Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

And didn't the Austin American-Statesman occupy the Brown Building for some time? I think I remember reading that.

I don't think the Austin-American Statesman was ever in the Brown Building. Their building was at Seventh & Colorado. I found some photos of it when it was finishing up construction and it says the photos were from 1936, so that would have been before the Brown Building was built.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62076/




http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62077/




http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62074

2 photos from 1940:



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62235/



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62236/

The caption on the above photos say the people riding the sled are on Congress Avenue, but that can't be right. I think it's Colorado St. I don't know what building that is on the left hand side of the photos.

There's a couple more photos I wanted to post, but their advanced search option just went down. I'll try again later today.

[austlar1]

LoneStarMike and Texastarkus, thanks for the great posts. I loved the pictures and the historical information.

[The ATX]

I love this historical stuff and greatly appreciate all the research that is being done to make this thread so interesting.

I was going through all my old photographs from the '80s that I haven't even looked at since then to see if there was anything interesting enough to post online. But my god, they were all crap.

[KevinFromTexas]

Great pics up there. I love this kind of stuff.

Originally Posted by Hill Country

I was going through all my old photographs from the '80s that I haven't even looked at since then to see if there was anything interesting enough to post online. But my god, they were all crap.

Really, when it comes to historical photographs, quality doesn't matter so much. And you can always clean them up with a photo enhancing program after you've scanned them.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Great pics up there. I love this kind of stuff.



Really, when it comes to historical photographs, quality doesn't matter so much. And you can always clean them up with a photo enhancing program after you've scanned them.

I was referring mostly to the subject matter rather than quality.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by austlar1

LoneStarMike and Texastarkus, thanks for the great posts. I loved the pictures and the historical information.

You're welcome. I was bored this weekend and needed something to do.

The Portal to Texas History's search engine seems to be working at the moment, so here's a few more.

Austin American Statesman Building from 1936. The building in the foreground at right was the Norwood Tower's garage.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth62073/


An undated photo probably from the 1940's showing the Austin American Statesman Bulding, Norwood Tower and the Stephen F. Austin Hotel. I love the name of the Norwood's garage - The Norwood Motoramp. I wish the parking garages today looked that good.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74676/


By the time the next photo was taken in 1953, the garage had been converted to the Capital National Bank.



http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33178/

Capital National Bank occupied that building until 700 Lavaca was completed.



Texas Monthly - May 1981 (page 71)

Even though the name of the bank was still Capital National Bank, it was already a member of Texas Commerce Bancshares and I don't think there was ever any signage with the Capital National Bank name on the building. I think by the time the signage was added to the building it simply said Texas Commerce Bank.

[priller]

The old bank vault is still there at Perry's.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by priller

The old bank vault is still there at Perry's.

I guess this is it:


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74679/

A couple of other photos of the Bank's interior:

Surely they didn't have that many flowers all the time. It looks like you're going to a funeral.


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74680/

And there was a lounge area?


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74678/

The architect's rendering:


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74662/

[MichaelB]

The architect's rendering:


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74662/[/QUOTE]

note the Architect: Page, Southerland + Page!

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

The architect's rendering:


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth74662/

note the Architect: Page, Southerland + Page![/QUOTE]

Ok, so it wasn't the same architect, I did some research and the engineering firm of Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City designed Seaholm, but you have to admit, they share some similarities, and they were built at about the same time. The architecture of Seaholm is considered late Art Moderne (sic) by the National Registry.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by the Genral

note the Architect: Page, Southerland + Page!

Ok, so it wasn't the same architect, I did some research and the engineering firm of Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City designed Seaholm, but you have to admit, they share some similarities, and they were built at about the same time. The architecture of Seaholm is considered late Art Moderne (sic) by the National Registry.[/QUOTE]

Hey...BTW.... that was a random comment on my part, wasn't intended as a correction. My eye was caught by the name PSP and what a long term impact they have had on the city.

As your comparison goes, I cerainly see how they can be seen as realting. This bank is acutlly more "of it's time".( It is actually a remodel of an earlier structure that can also be seen in photos above) I agree they share some similarities in there over all line. Seaholm was actually a bit behind it's time when it was built, not surprising for a public works building. "Art Moderne would have been popular 10-20 years earlier.

