Stephenson Preserve and Kincheonville

Long before the city acquired Stephenson Nature Preserve for outdoor education and parkland, the cedar-and-mesquite tract marked the northern edge of Kincheonville, one of Austin's least-remembered freedmen's communities. Our 6.2-mile walk first traces the area settled in 1865 by Thomas Kincheon, a formerly enslaved man from Mississippi. In the decades leading up to Austin’s 1928 city plan which cut off utilities and displaced Black residents to segregated East Austin, the area sustained a diverse mix of Black, Hispanic, and Anglo families. As noted in a Texas Historical Commission marker by Paisano and Brodie, Kincheon’s children are remembered in the names of area streets: Blumie, Elijah, and Minnie. The residential portion of our walk continues past ranch-style houses in formerly unincorporated farmland in the Brodie Lane, Woodstone Village, and Maple Run neighborhoods which the city annexed mostly in the 1970s. We’ll cool off in the shady Preserve, passing oak groves and old stone fences along a “spaghetti factory” of trails reputedly carved out by motorcycles during a civilizationally wilder era. LOGISTICS: 8 AM start, on our Summer schedule We’ll meet by the small parking lot in Longview Neighborhood Park at 7609 Longview Rd. It’s a tiny lot, but there’s an abundance of nearby street parking As always, we’ll look for a brunch/lunch place for an optional post-walk meal Official walk map