Clark Street, the main drag in the small town of Bartlett, seems suspended in time. More than a dozen rust-colored brick storefronts are stark against the cerulean sky; most date back to the early 1900s. When I first step onto the sidewalk, the place is eerily silent. But it’s not long before the stillness breaks, with the noise of cars rattling down the red cobblestone street on the way to bigger towns like Georgetown or Temple.
About an hour northeast of Austin, straddling Williamson and Bell counties, Bartlett sits along Texas Highway 95, east of Interstate 35. With its mostly vacant storefronts—a few are still occupied, including by a German restaurant and a handcrafted furniture store—Bartlett appears at first glance to be “the town that time forgot,” as Jonas Criscoe, founding member of Austin-based artist collective ICOSA, puts it.
Bartlett has been labeled a…
