"It was a dirt road into the place, so to provide access to vehicles, he went to talk to the highway department and they approved it," says Will Erwin, senior historian at the Texas State Cemetery. The state road would be called Lou Kemp Avenue, named so for an amateur historian and oilman who worked tirelessly to pull the cemetery out of disrepair. On February 24, 1930, the State Highway Commission convened, and at that meeting declared that $7,000 in state funds be set aside for a gravel and asphalt road to run from Sixth and Onion Streets through the Texas State Cemetery and out at 11th.
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In the years after the construction of Ney's sculpture, the cemetery faced decades of neglect until an enterprising Texan figured out how to get some state money into the joint: build a highway. But perhaps a cemetery is immune to the culture wars. In addition to Ney's sculpture, more than 2,200 Confederate soldiers and their spouses are buried there. It's odd to see a monument to Confederates in 2022. In 1905, Elisabet Ney - she of the eponymously named Austin museum - constructed the monument. Here lies Albert Sidney Johnston, a general in the Confederate Army. Most striking, perhaps, is Confederate Field, adorned with a sign and and a stone monument encased in a white metal fence. The longest, straightest part of SH 165 is lined on either side with Texas flags, and, heading back toward Comal Street, gravestones of famous - and infamous - Texans pull into view. But to the left is a circle and a farther, short offshoot with a turnaround that snakes up to the right. Winding over to the "main" section of SH 165, there are two options. Texas flags line either side of the main stretch of SH 165. As such, Texas Department of Transportation chief engineer Bill Hale confirms that this is the only highway in Texas that punches out at the end of the workday. This particularity - running through a state cemetery and all - means that when the gates close at 5 p.m., most of the highway is closed.
The road is made of sandblasted concrete with five vertical strips of flagstone pavers running throughout, so even if you felt like gunning it, your car wouldn't appreciate it.
Highway or not, you're driving through a literal burial ground. The road continues with a left turn into the cemetery, where the speed limit immediately decreases to 10 miles per hour. This portion has been, for at least 15 years, "unsigned," which means it doesn't have a state highway sign announcing itself. You, my friend, have parked on a state highway, and likely without paying, because the old meters there still only take coins. It's a trip for anyone who has parked by the Texas State Cemetery to walk over to LoLo or Hotel Vegas or any other number of bars or restaurants on East Sixth Street. As you pull onto Comal Street heading east on Seventh, you're already on SH 165.
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