Cedar Park 50th Anniversary
Education & Schools
Cedar Park is a highly-educated community, with more than half of all residents holding a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. That number grows each year, and it’s one of the many things that makes Cedar Park such a popular destination for employers. Cedar Park is also home to two recognized school districts: Leander ISD and Round Rock ISD, as well as the Austin Community College Cypress Creek Campus. Plus we;re a short commute from several major colleges and universities.
Cedar Park’s priority on education contributes to our high quality of life, and this commitment dates back centuries.
In the 1860s, early residents built a log school house where Leander ISD’s Cypress Creek Elementary School now stands. The nearby community of Running Brushy also had a school, seen in the above 1879 photo of some students with their teacher.
In 1923, Cedar Park and Block House Schools merged to form the Whitestone School, which once stood at the northwest corner of Bell and Whitestone Boulevards. It was built of the area’s plentiful limestone.
Pioneer Days
The Cedar Park community existed long before it was incorporated as a city in 1973. For tens of thousands of years, through the 1800s, Native Americans lived amongst our springs, creeks, caves, hills and rocky terrain. Evidence of Spaniards’ entrance into the area dates to the late 1600s.
In 1836, the Texas frontier defense force known as the Texas Rangers built and occupied an outpost just north of Cedar Park. Captain John J. Tumlinson and his men built a fort, which became known as Tumlinson Fort, Block House Spring, and Block House Fort. The Texas Rangers eventually vacated the fort and it was burned down by Comanches. After Texas’ independence was won, much of the land in the area was deeded to those who served in the military or helped provide war supplies.
Pioneers, primarily the Dodd, McRae, and Crumley families, came here in the 1840s and formed the communities of Running Brushy and Doddboro. Doddboro was eventually named Doddville, then Buttercup. Buttercup had a cotton gin, store, and post office.
The old Buttercup townsite is now underwater behind the conservation dam just west of US 183 and Avery Ranch Boulevard.
New Hope Baptist Church was founded as part of the early settlement of the Cedar Park area. Originally situated at the headwaters of Blockhouse Creek, services were likely held there as early as 1848---though it was not formally chartered until 1868. It was rebuilt several times and is now located at US 183 and New Hope Road. The church’s cemetery holds more than 70 unmarked graves, along with many others with headstones that mark the names of well-known early residents of the community.
George Washington Cluck and his wife Harriet “Hattie” came to the area in 1873, arriving in Running Brushy on 329 acres situated at the headwaters of Brushy Creek. The Cluck home was located on the land that’s now being developed as the Bell District, at the northwest corner of Bell and Buttercup Creek Boulevards. The Clucks’ community had a post office, and in 1874, Hattie Cluck became the community’s first postmistress.
Much of the land around Cedar Park today was once part of the Cluck Ranch. The community was renamed “Brueggerhoff” after a railroad official, then in 1887, “Cedar Park.”
By that time, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad ran through Cedar Park. Emmett had a store built on the east side of the railroad, and built his home near the store. When the Cluck Family sold to the railroad some land that was next to Emmett’s home, they stipulated that a portion of it be made into a park. The park was situated along the railroad tracks at what is now Brushy Creek Road. It is said to have been fully landscaped, complete with benches along walking paths. With its park, the bustling community also had a school/church, post office/store, railroad foreman’s house, and railroad depot, and became a popular weekend travel destination for Austin folks who wanted to visit “the country.”
The old Northwest Railroad trestle that runs over Brushy Creek just south of Brushy Creek Sports Park (seen in photos above) is a reminder of Cedar Park’s rich railroad history and pioneer spirit. Several large granite blocks rest underneath it. They were to have been used in the rebuilding of the State Capitol in 1886, but never made it to Austin. Thirty-six blocks of granite fell from 18 train cars, but engineer Charlie Enlow somehow managed to keep the train on track.
Water, Wastewater, & Roads
One of the primary responsibilities of a city is to provide water and wastewater access as well as road infrastructure for its citizens.
The Cedar Park you see today looks quite different from how it looked 50 years ago, thanks in large part to something you don’t see: a complex network of water and wastewater lines that run underground throughout the City. It all started in the 1960s; prior to the City's incorporation, a group of residents formed the Cedar Park Water Service Corporation. It took then-rural residents off of well water and onto a shared water distribution system. Ensuring water for future generations and preparing Cedar Park for future growth have remained top priorities throughout the decades, as we joined two regional systems in the 1990s: the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority and the Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater System.
In addition to water and wastewater, roads are a key part of Cedar Park’s infrastructure that positioned us for success.
The Engineering & Capital Projects Department is responsible for all aspects of public roadway design and stormwater drainage program and the construction and design and construction of City facilities. The Public Works Department is responsible for the development and maintenance of the City’s water and wastewater infrastructure and consists of several divisions ranging from streets, traffic signals and fleet vehicles maintenance to water distribution, wastewater, the pumps and motors that power these systems, utility conservation programs and more. Without all of these parts of the City of Cedar Park functioning together like a fine-tuned machine, we would literally not have a city.