Ollie O. Norwood Estate

The house outlived its estate through a long, rough stretch. After the Norwoods died, developers pursued the land, and in the 1980s one moved the house off its foundation before abandoning the project in hard economic times. The city bought it in 1985 but lacked the money to set it back, and it sat off its foundation for about fifteen years, declining. In 1999 funds were raised to move it to its original site. The Norwood Posse formed in 2008 to raise awareness and restoration money, and the Norwood Park Foundation followed in 2011 to raise private funds.

What the plaque says

Ollie O. Norwood Estate The 1922 Norwood Estate was known as "Norcliff" when the property was maintained by Ollie and Calie Norwood. A native of Macune, Texas, Norwood moved with his wife to Austin after serving in France during WWI. He was an early Austin-area investor and municipal bonds broker who is notably remembered for the constructionm of the sixteen-story Norwood Tower and the Motoramp Garage in downtown Austin (1929). In 1922, Norwood purchased five lots along the Colorado River, and by 1926, had amassed over two full blocks inn the new Travis Heights Neigborhood--then on the South-Easternmost edge of the city. Many features of the property were designed by local architect Hugo Kuehne, who later designed the Austin Public Library (1933). The centerpiece of the Estate was the house, a modest Oriental-Influenced Arts and Crafts bungalow. It grew to include formal gardens, a geothermal spring-fed swimming pool with bathhouses and connecting pergola, tennis courts, and two additional bungalows for in-laws. The formal garden on the east side of the house included brick walls, concrete-edged paths, a split-level greenhouse, a trellised brick teahouse, and a central fountain. A pecan orchard was located on the lower part of the estate. Born of the idealism of the Arts and Crafts movement, Norcliff was meant as a place for respite within nature, while highlighting the beauty of man-made structure. Unfortunately, Norwood lost most of his wealth during the Great Depression and additions ceased. In 1953, the state took the easternmost portion for construction of I-35. The couple moved, but retained possession of the estate until it was sold in 1961 upon Ollie Norwood's death. In 1985, the City of Austin purchased the property and repurposed it as a park. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• French Legation State Historic Site — 1.2 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Cemetery — 1.4 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 1.6 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.7 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Texas School for the Deaf — 0.7 mi
• Texas Dental Association — 0.8 mi
• Headquarters of US Army, 5th Military Dist. — 0.8 mi
• The Austin Statesman — 0.8 mi