Hysterical marker

A little levity on a plaque posted on a somewhat historic building. Austin still has a sense of humor.

A new plaque about a historic speech

A new plaque in our central Austin park tells of the time Booker T. Washington came to town in the early 1900s. This is our friend Charles Peveto standing by it.

Learning about our city's past

Always fun to read the history of buildings and blocks in downtown Austin.

Great icons of Austin

This one is a nonsensical but cute figure that is a part of Austin lore. It is on a building just off of the Drag or as the formal title goes, Guadalupe Street.

Happy B-Day, Texas!

It was colder than usual on March 2, which is Texas Independence Day -- the Yeti sign pointed that fact out. 

The Republic is No More

In the Texas State Cemetery, there is a circle of stones with quotes from Texas Historic figures. This one from the last president of the Republic of Texas, Anson Jones, is amusing.

The lone star of Texas, which ten years since arose amid cloud, over fields of carnage, and obscurely shone for a while, has culminated, and, following an inscrutable destiny, has passed on and become fixed forever in that glorious constellation which all freemen and lovers of freedom in the world must reverence and adore--the American Union....The Republic of Texas is no more. 

Some Texans never really admit we joined the 'glorious constellation' and some forget that we had that bloody foray into the Confederacy. By the way, have you ever heard of Six Flags Amusement Parks? They began in Texas and the six flags were those that flew over this vast land: French, Spanish, Mexican, U.S. and, yes, the Confederacy and Texas Flag when we were an independent nation from 1836-1846.

Another story about Austin

This plaque was just erected not far from our condo tower in downtown Austin. I didn't know the details on these stories and I have lived here all my life.

A bit of history

This interesting historical marker is on Sixth Street. Mr. Samuleson was a legend.

Another Bremond Block Beauty

As promised another Bremond Block beauty within site of many high rises on Seventh Street.

Bremond Block

Years ago we showed you the stately downtown house that gives a block of Seventh Street its name. But, I realized, I don't think we've ever shown you two other magnificent old homes on the same block. The Bremond House, just to the right of this one which is in the link above, was getting scaffolding for some renovation a few weeks ago. This one and the one I'll show you tomorrow are wonderful, too.

Built into a Quarry Downtown

It's pretty rocky around here and the city has grown around old quarries. Nowhere is this more fascinating than downtown where the building I showed you yesterday crawls down two stories and hugs the old quarry wall on Seventh Street.

Hard Times, Old Days

Just a few blocks from our high rise, where lots of us live together on a city block are historic homes built over a century ago in about the space of a block. The Bremond Block has stately homes (like this) but possibly the most interesting is this house...built against an old quarry wall at the end of the block...and intended to raise money by stacking tenants in four stories per the historic marker. Notice that the structure looks to be only two stories. Tomorrow I'll show you the view from Seventh Street.

Ann Richards Headstone

You may recall that I visited the Texas State Cemetery on a walk in January. I showed you the headstone for football coach Tom Landry. But there are really state officials buried there and I was particularly struck by this striking memorial for Texas Governor Ann Richards. As you may remember the Congress Avenue bridge is now called the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge although I don't hear many people call it that.

Auction Oaks

That's FFP admiring the Auction Oaks. These trees (live oaks) are probably two hundred years old and are in Republic Park. The building behind is our home. The lots for the original downtown Austin (then Waterloo) were auctioned under these trees in 1839 to lay out the new capital city of the Republic of Texas. They have been recently revitalized by city arborists in their home in Republic Square Park. Another awesome live oak survives a couple of blocks west of here, too, next to a bank parking lot.

Skyscraper Heritage

On our way to the historic Driskill Hotel for the annual Heritage Society of Austin awards luncheon I decided to shoot the historic Littlefield building on the northeast corner of Sixth and Congress to show you. When it was built (1910) there was a rivalry with the Scarbrough building across the street for tallest Austin building. Therefore, Littlefield enclosed what was originally a pergola on the top of his eight-story building to make it the current nine stories. I found a postcard seller's blog who had actually sold a card showing the pergola. I also found online several assurances that, when it was completed, it was briefly the tallest building between New Orleans and San Francisco. This was the tallest building in Austin for 19 years until the Norwood tower was built.

