Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[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.

[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.

[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.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Here's another earlier postcard of the Stephen F. Autin Hotel from http://www.austinpostcard.com

I finally found a photo of the interior of the original rooftop terrace of the Stephen F. Austin Hotel taken May 15, 1924.




http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125272/

[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.

[priller]

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

[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.

[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

[LoneStarMike]

Re: Former office building at 1005 Congress

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Here's a cropped and zoomed in version




It also shows up in a different photo I found from 1978




Texas Monthly - June 1978 (page 164)

The Travis County Appraisal District's website shows the building was completed in 1957. Since it's still listed under the entry for 1005 Congress, I'm assuming the current 1005 Congress is actually this building with a different facade (and perhaps some additional floors added?)

I found a color photo of Congress Avenue that I enhanced and it shows the same building at the end of Congress on the right-hand side.




The original photo came from

Austin History Center (via Facebook)

That office building was indeed demolished before the current 1005 Congress was built. It's listed under the category "Demolished Buildings" over on Emporis.

Mutual Savings Building

[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/

[the Genral]

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