1839—2025
A reserve, a river, and a changing city.
The boundary dispute is one chapter in a longer public-land history. This condensed timeline follows the chronology assembled by Joe Riddell; the complete dated source is available below.
- 1839
Austin is selected and surveyed
Republic of Texas officials selected more than 7,000 acres for the new seat of government. A 640-acre townsite was surveyed and its town lots sold.
- 1840
Four hundred acres reserved
Congress directed that the rest of the Government Tract be divided into Outlots while reserving 400 acres “for such public purposes as Congress may hereafter direct.”
- 1848
Outlot 11 patented
Texas patented Outlot 11, Division Z, to James Raymond. Its south boundary was described as 60 yards below the bluff of the “River Commons.”
- 1850
Division E split from the Reserve
Part of the original 400 reserved acres was surveyed into lots and blocks and sold as Division E.
- 1863
The Outlots map is updated
Robert Reich updated William Sandusky's original 1840 map, adding purchaser names and showing Reserve tracts along the river.
- 1871
Raymond Plateau subdivided
James Raymond had Outlot 11 surveyed into ten blocks extending from Pecan Street toward the bluff. Lot sales followed.
- 1876
The railroad arrives
International & Great Northern tracks crossed Outlots 1 and 11, generally along Cypress—today's West Third Street.
- 1880
A 60-yard strip is sold
Raymond sold the railroad a strip “sixty yards wide, lying under the main bluff,” with a roadway reserved for public use.
- 1885
The bluff is mapped
The recorded Raymond Plateau plat showed the bluff by hachures among trees. O'Hara later treated it as the best evidence of the bluff's 1848 location.
- 1916
Metcalfe locates the Reserve
O. E. Metcalfe surveyed the Reserve using a theoretical location based on a rough map, rather than on-the-ground features. Later private claims relied on this line.
- 1945
The State grants the Reserve to Austin
The grant was for public purposes and provided that any part later sold by the City would revert to the State.
- 1949
A road arrangement at the railroad
Austin closed part of Baylor Street and allowed railroad use; the railroad agreed to keep a 40-foot driveway parallel to Lamar open.
- 1961
The railroad sells about five acres
Missouri Pacific sold Austin a tract beneath the bluff west of Lamar. Riddell's chronology says it was later determined to include land more than 180 feet from the bluff.
- 1963
Austin conveys the tract to the Boy Scouts
The central reversion argument holds that Reserve land inside this sale returned to Texas under the 1945 grant.
- 1967
The YMCA buys the tract
The Boy Scouts sold the roughly five-acre property to the YMCA.
- 1974
Reserve land is landscaped
Austin and railroad-land tenants east of Lamar agreed to landscape and build parking and driveways on part of the Reserve.
- 1985
City waterfront land becomes parkland
The Council dedicated most City-owned land along Town Lake as parkland, including Reserve land outside street curbs.
- 1988
The YMCA subdivision is platted
A one-lot, 4.80-acre subdivision was recorded. A restrictive covenant required adequate parkland before residential development.
- 1993
“Public purposes” is enforceable
An appeals court found the phrase restricted Austin's use of the Reserve, while holding that existing public driveways and parking served a public purpose.
- 1997
State enforcement authority changes
Texas adopted Natural Resources Code §31.068, granting the Land Commissioner and Attorney General standing to enforce certain state-property restrictions.
- 1999
O'Hara evaluates six possible lines
The former GLO chief surveyor recommended two boundary locations and wrote that Metcalfe's line was “in the wrong position.”
- 1999–06
Litigation and agreements east of Lamar
A 2001 settlement and 2006 Master Agreement reshaped Reserve access east of Lamar. Critics objected to the amount of public land serving private properties.
- 2025
A PUD development concept is filed
YMCA agents sought a Development Assessment for a Planned Unit Development. Riddell's analysis says the concept uses land that reverted to Texas in 1963.
A chronology is a guide, not the whole archive.
Each entry should ultimately connect to its underlying deed, plat, opinion, report, ordinance, or filing. Four of those documents are online now; the research collection is expected to grow.