Blue Hole Park
Blue Hole Park is a picturesque lagoon surrounded by limestone bluffs on the San Gabriel River’s South Fork. It is located on N. Austin Avenue, five blocks north of the downtown Square. Picnic spots, bathrooms, and wading areas are available at the park. There is no admission fee to Blue Hole Park. There are no equipment rentals available.
Blue Hole Park’s entrance is on W. Second Street and Rock Street, behind El Monumento restaurant. There is free public parking at the intersection of 3rd and Rock Streets in the parking lot or garage.
You enter the river at your own risk. Georgetown does not monitor water flow or microbial levels. Take care of this natural environment by removing anything you bring in, including rubbish. It is NOT ALLOWED to jump off the cliffs.
Section 12.20.050 of the City of Georgetown Ordinance governs prohibited practices. Diving or cliff jumping. Any person who dives or jumps from a cliff or rock face in a City park is prohibited. It shall be unlawful to compel any person to dive, leap, or fall from any cliff or rock face in a City park knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence.
The following items are not permitted:
- Alcohol
- Using or possessing any glass
- Dive or jump from a cliff or rock wall in a city park.
- obstructing public access to the trail
- Undesignated parking areas
- Except for portable gas grills, fires on undesignated grills or fire pits are prohibited.
- carrying out any commercial or business activity
- Indecent or abusive words or behavior that causes a public nuisance
- Defacing or vandalizing any construction, facility, or natural feature
- Pets running free on land or in water
Georgetown
Georgetown is the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, in the United States. According to the 2020 census, the population was 67,176. It is located 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Austin.
Southwestern University is Texas’s oldest university, created in 1875 from four previous institutions, the oldest of which was founded 35 years earlier. It’s roughly a half mile from the historic square in Georgetown.
Georgetown features a significant collection of Victorian commercial and residential architecture. A municipal historic ordinance was created in 1976 to preserve and conserve the historic core business district. The Williamson County Courthouse Historical District, which includes 46 contributing structures, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Georgetown is also known as the “Red Poppy” Capital of Texas due to the abundance of red poppy (Papaver rhoeas) wildflowers that have been planted across the city. Georgetown’s Red Poppy Festival, which draws tens of thousands of visitors each year, takes place on the historic square in April.
According to the 2020 United States Census, the city has 67,176 residents, 28,075 households, and 19,180 families. The population density per square mile was 1,241.3 (479.3/km2). The 10,902 dwellings had an average density of 477.5 per square mile (184.4/km2). Of the 28,075 houses, 31.8% had children under the age of 18, 61.6% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder without a husband present, and 25.8% were not families; 21.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.3% had someone 65 or older living alone. The average family size was 2.92 people, while the average household size was 2.52.
The city’s population was divided as follows: 23.4% were under the age of 18, 11.4% were 18 to 24, 26.3% were 25 to 44, 21.3% were 45 to 64, and 17.7% were 65 or older. The average age was 37 years. There were 95.0 men for every 100 females. There were 91.1 men for every 100 women aged 18 and up.
The median household income in the city was $54,098, while the median family income was $63,338. Males earned $40,541 on average, while females earned $27,082. The city’s per capita income was $24,287. Around 4.4% of families and 7.2% of the people were poor, including 9.3% of those under the age of 18 and 3.9% of those 65 and older.
Historic districts
Georgetown’s downtown was desolate and devoid of character in the 1970s. Building owners in the 1950s and 1960s concealed some of their ancient retail buildings in an effort to renovate and compete with suburban retail development. Stucco, metal covers, brick, and many coats of white paint were used to hide the Texas-Victorian streetscape. Community leaders began to review this retail stock and collaborated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program to improve the city’s architectural legacy.
As the cost of borrowing money rose during this time period, economics began to favor the reuse of historic buildings. Every bank in Georgetown offered much cheaper interest loans for the renovation of the town’s stately Victorian buildings and facades. In the 1980s, rehabilitation tax credit programs made investing in historic property more profitable. By 1984, 40 restoration projects had been completed. More than half of the Main Street district had undergone some form of beneficial transition two years after Georgetown launched its Main Street program.
Recently, the city was ranked one of the greatest places to buy a historic home. Today, Georgetown has one of the best-preserved Victorian and pre-World War I downtown historic districts in the country, with the Beaux-Arts Williamson County Courthouse (1911) as its focal point. Georgetown was declared a national Main Street City in 1997, the first in Texas, as a result of its successful preservation efforts. There are three National Register Historic Districts in Georgetown:
- Historic District of the Williamson County Courthouse
- National District of Belford
- Elm Street/University Avenue District
Next Point of Interest: Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge