Interesting story

We saw this nice story outside a house in the central Austin neighborhood Judge's Hill a few days ago.

Hysterical marker

A little levity on a plaque posted on a somewhat historic building. Austin still has a sense of humor.

$800 poster

This poster from the closing of The Armadillo World Headquarters, the last day of 1980, is on sale for $800. I'll take three!

Some kids loved this candy, long ago

These candy boxes were collected during a cleanup at the Paramount.
It has been around for a long time. 

Trash tells the tale

Here you see some artifacts from the Paramount that have been collected over the years.

On stage at the Paramount

This historic curtain made quite a backdrop for our friend Jim Ritts the other night at the Paramount. He is the executive director of the theater.

The old and the new.

This old house that our Heritage Society has been promising to fix up for many years sits in the shadow of the new Fairmont Hotel.

History lives here

This pretty little house with a long flight of front steps, is historic, according to the sign out front.

Historic water fountain

I love this eight hydrant 1928-era water fountain on the Capitol grounds. 

Fading squares of memories

This rapidly-deteriorating logo in the sidewalk is all that remains of Renfro's Rexall Drug Store on "The Drag" across from the University of Texas campus. That store is where I holed up during the Tower Sniper rampage on August 1, 1966 in which 17 people were killed and over thirty were injured.

Today is theme day at City Daily Photo. The theme is squares. Click here to see other city's interpretations.

Old Stones

Amid all the high rises going up it looks like this historic building at Ninth and Congress is getting rehabillitated. Or is old that old stone just being removed?

Beautiful Old Home

A walk in the Judge's Hill area made us stop and look at this beautiful old home.

Another Bremond Block Beauty

As promised another Bremond Block beauty within site of many high rises on Seventh Street.

Bremond Block

Years ago we showed you the stately downtown house that gives a block of Seventh Street its name. But, I realized, I don't think we've ever shown you two other magnificent old homes on the same block. The Bremond House, just to the right of this one which is in the link above, was getting scaffolding for some renovation a few weeks ago. This one and the one I'll show you tomorrow are wonderful, too.

Detail Battle Hall

Walking on campus the other day, my attention was drawn to Battle Hall, the historic library, because it had a banner on it proclaiming its centennial. The banner said '1911-2011' but as 2012 waned it was still there. The building has some interesting details like this crab. Representing a branch of learning perhaps.

Resolution: Look Up

Here's a New Year's Resolution for the ADP: Look up and observe to find new things to show. Shot this before Christmas on Congress Avenue. One of the old buildings across from the Frost Bank monolith has the crumbling moniker: SOUTHWESTERN TELEGRAPH and TELEPHONE. I guess telegraph was more important. Blow it up and you can see more detail.

Historic Ceiling

This is the ceiling of the historic Driskill hotel lobby.

Historic Home near Downtown

Sometimes we forget that there are things in the downtown area besides high rises (and cows). Here is a historic home on Baylor Street. Less than a mile from our house.

Historic Home

There has been a lot of controversy in Austin over homes being designated historic and getting tax breaks, but this one on Blanco Street looks well-maintained and like a bit of history.

Peace and Love, Y'all

Another piece of Austin history here. I took this shot at a "Love-In" in Wooldridge Park (our central downtown park) back in 1968. When Linda and I were cleaning out our big house to move downtown, I found the rolled-up old negative strip with this shot and many others on it. This is the best composed of the photos. I think that this event happened in March of 1968. The band playing here is Shiva's Headband. Funny, but I was in the Longhorn Band from 1964-67 with the drummer you see here. He was a brilliant player. The electric fiddle player you see here is Spencer Perskin, an iconic Austin musician who is still around town. They hit the road to San Francisco for a while, but returned to Austin. What a great time that was to be alive. I could go on, but it would be boring.