austin history

amber gugino | May 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment

9th Annual Downtown Living Tour – May 19th, 2013 – Reserve Your Tickets

The 9th Annual Downtown Living Tour is a couple of weeks away. Produced by the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA), the tour is a great way to tour downtown living, at your own pace, all in one day!

Get your DLT tickets now

This year, although the tour will still be self-guided, the tour will also have shuttle service to facilitate access to each tour stop (nice!), and will showcase the following buildings:

The Whitley Apartments
The Shore Condos
Park West Residences
360 Condos
Avenue Lofts (one of the few Art Deco buildings downtown)
The Four Seasons Residences -RECEPTION – (VIP only, and only open from 4pm-5pm)
Brazos Lofts (check out the history, formerly Capital Chevrolet)
Towers of Town Lake (Penthouse, VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
Capital Studios (to-be-built Foundations Communities project designed by Dick Clark Architecture)
LBJ’s apartment at JJ Pickle Building (VIP only, only open from 1-4pm)
More stops to be announced!

There are some stops of particular note, primarily the official office suite of President Lyndon Baines Johnson at the JJ Pickle Building, an office suite he used during his presidency and the site of such landmark meetings as the Cold War discussions on December 6, 1966, which culminated in the first agreement with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons, known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).

The JJ Pickle building itself is part of a two-block complex of Federal Buildings in downtown Austin, and was designed by Texas Firms Page-Southerland-Page and Brooks & Barr, and is textbook 1960s high-rise design.

Here are a few exclusive pictures of the interior of the office suite, which is remarkably intact.

The LBJ Suite is only open to VIP ticket holders, and there a very limited amount of VIP tickets – so we would recommend…

Get your DLT tickets now

Filed Under: austin apartments, austin condos, austin history, austin lifestyle, austin towers, austin towers and high rises, Downtown Austin lofts, condos, apartments, high rises, life in austin, office, Real Estate

Jude Galligan | March 6, 2013 | 2 Comments

Signals That Lustre Pearl Is Moving

In response to an application to relocate the structure that is Lustre Pearl, the City of Austin Historic Landmark Commission staff recommendation is to permit the move once a new site is located and approved by staff.

Relocating the structure would free up the CBD zoned dirt for a mixed-use tower on the northern end of Rainey Street.

Opening Lustre Pearl in 2008, Bridget Dunlap was the first to see the opportunity in repurposing Rainey Street’s dilapidated CBD-zoned bungalows into bars.

From the HLC brief…

The house was built c. 1907. The City Directory indicates E.A. Murchison residing at 97 Rainey Street in the first listing for the address in the 1906-07 City Directory; however Mr. Murchison’s listing in the name directory indicates him residing at 1303 E. 12th Street.

The next listing in 1909 indicates physician and surgeon Dr. Samuel H. Haigler residing at the address. He resided there until 1913, after which Mrs. Sara A. Spence, widow of Robert Spense, was the resident and owner until at least 1924. J.C. Sample, a carpenter and his wife Minnie were the next residents until approximately 1933. For the remaining years the house was owned and rented by a series of families, none of which resided at the address for more than a few years at a time. All residents, save Dr. Haigler, were blue collar or “non-professional” workers with occupations such as waiter, dishwasher and janitor. Starting in the late 1940’s surnames of the residents indicate a demographic change from Anglo to Hispanic residents as is typical for addresses in the district. - HLC background info (pdf)

Filed Under: austin history, downtown austin, Rainey Street District

Jude Galligan | January 12, 2013 | 1 Comment

Kevin Gant

Back in the early ’90s, an aspiring Austin musician was gaining lots of attention. Kevin Gant was on a trajectory for becoming really famous, and suddenly he disappeared from the scene and his fans… for 25 years.

Kevin wouldn’t reappear to the public light until director Jay Duplass reached out to him. Their conversation turned into a documentary, “Kevin”, that stumbled upon two weeks ago while browsing Netflix (I’ve been pushing the limits on the number of times a sane person can watch TopGear reruns, and this looked interesting enough).

Wow! What a story. Huge talent. Fascinating documentary about a local musician.

So, I finished the movie and went about my normal weekend.

Then, this past week while walking downtown after a DAA meeting with fellow board member, Fred Schmidt, I recognized Kevin from under his hat, waiting for the bus at Congress & 7th Street. Being a newly minted fan, I dorked out a little, and approached him just to share my enthusiasm for him and his story.

