Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[KevinFromTexas]

That probably is it. What other 9 building complex could they be talking about?

EDIT: the Genral, I remember my dad and his friend saying an F-4 Phantom had crashed back then. If I'm remembering right it was along 71 near 183 actually in the right of way. Is that right?

We were/still are plane and train geeks. We used to park in a parking lot overlooking Mueller and watch the jets land. They'd come right overhead. Our vet is also at 51st and Duval, and I'd always sit outside on their deck and watch the jets fly over. After Bergstrom became our airport we always would go to the viewing area just off 71. It's really nice and peaceful out there just sitting and watching them come in over the city. Back when Bergstrom was still an air base, we used to go to a landfill in East Austin along FM 812. It had a very good view of the city and the runways at Bergstrom. I remember us watching the F-4 Phantoms do their touch and go landings. My dad's friend also heard once somehow that there was going to be a B1 Bomber at Bergstrom. He pulled off on the side of 183 on the backside of the base to watch it land. He faked a flat to see it. He said two base guards came over to check him out.

[the Genral]

It crashed into one of the bridge abutments of the 183, 71 interchange system. It punched a sizable hole in it so the repair site might still be visable. If you drive west on 71 towards Riverside, it will be one of the abutments on your left at or near the 183 interchange. If you go by there someday to check it out and you see it, let me know. I too am a plane geek. I just got a new flight tracker app for my tab. We're in a flight path and sitting in my back yard, we get one jet after another flying overhead. Now I can see where they are coming from.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by the Genral

It crashed into one of the bridge abutments of the 183, 71 interchange system. It punched a sizable hole in it so the repair site might still be visable. If you drive west on 71 towards Riverside, it will be one of the abutments on your left at or near the 183 interchange. If you go by there someday to check it out and you see it, let me know. I too am a plane geek. I just got a new flight tracker app for my tab. We're in a flight path and sitting in my back yard, we get one jet after another flying overhead. Now I can see where they are coming from.

When I first moved to Austin (also '81) I lived on Ave H right under the Mueller flight path. Even though Austin's air traffic was much less back then, those planes would fly just over our roof about every 45 minutes or so and all conversations, TV listening etc., would come to an abrupt end. Annoying! I also lived off Pleasant Valley after that and the Jets from Bergstrom would buzz our neighborhood every now and then, and the noise was obscene.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, I remember how noisy it was at our vet. Those homes around there must have been miserable. The jets would come over pretty low. The building pretty much shook whenever they would come over. I'd always run outside to see them. The viewing spot along I-35 where we would watch the jets land was in that day labor parking lot with the awning. The property is fenced off and gated now, but at the time you could drive back in there and sit. We would park in there facing the airport. My brother and I and our dad would sit outside on the car looking west for that tell tell sight of landing gear lights. My favorite time to go was when it was slightly cloudy or even foggy. It was such a wickedly cool sight seeing the planes coming in with their lights flying through the clouds and fog. I also remember once they would fly over that you would see these contrails behind the plane and you could even hear the wind whipping around behind them.

I'll have to remember to look for that bridge abutment. My sister lives in Del Valle, so we drive by there fairly often. That area is a mess right now with the Riverside construction.

We bounced back and forth between doing that and going downtown. We also went to the train station a lot to watch trains. We even talked with the engineers several times and they let us up in the cab of two switcher engines. They let my brother push the engine start button. We set in the cab with them as they moved the engines about 50 feet. They even gave my brother and me two lanterns and some Union Pacific goggles. And of course we went to the Capitol a lot. My brother and I grew up running around the Capitol grounds chasing crickets and lightning bugs and going up and down the stairs inside the Capitol.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Yeah, I remember how noisy it was at our vet. Those homes around there must have been miserable. The jets would come over pretty low.

There was a crash in that neighborhood in 1970 that killed 8 people.

Manor Airport
After 40 years, Austin was outgrowing its cozy, convenient Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. By the 1970s it began to show.
Austin Chronicle
July 4, 2003

In what is still Austin's worst air accident, a private plane with six people onboard crashed into a house at 916 E. 48th in April 1970, killing the young couple who lived there as well as all onboard the aircraft. The house was in a residential neighborhood on the approach to Mueller Airport, only a quarter-mile from the threshold of the longest runway. In 1974 the Citizens Airport Advisory Committee recommended closing the airport and moving it to Bergstrom Air Force Base on Austin's southeastern tip, but the Air Force denied the request.

