In August 1839 the lots of a city that did not yet exist were sold in the shade of these trees. Judge Edwin Waller had staked out the grid that spring and held back the best ground for the capitol. The rest went under the hammer here: two hundred and seventeen lots, three hundred thousand dollars, which covered the public buildings of the new Texas capital. The grove is the reason this square exists. Then the twentieth century happened to it. For decades the square was a parking lot with asphalt run right up to the trunks, which is close to the worst thing you can do to a live oak, and the trees came through anyway. The city rebuilt the square in 2017 and they now stand in open ground again. Aim for the southwest corner. The square is a single block and the grove is unmistakable once you are inside it. One thing nobody has settled is which live oak these are. Central Texas has two that look much the same, and the sources that tell the auction story do not name the species. If you know, tell us.
Republic Square, southwest corner, Guadalupe Street at West 4thA tight stand of broad live oaks in the southwest corner of an otherwise open square, noticeably older than everything planted around them.
Free. A public downtown square, open at all hours.
Ten minutes on foot west from Congress Avenue, at Guadalupe and West 4th.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