[KevinFromTexas]

I watched a video on Youtube where this guy was reviewing the Omni Hotel in downtown. He was talking about how luxurious and big the suites were. Well, I was looking at the county's page for the hotel, and apparently it was originally meant to have condominiums in place of the hotel portion of the building. The other half of course is office space.

http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clie...prop_id=754189

[the Genral]

Looks like whoever designed the Capital National Bank building had a hand in the Seaholm design or visa versa.

[austlar1]

I thought there were some residential units (condo?) on the top couple of floors of the Omni until they were converted to hotel rooms some time around 2000. I guess they were rental units.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by austlar1

I thought there were some residential units (condo?) on the top couple of floors of the Omni until they were converted to hotel rooms some time around 2000. I guess they were rental units.

You're right! There were condos in the building up until 1997.

Omni Center to convert luxury condos into hotel space
Managers plan to change most of 61 units over the next year to meet growing demand for extended hotel suites
Austin Business Journal
April 18-24, 1997

There's a video on youtube of a 2-bedroom 2-bath suite.

• Video Link

[the Genral]

Awwwwww MichaelB, even if you were correcting me, I wouldn't take offense by you...you are a gentleman sir. Actually, when I saw the exclamation point after "....+Page!" I thought I guessed right until I got off my lazy butt and did some research. I tend to post more opinions than facts in this forum.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Awwwwww MichaelB, even if you were correcting me, I wouldn't take offense by you...you are a gentleman sir. Actually, when I saw the exclamation point after "....+Page!" I thought I guessed right until I got off my lazy butt and did some research. I tend to post more opinions than facts in this forum.

[LoneStarMike]

Line drawing of Bullock House, which was located on the northwest corner of Pecan (6th) & Congress from 1839-1852.


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125105/

Bullock House, the first hotel in Austin, was built in 1839, at the time that the city was being hastily constructed to become the capital of Texas. Hewn logs, probably oak, were used for construction; the second floor of the main building was of cottonwood planks. The hotel, located at the northwest corner of streets that are now Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, occupied half of the block, with a series of smaller log buildings serving as rooms for guests, the family of Richard Bullock, and servants. An upstairs room in the main building served as a dormitory for occasional troops and other visiting groups and as a meeting place when the first Presbyterian church services were held in Austin. China and furnishings from the Bullock home in Tennessee contrasted strangely with handmade hide-bottomed chairs. The Bullock Hotel was the social center of Austin for a number of years, as well as the official entertainment site for government officials; it accommodated early visitors including Alphonse Dubois de Saligny, whose quarrel with Bullock became an incident in Texas financial history known as the Pig War. In 1841 the main building was weatherboarded with pine. The hostel was known as Swisher's Hotel after 1852 and as Smith's Hotel after 1858.

Source: "BULLOCK HOUSE," Handbook of Texas Online


The original 1853 Capitol in 1875 on the occasion of Andrew Jackson Hamilton's funeral


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125141/


Congress Avenue, looking north from between Pine (5th) and Pecan (6th) streets in the 1870's. 1853 Capitol building in view.


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125107/


Congress & Bois d'Arc (7th) in 1877


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125267/


Capitol dedication - May 1888


http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125135/

[MichaelB]

Does anyone know when the east/west street names were changed to numbers?
it was interesting in the above drawing of the Bullock Hotel that the drawing has "6th" street labeled on it instead of "Pecan" street.

anyway....anyone know?

[LoneStarMike]

I think that line drawing wasn't done at the time the hotel was actually there, but rather much later.

The tree-named streets were changed to numbers in 1884

The city was laid out in a simple grid pattern on a single square-mile plot with 14 blocks running in both directions. One grand avenue, which Lamar named "Congress," cut through the center of town from Capitol Square down to the Colorado River. The streets running north-south (paralleling Congress) were named for Texas rivers with their order of placement matching the order of rivers on the Texas state map. The east-west streets were named after Texas trees, despite the fact that Waller had recommended using numbers (they were eventually changed to numbers in 1884). The city's perimeters stretched north to south from the river at 1st Street to 15th Street, and from East Avenue (now IH-35) to West Avenue. Remarkably, much of this original design is still intact in the downtown area today.

Source: Austin History Center