Pemberton Heights is most likely named for Walter Pemberton Fisher and James Pemberton. Both men were related to Samuel William Fisher Jr., who also was known as Budley. Budley was president of the Austin Development Company. Walter Pemberton Fisher was Budley’s uncle, and James Pemberton was an ancestor of the Fisher family.

 

Harris Boulevard was named after Judge John Woods Harris, Texas legislator, attorney, and special counsel to the United States Supreme Court. He and Governor Elisha Pease, owner of the Pease Mansion, were law partners. Harris purchased the land that would become Pemberton Heights from Pease in 1859.

 

Wooldridge Drive was named after Alexander Penn Wooldridge, an attorney and bank president who served as the mayor of Austin from 1909 to 1919, and was the first recipient of the Austin’s Most Worthy Citizen Award in 1924. Wooldridge was the organizer of the Austin Public School System and secured Austin as the site for The University of Texas’ main campus. Wooldridge Elementary and Wooldridge Park also are named after him.

 

McCallum Drive was named after Arthur Newell McCallum, Sr. and Jane Legette Yelvington McCallum. Arthur McCallum was a teacher and school administrator, and was the superintendent of the Austin Public Schools from 1903 until his death in 1943. He hired the district’s first Hispanic teacher in the 1920s. McCallum High School was named after him. Jane McCallum was an author, suffragist leader and the Texas Secretary of State under two different governors from 1927 to 1933. One of the accomplishments of which she was most proud was the discovery, restoration and exhibition of an original copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

 

Claire Avenue was named after Claire Caswell, whose brother, W.T. Caswell, named the street after her and Gaston Avenue after her first husband, P. Gaston Dismukes, who tragically died of tuberculosis during their first year of marriage. Unfortunately, Claire Caswell died during her honeymoon when the ship on which she was honeymooning with her second husband sank just two days after their wedding.

 

Wathen Avenue was named after Josephine Lucille Wathen Fisher, who was married in 1905 to Budley Fisher, one of Pemberton Height’s original developers. Even after her divorce from Budley, Fisher lived on Wooldridge Drive until 1949.

 

Stark Place is thought to have been named after H.J. Lutcher Stark, a businessman with a lumber empire who was a University of Texas graduate and who promoted the longhorn as the university’s mascot.

 

Jarratt Avenue was named after J.E. Jarratt, the board chair of the Austin Development Company, the first developer of the neighborhood.

 

Ethridge Avenue was named after E.B. Ethridge, the president of the Austin Development Company in 1935.

 

Windsor Road is named after Windsor, Connecticut.

 

Westover Road is named for the fact that it travels west and over a hill.

 

Janet Long Fish is known as the mother of the Hike and Bike Trail system in Austin. In the late 1950s, she famously took $5,000 meant for her to purchase a new station wagon, hired a bulldozer and operator, and began creating the first Hike and Bike trail along Shoal Creek from Pease Park to Gaston Avenue. In subsequent years, she extended the trail to 31st Street, supervised the planting of hundreds of flowers and fruit trees, and watered the plantings regularly during hot Texas summers. Her vision inspired the city and other private groups to expand the original trail system to include Lady Bird/Town Lake the Barton Creek Green Belt, as well as other local creeks. She received the Certificate of Appreciation from the Austin Metropolitan Trails Council in 1996, the Sue and Frank McBee Visionary Award from the Heritage Society of Austin in 1997, and the Roberta Crenshaw Park Patron Lifetime Service Award from the City of Austin in 2006. The pedestrian bridge built across Shoal Creek just south of 29th Street in 2006 was dedicated in her name.