AUSTIN (KXAN) – In 1985, famed sculptor and educator
Charles Umlauf and his wife, Angie, gave their home and the two prime acres around it to the city of Austin, with one important condition: Husband and wife would be allowed to live on the place until each of them had passed away.

Charles Umlauf died in 1994, Angie just two weeks ago. With their passing, the Umlauf home, Charles’ studio and the sculpture-dotted grounds will become part of the adjacent
Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, owned by the city and operated by a non-profit organization.

The transfer marks another milestone in the remarkable history of the property, a history that includes a Spanish mission on the site, an Indian campground, and a farm.

“When they (the Umlaufs) bought the place in 1944, this was an abandoned house,” said museum director and curator Nelie Plourde. “It was being used as a stable for horses. You could rent a horse to ride through Zilker Park.

“Angie Umlauf found it and she called up Charles and said, ‘You’ve got to come!’

“He was teaching at UT, where he had started teaching in 1941, and she said, ‘I’ve found a house; you’ve got to come look at it.’

“He said, ‘I’m in class,’ and she said, ‘Now, you’ve got to come now.’

The sculptor took the bait and the Umlaufs moved in. But according to Plourde, it was not the perfect situation.

“The only part of it that was solid,” she said, “was the exact middle. That became his studio. The little porches, the little rooms where the roof was leaking, that’s where the family lived, because what was the most important thing? His work.”

Compounding the difficulties was the fact that at the time, the place was virtually in the country.

“Who could believe that when they bought this it was on the edge of town?” Plourde asked. “Robert E. Lee Road was still a dirt road. The kids used to play down the hill where the museum sculpture garden now is. They called that, ‘The Weeds.’

Indeed, the entire family found itself in a virtual paradise.

“The kids played there all the time,” Plourde said, “and, of course, there was no fence so they went over to
Barton Springs Pool and jumped off the rocks and swam and played. They had tree houses; they found arrowheads.”

“When they moved here there was a dairy farm not far away. They would go there with a wagon and get milk for the family. They had all kinds of pets: cats, dogs, a pet pig.”

In the early 1960s, the Umlaufs expanded the house and built a new studio for the sculptor nearby. Over the decades, they placed many of his pieces on pedestals on the grounds.

After the couple agreed to offer the property to the city, along with 168 Umlauf pieces, six adjoining acres were cleared of accumulated trash from a former dump and philanthropists raised money to build the sculpture garden and museum.

From their home on the hill above, the Umlaufs watched the endeavor succeed beyond all their hopes.

Now, the addition of the family home site will expand the Umlauf museum grounds to eight acres and the art collection to over 250 pieces, all of it now the property of the people of Austin.

“Umlauf’s six children, of course, are going to be spending a few months taking their own private pieces out,” Plourde said, “and we’re urging them to leave everything they would like to leave.”

“We’ll be restoring the house as a historic house; we’ll be restoring the studio as a historic studio, just as if Charles had just left the studio to go to the house and have lunch, and the house as if he had just left the house to go to the studio to work.”

Lifting a 1950s era dinette chair, Plourde said, illustrating her point: “This may look like a worn out chair, but if it doesn’t mean anything to your heart, leave it behind so that in a few years time, we don’t have to spend oodles of money buying a reproduction of this exact chair for the historic house.”

And speaking of money, it will take some time before the Umlauf home site is ready for visiting.

“This was once an abandoned house so it’s got foundation problems,” Plourde said. “It has aluminum wiring; it has gutter and leak problems; there are some bumps in the driveway; trees need some cleaning up. There’s just a lot of needed work.”

Work to the tune of $5 million to $7.5 million, all of it to be raised through private donations. So Plourde says it will be three to five years before the grounds will open.

Even then, the public will have to access the hilltop location from the existing sculpture garden below. No one wants to disturb the idyllic setting around the house with asphalt and concrete parking areas.

Instead, the plan is to construct a stone tower at the base of the hill, housing an elevator.

“Between eight and 11 per cent of our museum audience every year are people with special needs,” Plourde said, “so we need an elevator, big enough for a couple of wheelchairs.

“Then on the outside of the tower will be a spiral staircase and then a wooden bridge will bring you to the terrace by the house that overlooks the sculpture garden.”

The public will need to be patient, but the wheels are turning.

“Angie was the mother of six children,” Plourde said, “and what a mother she was to the museum. She died on the museum’s 21st birthday, June 11th. She knew we were grownups and she trusted us to go forward.”