A permanent home at Rosewood Courts.
Opening October 18, 2026, at 1141 Chicon St., Building 1, the WOW Heritage Center is a place for memory, media, oral history, creative learning, and community voice.
Built in partnership with HACA and rooted in East Austin's African American Cultural Heritage District, the Center gives What Once Was a physical home.
The neighborhood is a character in the story.
Rosewood Courts is not a backdrop for WOW. It is part of the record. The Center sits inside a district where Black families, artists, educators, organizers, entrepreneurs, and neighbors have carried memory across generations.
The October 18 grand opening is a proof point inside a story already underway. Juneteenth 2027 is the horizon: the first Juneteenth celebration in E4 Youth's permanent home and the second annual E4 Youth Homecoming.
A new home inside a living historic district.
The WOW Heritage Center opens onto the shared grounds of Rosewood Courts, where public space, historic markers, and everyday community life connect the neighborhood's past with what is being built now.
The community is already inside the story.
September is a month of pre-opening activation at the WOW Heritage Center, building toward the October 18 grand opening.
September 12
Rosewood Community Engagement Series, Session 1.
September 18
Lunch and Learn at the WOW Heritage Center.
What the Center will hold
Phase 1 names the place. Phase 2 begins filling it with programming, stories, and community voice.
Living Legends
Oral history sessions, archive-building, profiles, media, and transcripts.
Youth Media
Storytelling, digital production, and creative technology learning.
AR Tours
Immersive experiences connected to the people and places shaping WOW.
Public Programs
Community events, opening-season recaps, exhibits, and Homecoming moments.
From building in public to Juneteenth Homecoming.
The placeholder site should grow as the Center grows. First it names the place. Then it surfaces oral histories, Cooking with Hoover storytelling, Dreams of a Dishwasher, and opening-season programs. By June 2027, it becomes the event and press hub for Homecoming and the Living Legends exhibit.
Come in through the story.
The AR tour experience lives at tour.whatoncewas.org. This site points visitors there while the Center page carries the address, opening timeline, and place context.