Austin is a city of great historical significance. Residents here adore the older homes and many wish to make at least part of Austin a historical site to stymie any further new construction or remodeling that may take away from the city’s atmosphere. Austin has only passed a preservation act in 2004, and since then has only deemed one street a historic neighborhood. Melanie Martinez, an Austin resident, is hoping to add at least one more.

Martinez has been working for two years on having Newning Avenue in Travis Heights declared a historic landmark. She initiated this fight because she was upset by many new construction sites that began with the destruction of this Victorian-era neighborhood. Martinez, along with several neighbors and other preservationists has been engaged in a two-pronged struggle for awhile. The group is seeking both a nomination for the National Register of Historic Places and for a local historic district nod for both Travis Heights and Fairview Park. The cost of this is $50,000 and the group has held several fundraisers to meet this goal. So far, they have collected around $20,000. Martinez owns two historic homes in the area, but did not realize how long it would take or how much money it would cost to have an 1100 home district deemed worthy of historic preservation.

There are no plans to stop trying. Now that the law is there to meet this demand, Martinez plans to keep working at it until the goal is met. “I had no idea going into it, but I didn’t see any other way to try to prevent losing more historic houses.”