Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[corvairkeith]

Yeah, Frost was definitely a game changer for the Austin skyline. Also it's funny to think of a photo from 2007 as being "Historic", but it really is a completely different looking city. You can even see the water tower from the Green Water Treatment Plant where the North Shore is rising now.

[The ATX]

From the print edition of today's Statesman: Congress & 10th 1982. Downtown was definitely at rock bottom at that point in time.

[LoneStarMike]

Here's another view of Congress Avenue showing all that work on the street I scanned out of a Texas Monthly Magazine dated November 1983.

[KevinFromTexas]

That article also has a construction photo the Hobby Building. It also shows the construction site/site prep of One American Center and the construction of 816 Congress. That's also 1005 Congress under construction/renovation in Hill Country's post above. They added a few more floors and re-did the facade.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/life....257314.735732

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

That article also has a construction photo the Hobby Building. It also shows the construction site/site prep of One American Center and the construction of 816 Congress. That's also 1005 Congress under construction/renovation in Hill Country's post above. They added a few more floors and re-did the facade.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/life....257314.735732

WOW, look at 2nd street. Almost unrecognizable in those pictures. Amazing to see how the downtown area has evolved over the past 30 years.

[KevinFromTexas]

I thought this was neat. I posted that article above in the South Austin Memories Facebook group, and one of the construction workers on the One American Center commented. Another one's wife also posted.

My husband, Elroy Moore, was a big part in the construction of the One American Center. A really big deal because it was the tallest building in Austin at that time.

I placed the "topping out" tree at One American Center. It was a also a Christmas tree since it was around Christmas time either '83 or '84. I hung in a concrete bucket from the overhead crane to do it. The picture was in the Statesman but I no longer have a copy.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/life....257314.735732

[KevinFromTexas]

The 4th photo at this link shows the Chase Bank Tower under construction on October 16, 1973.

http://www.statesman.com/gallery/wea...gCS2G/#7333514

The caption says 1981. I believe it since that's the Lavaca Plaza office building under construction, which was finished in 1983.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

1994


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[drummer]

Here's a Flickr photo thread that has a bunch of pictures from the 1981 Memorial Day flood. At the top, it says:

"May 24, 2011, marks the 30th anniversary of Austin's Memorial Day Flood when 13 people lost their lives and damage across the city was estimated at $35.5 million."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/austin...7626196677382/

[KevinFromTexas]

https://www.facebook.com/TexasHighwa...type=1&theater

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

https://www.facebook.com/TexasHighwa...type=1&theater

Congress Avenue, maybe at 1st or 2nd Street, 1939-ish?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by jg6544

Congress Avenue, maybe at 1st or 2nd Street, 1939-ish?

What's odd about this is that it doesn't appear to be a cross street. There's parking on Congress where the street should continue across Congress.

[Homecreek]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

What's odd about this is that it doesn't appear to be a cross street. There's parking on Congress where the street should continue across Congress.

It is an optical illusion because the camera angle and focus point. There is a truck turning right on to the continuation of the street on the west side of Congress.

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by Homecreek

It is an optical illusion because the camera angle and focus point. There is a truck turning right on to the continuation of the street on the west side of Congress.

I have trouble pin-pointing the cross-street. I can see the Scarborough's building (6th St.), but there was a train depot (Missouri Pacific) at the southwest corner of 3rd and Congress (the MKT/Southern Pacific depot was on the northeast corner, but could be hidden by intervening buildings) and I can't pick it out. I think the vantage point is too far away from 6th for it to be 4th or 5th street. Any ideas where it might be?

[jg6544]

Silly me! Go to the link, where it identifies the intersection as 1st & Congress and it was taken in 1940.

[priller]

The right side of the photo looks like the side of the street, but it's actually the roof of a building. It's hiding the cross street.

[The ATX]

How times have changed. As this photo shows, local stationers were still a thing into the '80s.

[wwmiv]

This probably makes me seem very very young, but what is a local stationer?

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

This probably makes me seem very very young, but what is a local stationer?

Basically a much much smaller scale Office Depot.

[corvairkeith]

Here's another shot of the Abel Stationers building from 1975. It's actually 416 Congress it just had a mid-century facelift. At some point it was removed and restored to it's original appearance.



Here's the same view today.

[The ATX]

It's good to see that the facade of Abel's was restored. Jeez, mid-century architecture was quite tasteless.