Era
The Post-War Boom
The decades after World War II reshaped the West Lake area from cattle country into a residential community. Veterans returned, the Tom Miller Dam stabilized the lake, and the original ranch tracts began to be subdivided into the neighborhoods recognizable today.
Between 1945 and 1970 the West Lake area transformed from a sparsely populated stretch of ranch country into a recognizable suburb. The Tom Miller Dam, completed in 1940, stabilized Lake Austin and made the western shoreline newly desirable. Returning veterans — many of them with VA loans — bought parcels carved out of the old Davenport and Eanes-area tracts. By the end of the period, Westlake High School had opened and the modern street grid was largely in place.
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