Today, my condo building is the tallest building in Austin but in a few months it should be surpassed by the Austonian which will be over five times the height of the Littlefield building.

Downtown History

Just east of Congress on E. Ninth (Congress delineates east and west for these streets) is this historic building, wedged between some other old buildings and a rather unfortunate '70's look parking garage. Formerly the Millet Opera House, the building has housed a private club, the Austin Club, since 1981. The private club hosts a lot of events (wedding parties and such) as well as many political sit-downs due to its proximity to the Capitol. During legislative sessions the bar is abuzz with Texas politics. Since the opera house was built in 1878, some legislative sessions were actually held there while the Capitol was under construction.

Light from the Past

This is a moonlight tower. As you drive around Austin you will occasionally notice one of these gigantic (165 feet high) street lighting fixtures. Originally erected in 1895, some remain in use today. This one is at 9th and Guadalupe. They were refurbished for their hundredth anniversary and until the 20's they had carbon arc lamps light nightly by a workman using a built-in elevator. They use mercury vapor today. A replica of one is used to make a giant lighted 'Christmas tree' in Zilker park each year. Most sources I found say there are seventeen in use today, but I think this counts one that was at 4th and Nueces that was removed (temporarily? I had heard it would be re-erected somewhere at some point) to build the building in which I sit. You can see that tower in the distance on the far left here. It's hard to believe these structures are over a hundred years old. But it's hard to believe the Eiffel tower went up in 1889, too! You wonder if the Eiffel Tower and its Expo didn't influence cities around the U.S. to buy these. (Apparently, many cities had them in that era but only Austin has preserved them.)

A House Downtown

Right downtown (7th Street from Guadalupe to San Antonio) you will find a block of historic homes. This is the south side of the John Bremond house. It was built in 1886. That is what passes for old in Texas and means it was built while our Capitol was being completed. The house has the offices of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association in it. I snapped this picture as we walked on Tuesday to our early voting location at the Travis County Courthouse (also our regular polling place now that we live downtown). It was closer to walk to our polling place in the old neighborhood. And you didn't have to pass through a security guard and a metal detector. But you couldn't vote early there.

Flowering in the heart of Austin

Linda and I hosted a dinner party in one of Austin's finest homes Saturday night. The flowers were provided by Talulah Bleu, the new incarnation of Austin's oldest flower shop. Formerly Tarry Town Florist, Lauren Tolley's shop is going far beyond being just a place to buy pretty plants. She's going to use the land behind her shop to start a Farmer's Market that happens twice a month, complete with live music. And she is featuring the work of many local artisans, such as jewelers, in her retail space.

As luck would have it, I was interviewing her for my newspaper column Tuesday afternoon.

Lauren (shown here) took me around back to show me this natural spring behind the store. Does this look like we're out in the country? Well, about we're just a matter of maybe one hundred feet from busy Exposition Blvd. in the heart of west Austin, not far south of West 35th. And yes, that is a natural spring in the background.

Just a historical note--Tarrytown Florist was run by iconic Austinite R.A. Lewis from 1946 until his death. He used to go crawfishing in the spring shown here. His father held the first agricultural permit in Texas for this land.

More Seating For Football

We went to The University of Texas campus last Friday night to hear "The Magic Flute" sung by the students in the Butler Opera Center. When we left, we stopped to take some shots of the construction on Memorial Stadium where the UT Longhorns play football. Linda snapped this striking photo while standing west of the stadium looking back towards the north side.

This view shows the huge crane that is in place for the project. They are adding more seats so more people can see the Longhorns in action.

This view of the stadium always brings back great memories for me of my time in The Longhorn Band. Back then, our rehearsal space was just across the street to the north of the stadium, so we would line up and march across the street into the arena. You know, I don't care how jaded you think you are; it was always a thrill to march into that stadium and play "Texas Fight" while 50,000 people went wild.

As Linda points out in her comment, we don't go to the stadium much any longer. When we were first married back in the seventies, we sometimes went to see UT football games there.