After the turn of the century, formal neighborhoods were planned in the North University area, which it was called at the time.
In 1928, the neighborhood was subdivided into its current configuration, and Austin's population at the time was only around 35,000 residents, so the area was still considered to be on the outskirts of town.
Various commercial establishments sprang up shortly thereafter, and many prominent Austinites relocated to the Hancock neighborhood around the same time, including J. Frank Dobie, a well-known writer, and Edgar Perry Jr., a cotton broker, as well as Tom Miller, one of the early mayors of Austin who served two terms as mayor.
[2] In 1946, the Austin Country Club relocated outside the city limits to present-day East Riverside Drive, and the city sold the back nine holes of the Hancock Golf Course, as it was called after the country club relocated, to the Sears Corporation to finance other recreational projects.
Other early Hancock Center tenants included Merritt, Schaeffer, Brown, Snyder Chenards, Leon's, and Merle Norman Cosmetics.