In April 1975, Texas Monthly published an article on the state's most potentially dangerous airports. Austin was labeled "High Risk," the worst rating. According to the article, any trouble during landing or takeoff could send a plane onto I-35, the Capital Plaza Shopping Center, or the Morris Williams Golf Course.

To read the April 1975 Texas Monthly article, click here then click on the image of the cover to "open" the magazine. The story starts on page 64.

Texas Monthly ran another story in December 1980, where it ranked DFW as the safest airport in Texas, and Austin the most dangerous. This is the photo of Mueller that accompanied the 1980 article:



Texas Monthly December 1980 issue

Story starts on page 178.

[KevinFromTexas]

I must be doing something wrong. I typed in 401 Congress Avenue, the Frost Bank Tower's address, and it still says none found.

I would love to be able to double check my dates.

[LoneStarMike]

I got it work for me. I just typed in "401" in the top box for street number and "Congress" (without the word Avenue) in the second box for street name.

You can also do a search by the type "Doing Business As (dba)" I typed in "Frost Bank Tower" and it comes up. (It's property #192833)

[KevinFromTexas]

Thanks! Ok, I think I got it now. From what I can tell the dates seem to be the start dates. It lists the Frost Bank Tower's date as 2002, but it was competed in 2004. It broke ground November 27, 2001 (my birthday).

[LoneStarMike]

Yeah, they definitely have to be start dates. If the IBM buildings broke ground in May of 1990, there's no way they could have been completed by the end of the year. I also looked up the complex I live in. It shows 1983, but I know the first tenants didn't move in until August of 1984.

Another thing I noticed was that most buildings on the UT campus don't seem to be listed, but I'm thinking it's because they're not subject to paying property taxes. (They don't, do they?) I was able to find Dobie Mall, but that was about all I could find.

And BTW, I meant to ask you about about the William B. Travis State Office Building. Wasn't it (and the Hobby Building) originally supposed to be a commercial office building rather than a state office building?

[KevinFromTexas]

Are you talking about the William P. Clements building? The one at 15th & Guadalupe? It originally was a commercial office building. It was originally called One Capitol Square, by the way. I believe the William P. Hobby Building was the same way. The office market tanked back then and the state must have snapped up some deals.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Are you talking about the William P. Clements building?

Yeah, I got the two "William" buildings (Clements & Travis) mixed up.

[Homecreek]

Any idea what the red 7 or 8 story building is on the lower left side of the cropped and zoomed in photo? I'm guessing it was an old hotel.

[LoneStarMike]

^^^Homecreek, I'm pretty sure that building is an office building called the Travis Building. (not to be confused with the William B. Travis State Office Building.) The address for the Travis Building is 205-209 W. 9th Street. It was built in 1946.

Here's a photo I took back in 2010



1969:



It's obviously been painted since the 1969 photo, but if you compare the roof of the first and more current photos, it appears to be the same building.

There's another photo of it on Emporis and you can see the roof a little better.

Travis Building

Kevin would know for sure.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yep, that's the Travis Building. I really don't know much of the history about it other than it was built in 1946.

[LoneStarMike]

I went back and looked for some other photos I took that day of the Travis Building because I remembered something strange I noticed. I found one and zoomed in on the top part above the three windows in the middle.



I remembered when I took the photo, I thought I could see the word "Steck" at the top. I thought Steck was a publisher and also a city council member. Anyway, I went over to the Portal to Texas History and did a search for Steck and the first thing that came up was a photograph of this building taken in 1948. It was known as the Steck Company Building.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62786/

Another photo from a different angle from 1950



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth63103/

Notice those two "balconies" on the top floor on either side of the building. Even today, the balcony on the right has a forward-facing "S" and the one on the left has a backwards-facing "S."

