1000 E. Cesar Chavez St.

The Evans Morris Hiesler House was constructed in 1899, and the original owners were George O. and Augusta Evans. Considered an excellent example of Queen Anne architecture, it is located in close proximity to other historic houses, like the Moreland House and the Wolf House. Construction includes wood framing, a two-story double-porch on three sides, and a deeply pitched sheet metal roof.  In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the home was used as a boarding house for primarily elder and disabled folks. It was purchased in 1996 by an immigrant couple who have spent years restoring the home paycheck by paycheck using the home for their entrepreneurial pursuits. In 2015, the owner signed a long-term lease in exchange for renovations inside and out. The home's history is much more glorious, having been built by the affluent George and Augusta Evans family in 1899 for the then-extraordinary sum of $2,600. Today it's a designated historic landmark and a very visible remnant of a bygone era when E. 1^st Street, now Cesar Chavez Street, was booming with new businesses supporting the rail corridor operations, subdivisions of farm land into home lots, and retail and specialty shops to meet the increasing consumer needs of this growing middle class neighborhood. The conversion of East Avenue, which had a beautiful, tree-lined wide median that included picnic sites, ball fields and gardens between the northbound and southbound road into a federal highway called I-35 in the early 1962 it separated East Austin from Downtown physically and economically. It's taken many years for the neighborhood to recover.