The Harden SNAP House on the corner of 22nd and Salina St. The duplex is an odd mix of old and the new. Both of these buildings although now joined as a duplex have too much rich and distinct history to tell it as one story.

The Hardin House:

The Harden-Solar duplex is a perfect example of a new alliance between BCDC and UT. The Harden House, named for the family that built it in 1945, was sold by June Harden Brewer to the university in 2004. When Blackland Community Development Corp. expressed an interest in the historic property, the university agreed to donate it.The Hardin house lifted off of its foundations was moved a few blocks avoiding demolition. The Hardin House was owned and owned and built by Blackland Neighbor June Brewer. June Brewer 1925–2010

In 1950 June H. Brewer was one of the first African-American students admitted to the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Sweatt v. Painter on June 5, 1950, Brewer submitted an application and was enrolled for the second term of the summer semester of 1950 along with W.D. McClennan, Wilhelmina Perry, Mabel Langrum, Emma Harrison, Bessie Randall, and Horace Lincoln Heath. Her daughter, L. June Harden Brewer

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/brewer-lettie-june-harden

Sitting behind the Brewer Hardin house, the Super Nifty And Portable (SNAP) house traveled over 2,000 Miles from Austin to Ohio and back again before resting its bones in the Blackland Neighborhood under management and ownership by the Blackland Community Development Corporation.

The Super Nifty and Portable house was donated to Blackland Community Development Corp. after competing in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2005.

The House was built by UT's students form the school of architecture in 2005 entry in the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C., an international contest in which colleges compete to design the best self-sufficient solar home. After the competition, UT donated the house to Blackland CDC, which paid to have it shipped back from D.C., to its current location, less than a block from where it was first assembled by students. On its west side, East 22nd separates the duplex from seas of UT parking lots.

The building was creative using steel beams which connect sections of the house together. The house sections can be separated making it portable, It has recycled styrofoam for insulation, a large solar panel and efficient solar water heating. The cladding of the house is made form zinc plates from the Daily Texan. Closer inspection of the siding will reveal Daily Texan articles from 2005 making it a unique time capsule. Please don’t walk up to the house without permission from its resident because it is home to a Blackland resident as part of Blackland CDC’s commitment to house low income households in affordable housing.

The house is one of many built or moved through collaboration with the University of Texas. This cooperation was, however, hard-won. In the past East 22nd was the final battle line drawn before Blackland neighbors and UT called a truce in 1992, agreeing that the university's empire would advance no farther east pf Leona if Blackland agreed to buy no more properties to the west of Leona.

Blackland Community Development Corp., a nonprofit organization focused on neighborhood anti-displacement and right to return housing, owns 26 properties on the east side of the university's campus. The organization was originally formed to prevent the university's continual expansion which displaced people form communities of color—a goal that became much closer in 1994.

Today U.T. and BCDC work together for the greater community good.

In fall 2005, volunteer workers and students prepared the lot for the arrival of both houses. When they found that a city ordinance prevented electricity sharing between properties, the project architect suggested connecting the houses with a 15-ft breezeway. The solution worked. After thousands of donated labor hours, the duplex was officially dedicated in August 2008 to coincide with Blackland Community Development Corp.'s 25-year anniversary.

"Overall, we are very pleased with the duplex," says Bo McCarver, Blackland Community Development Corp.'s co-founder and board president. He explains that eye-catching projects such as the Harden-Solar duplex help stimulate more interest in gardening and green technologies throughout the neighborhood.

June Brewer:

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/brewer-lettie-june-harden

By: R. Matt Abigail

Published: May 8, 2013

Updated: September 16, 2017

Brewer, Lettie June Harden (1925–2010).L. June H. Brewer, African-American professor and East Austin community leader, only daughter of Charleston Powell Harden and Minnie Elizabeth (Bremond) Harden, was born in Austin, Texas, on September 5, 1925. The second of three children, she attended Olive Street Elementary School, Kealing Junior High School, and L. C. Anderson High School in East Austin. Brewer went on to receive a B.A. with honors from Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson College) in 1944 and an M.A. in English from Howard University in 1946. Afterwards, she taught at Morgan State College and Samuel Huston College. In 1949 she married Bert H. Brewer of Mexia, Texas, and together they raised two sons —Bert H. Brewer, Jr. (b. 1954) and Charles R. Brewer (b. 1957).

In 1950 June H. Brewer was one of the first African-American students admitted to the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Sweatt v. Painter on June 5, 1950, Brewer submitted an application and was enrolled for the second term of the summer semester of 1950 along with W.D. McClennan, Wilhelmina Perry, Mabel Langrum, Emma Harrison, Bessie Randall, and Horace Lincoln Heath. While in graduate studies at UT-Austin she attended Fulbright seminars in Mexico, studied abroad in the Balkans, and was named a fellow of both the Southern Education Fund and United Negro College Fund. Additionally, in 1960 Brewer helped establish a local chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and served as that organization’s regional director. In 1963 Brewer earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas after completing a dissertation entitled, “An Ecological Study of the Psychological Environment of a Negro College and the Personality Needs of its Students.”

Following her education, Brewer taught English at Huston-Tillotson College for thirty-five years. During that time she served as chair of the English department and was awarded Huston-Tillotson’s first endowed professorship (Karl Downs Professor of Humanities). She also enjoyed visiting professorships at Cornell University, Southern University, Wells College, and Morgan State College. The bulk of her academic research was focused on black women writers as well as portrayals of black women in recent literature—an interest she attributed to her travels in Africa and the West Indies. To pursue this research, she was awarded a fellowship for the academic year of 1973–74 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Upon retirement, Brewer was named professor emeritus at Huston-Tillotson and continued to be heavily involved in Austin’s academic community.

While teaching at Huston-Tillotson, Brewer served on several task forces for the Austin Independent School District and focused much of her attention on reducing dropout rates. In 1980 she ran, unsuccessfully, for a place on the A.I.S.D. school board. In that year, Austin was under federal court order to improve the ethnic and racial balance of its school system, and busing was the dominant issue of the school board elections. Despite receiving 90 percent of the vote in East Austin—a traditionally black and Hispanic community—Brewer was defeated in a runoff election by Steve M. Ferguson, a strong anti-busing candidate. In addition to her involvement with Austin’s public schools, she was a member of the Black Alumni Advisory Council at UT-Austin and directed the Dos Culturas Honors Program at Huston-Tillotson. This program sought to bring together black and Hispanic students who shared classes and living quarters at Huston-Tillotson in the interest of fostering cross-cultural understanding. She also founded the Borders Learning Community, a non-profit organization that recruited male students at Huston-Tillotson to mentor younger African-American boys in the community with the expressed goal of rectifying the racial achievement gap in standardized test scores and college admission rates.

Over the course of her illustrious and groundbreaking career, Brewer received many awards and recognitions. Among these were the National Women of Achievement Connie Yerwood Award, the NOKOA Outstanding Educator Award, the YWCA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, the Al Edwards Unsung Hero Award, the University of Texas at Austin Community Leadership Award (2008), and the Villager’s Living Legend Award. Additionally, the University of Texas at Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement named the June Brewer Legacy Award in her honor in 2009. On May 28, 2010, June H. Brewer passed away quietly in her East Austin home. She was buried in Austin’s Evergreen Cemetery.

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