the United States Geological Survey Austin East map, it’s Hancock Creek. On City of Austin and Federal … Read more
History of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco, Part 1
Copyright 2011-2022 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any content you find on the website. Updated in 2016 For the next five weeks, the blog focuses on the often-dry creek east of Brentwood Elementary and Brentwood Park. Some call the creek Arroyo Seco or Arroyo Seca. I discovered it also has other names. In 2003, I began researching neighborhood history. I was surprised to discover maps, including a recent one … Read more
Esperanza—An Early “Neighborhood” School
Copyright 2011-2022 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. Before Brentwood Elementary, Lamar Middle, and McCallum High, even before Allandale, Brentwood, and Crestview neighborhoods, there was Esperanza School. We first learned about Esperanza in 2009 from two former Brentwood neighbors, Mickey Pease Bauer, who started school there, and Al Kirby. In 1936, Mickey’s family moved to a 14-acre farm which stretched from 6503 Burnet Lane east to Arroyo … Read more