Austin | Historic Images & Postcards

[hookem]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

my favorite in the pic has got to be the lady with the pointed glasses.

Cat Eyes and Bobby Sox. Straight outta Grease.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by cvalkan

She looks like the inspiration for Vera Carp.

Ha! I wonder if she likes to talk about ducks.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

That's the worst idea ever.

Well, they are still doing it in Boston this winter, but I think it is mostly because of the record snowfalls. No white gloves for these para-military garbed officers of the law. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...5mI/story.html

These pics are also kind of amusing. It would keep Austin a bit weird to have these guys downtown directing traffic.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...2F%3B635%3B820

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Well, they are still doing it in Boston this winter, but I think it is mostly because of the record snowfalls. No white gloves for these para-military garbed officers of the law. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...5mI/story.html

Obviously they do it for special events or emergencies. But...
1. Why aren't the cops doing their actual jobs which I assume is fighting crime.
2. I trust a computerized traffic signal more than a cop.
3. It would end very fast when the first cop gets run over. Which wouldn't be very long.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Agreed. That's the single highest cause of police officer fatality.

Traffic related incidents (which might every once in while include directing traffic among other things such as car chases, fatal accidents involving police vehicles. etc.) are the SECOND highest cause of police officer fatalities.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...230-story.html

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

Obviously they do it for special events or emergencies. But...
1. Why aren't the cops doing their actual jobs which I assume is fighting crime.
2. I trust a computerized traffic signal more than a cop.
3. It would end very fast when the first cop gets run over. Which wouldn't be very long.

IMHO, rush hour downtown is an every day special event that could use a little help from Austin's finest. For example, two weeks ago I was stuck downtown near 4th and 3rd Streets and Rio Grande and Nueces in a maze of closed or partially blocked streets choked with rush hour traffic trying to make U-turns and get back to open streets. It was a bloody mess that took about half an hour to negotiate. It could have been unsnarled by a cop directing traffic in less than five minutes. There were actually two cop cars parked in the immediate vicinity, but the officers did nothing to try to deal with the situation. Maybe they were there fighting crime. Could have fooled me. I assume cops have many duties. Facilitating traffic movement used to be one of them.

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by austlar1

IMHO, rush hour downtown is an every day special event that could use a little help from Austin's finest. For example, two weeks ago I was stuck downtown near 4th and 3rd Streets and Rio Grande and Nueces in a maze of closed or partially blocked streets choked with rush hour traffic trying to make U-turns and get back to open streets. It was a bloody mess that took about half an hour to negotiate. It could have been unsnarled by a cop directing traffic in less than five minutes. There were actually two cop cars parked in the immediate vicinity, but the officers did nothing to try to deal with the situation. Maybe they were there fighting crime. Could have fooled me. I assume cops have many duties. Facilitating traffic movement used to be one of them.

It's just like every major city, but you can't have people running over cops or cops killing people about to run over them when you have perfectly good signals that are timed, accurate, and don't require a human.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Traffic related incidents (which might every once in while include directing traffic among other things such as car chases, fatal accidents involving police vehicles. etc.) are the SECOND highest cause of police officer fatalities.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...230-story.html

That was last year. Usually traffic related accidents are #1.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Ha! I wonder if she likes to talk about ducks.

"Tuna" references noted!

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Ha! I wonder if she likes to talk about ducks.

Vera Carp wasn't the one who liked to talk about ducks. That was Petey Fisk.

Vera Carp was the one who said (while talking on the phone) "Lupe! This coffee isn't very caliente! Let me cawl ewe back." and "Next time I need a maid I'm going straight to Border Patrol!"

Here's one of my favorite clips of her - speaking from the Coweeta Baptist Church.

• Video Link

[KevinFromTexas]

Oh ok. haha I've never gone to see the show. I'm not even sure it's still on. Whenever my dad and his friend would argue over something, usually politics, my dad's friend would try to change the subject by saying "let's talk about ducks!" lol

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Oh ok. haha I've never gone to see the show. I'm not even sure it's still on. Whenever my dad and his friend would argue over something, usually politics, my dad's friend would try to change the subject by saying "let's talk about ducks!" lol

Joe Sears and Jaston Williams ( AKA, Vera above) were the creators of these wonderful characters and shows. They retired from doing these characters.... but the shows ( especially "Tuna" and "A Tuna Christmas") are still performed by many theatre's around the country with other actors.

You can see their stars on the sidewalk in front of the Paramount Theatre in Downtown Austin. The Paramount was considered their home theatre. "Tuna Christmas" was their biggest hit outside of Texas. It ran on Broadway and earned Joe Sears a Tony Nomination. Jaston still performs in Austin and around the country. Joe is mostly teaching these days.

[corvairkeith]

I ran across a pretty interesting folder in an old file at my lodge tonight. It seems back in 1975 we were trying to purchase 505 Congress and Realtor had it appraised at $187,200. The folder had photos of 505 Congress as well as some other comparable properties, I hope it's alright to post them here since they are not my own photos.

First here's 505 Congress in 1975



The Littlefield building with the under construction Bank of America tower.



709 Congress was appraised at $20.38 per square foot or approximately $75,000.



900 Congress is the recently remodeled Sears building.



This is the photo I found most interesting and not just because of the Corvair van. The mid-century facelift on the office furniture store is hiding the historic facade of 416 Congress.

[the Genral]

That's the first Bank of America tower under construction picture I've ever seen. It almost seems from the picture that adding the top two floors was an after thought, either that or the exterior installation went up waaaay faster than the vertical construction. That picture looks really odd to me.

[KevinFromTexas]

Wow. Those are neat. Were there anymore showing the Bank of America Center? It's sort of hard to tell, but it looks like it has a steel skeleton, versus concrete like most of Austin's high rises have.

[corvairkeith]

Unfortunately there was only that one with the Bank of America (Austin National Bank) Building. The only other photo that I didn't post because it doesn't look much different today is 605 Brazos.

[KevinFromTexas]

I found a FAA filing for a "24-story hotel" at Lat 30° 16' 08.75" N and Long 97° 44' 37.01" W

If you enter those coordinates into Google Earth, it pinpoints the location as being on the northwest corner of the block where the One American Center is.

This was a filing from May 14, 1984. It lists Rust Properties as the sponsor. They're the company that developed the One American Center.

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...=253241&row=20

[LoneStarMike]

A skyline shot that looks like it might have been taken about 2007 showing what the view would have been from 1155 Barton Springs Road.



http://www.downtownaustincondos.com/...-austin-tx.php

I would love to see a photo from that same vantage point today.

[KevinFromTexas]

Someone doesn't like cranes.

[drummer]

It really is crazy how much Frost Bank stood out back then. It's still dramatic because of the crown, but due to its height, it's being covered up little by little.