Photo from 2010:



The eight-story portion must have been where the offices were located, and the two-story section to the west of that must have been where the printing presses were located because I found another photo of the interior showing the printing presses and it says the address for that was 217-221 W. 9th.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62774/

I think The Steck Company probably occupied this building until 1958, because I found another photo from that year of the "new" Steck Building exterior, parking lot and surrounding land. I guess that's where Steck Avenue got it's name.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth19507/

There's also a Vaughn Building downtown on Brazos, and I'm wondering if the Steck Company merged with them to become today's Steck-Vaughn Co.

[texastarkus]

The Steck plant in the picutre was located on Shoal Creek blvd between Anderson Lane and Steck Ave with the back of the building on the railroad tracks. The building was sold and renovated a number of years ago and is now a Lowes Home Improvement Center. As for Steck Vaughn, at one time they had one of the fastest high speed color presses in the country and printed color adverts and inserts for newspapers all over north America. They also published textbooks. In their day the office was downtown with the press facility in the suburbs. The were bought out by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt a few years ago with offices on Mopac north of US 183.

[LoneStarMike]

Here's some more photos from August of 1951. They're all of the same building under construction (almost finished) but from different streets and angles and I think they're cool because a lot of them show shops, banks, & businesses that are long gone. If you click on the link underneath each photo's description, it will take you to a page where you can view larger versions of the photo.

The building back then was known as the International Life Insurance Company Building. Today, it's simply known as 815 Brazos. It's on the northeast corner of 9th & Brazos.

The rendering:

Photo of an illustration of the eleven-storied Home Office Building for International Life Insurance Company in Austin, Texas. Listed names for the project are Giesecke, Kuehne & Brooks, Architects; Howard R. Barr, Associate.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74493/

Looking South from the 900 block of Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74782/

Looking south from the intersection of E. 10th and Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74778/

Looking East from the 100 block of W. 8th St. at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74783/

Looking North from the 800 block of Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

The hotel on the left is the old Commodore Perry Hotel, later converted into an office building called One Commodore Plaza. (I used to work there.) Now it's the Brazos Place Condos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74780/

Looking south from the intersection of E. 10th and Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74779/

Looking East from the 200 block of E. 9th St at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74784/

Looking northwest from San Jacinto Blvd at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74775/

View looking up at construction of building at 9th and Brazos St. Sign for Rex D. Kitchens Construction Company in the foreground.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74773/

Looking southwest from the 900 block of San Jacinto Blvd at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74777/

BTW Kevin - you asked awhile back when the two additional floors were added to the Brown Building. I see them being added in the above photo, which was taken August 31, 1951, so that's another mystery solved.

Looking North from the 800 block of Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74781/

Looking north along the 800 block of Brazos at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos

Man that's a cool house next door. I guess it had to be demolished when the Vaughn Building was built.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74774/

Looking East from the 100 block of W. 8th St. at the building under construction at the southeast corner of 9th and Brazos.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74776/


This is 815 Brazos today (taken by me & uploaded on wikimedia.org)












http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:815_Brazos

[LoneStarMike]

Thanks for the info on Steck-Vaughn. Were they two separate companies at one time and is Vaughn who the Vaughn Building was named after?

Also, do you remember Mr. Stecks first name? Was it Philip? I found some old City Council minutes from the late 1920's, but those documents just referred to Council member Steck. I found an obituary for a person I think might have been his daughter (named Helen) and it mentioned that her dad (Phillip Vaughn) had been a council member for 25 years.

[the Genral]

At first I thought the 10 slabs on the side of the International Life building were balconies, then maybe some sort of awning, but I guessing they were actually an architectural element. Its too bad they couldn't or didn't convert those to balconies when they renovated the building into what it is today. I think the original design looked quite modern and interesting for its day and would have deserved to be perhaps updated but preserved in the fashion the original architechs intended. Seems like some history was lost for the sake of functionality. It went from slightly ahead of its time in terms of design to just meh...

[KevinFromTexas]

Wow! Great finds. That area around the Travis Building was once a sort of "media district". The Travis Building had that publisher company as you mentioned, but there was also the Tribune Building that was the headquarters for a newspaper. That building is still there. It's now the Ernest O. Thompson state office building. And didn't the Austin American-Statesman occupy the Brown Building for some time? I think I remember reading that.

Speaking of the Brown Building, this is a neat photograph because is shows the expansion of it. When it was originally built in 1938 it had only 8 floors. Then in the late 40s they added two more floors to it.