If you couldn’t immediately tell from the documentary, Kevin simply exudes positive energy. He was incredibly gracious given that a complete stranger (me) had just approached him. When I asked for a picture, he even suggested “hold on, let me get my guitar out!”, then handed Fred and I free copies of his latest CD. Cool!

Chance encounters with remarkable people. This is what makes downtown Austin such a great place to live, work, or just walk through.

If you don’t have a Netflix account, you can buy the movie on YouTube, “Kevin“, or checkout his music on iTunes.

Kevin, it’s nice to have met you. Thanks for telling your story. Cheers to your journey.

-Jude

Filed Under: around town, austin history, life in austin

amber gugino | July 27, 2012 | 1 Comment

Hotels in Downtown Austin: Girls’ Night at the Omni Downtown

I already live, work, and play in downtown Austin, which means that I know a lot about this area. However, one element that I’m not really that familiar with is the hotels in downtown Austin.

Recently, I was lucky enough to receive a complimentary stay at the Omni downtown. I decided to take advantage of the free stay and do a mini stay-cation with a couple of fun girlfriends. I figured this would be a different way to get to know the city, and have [Read more...]

Filed Under: 6th Street Historic & Entertainment District, austin bars, austin history, austin retail, austin towers, austin towers and high rises, downtown austin, entertainment district, high rises, retail

amber gugino | May 17, 2012 | 1 Comment

O. Henry Pun Off at Brush Square Park in Downtown Austin May 19th

Yes. Yes, O. yes. It’s that time again, folks. Time for the 35th annual O. Henry Pun Off. Taking place this Saturday (May 19th, 2012) at the O. Henry Museum (adjacent to Brush Square), this delightful competition celebrates the pun with two separate competitions – Punniest in Show and Punslingers.

However, a video is worth a million words – so, check out some of these punny finals videos from previous years: [Read more...]

Filed Under: austin art, austin history, austin lifestyle, austin news, austin parks, austin recreation, downtown austin

Jude Galligan | March 23, 2012 | 5 Comments

Recent History: An Original Railyard Condos Marketing Flyer

This piece of real estate ephemera fell into my hands only a day ago. I didn’t set out to publish two consecutive posts about the Railyard, but this was too interesting not to share!

Most of you know the Railyard condos were converted from apartments in the late ’90s. This flyer was intended to lure renters of the original Railyard apartments into buyers of the soon-to-be condos before opening them up for purchase by the general public.

Filed Under: austin history, Downtown Austin lofts, condos, apartments, Railyard District

Jude Galligan | February 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Graeber Residence Featured In The Statesman

Featured in this week’s Statesman Homes section is one of my listings, and more importantly one of downtown Austin’s most unique properties. Hidden in plain view on 6th Street is a mid-century time capsule. Check out the Statesman write up here.

Filed Under: 6th Street Historic & Entertainment District, austin history, Austin photos, images, downtown austin

Jude Galligan | September 27, 2011 | 7 Comments

Austin’s Old Bakery: What Is Highest & Best Use?

In 1976, the City of Austin utilized federal Older American Act funds to establish a multifaceted gift shop selling handicrafts and original art by local artists 50 or better.

That was the mission for the Old Bakery & Emporium, located at 1006 Congress Ave.

I’m as surprised as you that this concept didn’t take off and IPO within a few years.

Alas, charming as it is, the Old Bakery has not generated much buzz to date, and stakeholders are looking for new ideas. [Read more...]

Filed Under: austin history, downtown austin

Jude Galligan | March 9, 2011 | 6 Comments

This Is Bull

This is the Castleman-Bull house on Red River Street in Downtown Austin. Located just east of the Convention Center, most of us have driven past this curious property at some point in recent years.

It currently serves no purpose except as a popular spectacle of wonder for the hungover Moonshine brunch crowd. The blighted chain link fence and “keep out” signs hint at something ominous, but daring us to to get close as possible. I’ve always found it to be creepy in the coolest way possible. Time for some urban exploration! [Read more...]

Filed Under: austin history, Austin photos, images, downtown austin

Jude Galligan | February 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

Varsity Theatre

I enrolled at the University of Texas in 1995… when Tower Records was the SPOT! I was buying Wu-Tang CDs like Ol’ Dirty Bastard was having kids. The building was originally the Varsity Theatre. In recent years it’s been vacant, after a poorly timed retail attempt by a bookstore, Intellectual Property ~~Capital~~. The ABJ’s Jacob Dirr scoops what’s next for one of the most desirable retail sites in Austin, along with some history of the building. We found some old photos to share with you. [Read more...]

Filed Under: austin history