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Austin is located in
south-central Texas, about 80 miles northeast of San Antonio, 165
miles west of Houston, and 200 miles south of Dallas. The (Texas)
Colorado River drifts through town on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.
High-tech industries
have also migrated to the Austin area, making it Texas's Silicon
Valley. Yet, Austin is still very much a town whose roots are buried
in a colorful past that the city is proud to share with visitors.
A good place to begin a
visit to Austin is downtown, where the pink granite Texas State
Capitol, built in 1888, is the most visible structure. The Colorado
River, which slices through Austin, was once unpredictable and prone
to flooding, but has been rerouted into a series of lakes, including
two within the city limits. 22 mile long Lake Austin, which lies in
the western part of the city, flows into Town Lake, a narrow stretch
of crystal clear water that travels for 5 miles through the center
of downtown.
Downtown Austin is laid
out in an orderly grid system. The main street Congress Ave, runs
from the southern end of the city across the Colorado River and
continues to the steps of the Texas State Capitol in the heart of
downtown.
The grand University of
Texas, one of the largest universities in the United States, flanks
the capitol's north end. It is home to both the Jack S. Blanton
Museum of Art and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and
Museum.
Rolling hills, a chain
of lakes 150 miles long, 300 days of sunshine, and acres of parks
all add up to the ideal setting for enjoyment of outdoor activities.
Austin and the surrounding Texas Hill Country offer hiking and bike
trails, swimming, and golf. In addition there is ballooning, bird
watching, canoeing, excellent bass fishing, rock climbing, sailing,
scuba diving, spelunking, and tennis. Austin has no professional
teams, but there is minor league baseball as well as college
football, basketball and hockey.
Since the 1960s, Austin
has been a haven for artists, musicians and writers. been on the In
1984 Austin City Limits, a showcase for bands taped at the
University of Texas campus, began airing nationwide.
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Every March, the city
hosts the annual South by Southwest conference, which draws bands
and record company executives from around the world. Local musicians
are known for their innovative re-workings of Texas' country, folk
and R&B heritage, use Austin's enthusiastic environment as a
springboard to national recognition.
Austin has its own
professional symphony, ballet and opera companies; dozens of
theaters combining old favorites with ground-breaking new drama;
dance companies, vocal ensembles, and orchestras producing events
year round. Art museums, galleries and beautiful gardens of
sculptures are among the treasures found in Austin.
Austin boasts more
restaurants per capita than any other city in the United States.
Authentic Mexican food is served as well as fine cuisine from every
part of the world. Texas style barbecue, slow cooked over a open pit
wood fire, has its own international reputation. One restaurant even
combines gospel music with its barbecued ribs and bills the affair
as "Gospel Brunch."
Capital Metro is the
city's public bus network, with a "rider friendly" system of
inexpensive neighborhood, express and downtown routes. The latter,
known as 'Dillos (short for Armadillo Express), are free.
The Texas Steam Train
Association runs several tours aboard the Hill Country Flyer into
and around Texas Hill Country. The train makes short half hour runs
as well as a 30 mile circuit on weekends from March through
December.
Austin is one of the
few cities in the state where cycling is a viable alternative to
driving. The city operates a free Yellow Bike Program, which repairs
old bicycles, paints them yellow and makes them available free for
public use. When you see a yellow bike you can pick it up, ride
where you are going and leave it there for the next rider. There are
about 150 yellow bikes at present and more are added all the time.
The winning combination
of high tech industry, light manufacturing, and abundant cultural
resources has given Austin the reputation of being one of the
southwest's most livable cities. It is also one of the most visited
and most loved vacation sites.
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Austin Museum Of
Art-Laguna Gloria
Set on a lush Lake Austin peninsula, this 1915 Mediterranean-style villa
was once home to Clara Driscoll Servier, the savior of the Alamo. The
museum showcases an expanding collection of 20th-century American
paintings,
sculpture, and photographs and hosts outside exhibits and family-focused
art programs. An art school shares the beautiful setting. The building
is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Barton Springs Pool
Daily 5am-10pm. Lifeguard on duty March-mid-November. Call for hours.
This huge natural spring-fed pool is a favorite summertime attraction.
Each day approximately 32 million gallons of water from the underground
Edwards aquifer bubble to the surface. At one time the water powered
several Austin mills. In the early 1900s when the city dammed Barton
Creek, the sides were lined with concrete to form a pool which is more
than 1/4 mile long and 125 feet wide. The water is a constant, clear,
invigorating 68°F. Part of Zilker Park, it is considered a premier
swimming location.
State Capitol.
Austin's downtown is dominated by its Renaissance Revival-style capitol
building, constructed in 1888 of Texas pink granite. When the old state
capitol building burned in 1881, it cleared the way for a grander
structure, reminiscent of the Washington Capitol. Austin's capitol is
taller, of course
(it's the largest state capitol in the country). A
restoration process and refurbishing of the grounds was begun in 1990
and completed in 1997. An underground annex was added, and the wrought
iron fence topped with gold Lone stars, restored. The original fence was
needed in the 1880's to keep cattle off the grounds.
The underground addition was built by chiseling away 700,000 tons of
rock. The entire structure covers 3 acres of ground. The cornerstone
alone weighs 16,000 pounds.
Check to see which
legislative sessions are open to the public, so that a visit to view
this impressive building can be combined with a sample of Texas
government in action.
Charles Moore House.
Charles Moore, had a great effect on post-modernism in the architectural
field. He designed this one with Arthur Andersson. The house has been
favorably compared to such architectural treasures as Monticello and
Wright's Taliesin. The house was preserved following Moore's death by
the
Charles W. Moore
Foundation. which arranges with the present owners for tours and
fund-raisers. The rooms are alive with vivid colors, and contain folk
art from around the world.
Driskill Hotel
A monument to Richardsonian Romanesque style, this delightful - and some
say haunted - grande dame is embellished with stone busts of its
original owner, cattle baron Jesse Driskill, and his sons. Two-story
porches with Romanesque Revival columns surround the arched entrances.
Over the years, countless legislators, lobbyists, and social leaders
have held court behind its limestone walls
Duck Tours
Tdventures operates authentic amphibious military landing vehicles, also
known as "ducks," that take visitors around the land-based sights, then
splash into Lake Austin for a relaxing cruise. You'll see the State
Capitol, Governor's Mansion, University of Texas-Austin campus and, of
course, Lake Austin from a duck's perspective.
Elisabet Ney Museum
This was the home and studio of German-born sculptor Elisabet Ney in the
late 19th century. In the former loft and working area, visitors can
view plaster replicas of many of her pieces. Ney created busts of
Schopenhauer, Garibaldi, and Bismarck before she was commissioned to
make models of Texas heroes Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston for an
1893 Chicago exposition. The studio also contains many of her marble
portrait sculptures. William Jennings Bryan, Enrico Caruso, Jan
Paderewski, and four Texas governors were among the many visitors to her
Austin studio.
French
Legation Museum
Go east on Seventh St., then turn left on San Marcos St.; the parking
lot is behind the museum on Embassy and Ninth.
Bus: 4 stops nearby (at San Marcos and 7th.)
Admission charged. 5 and under free
The oldest residence still standing in Austin was built in 1841 for
Count Alphonse Dubois de Saligny, France's representative to the newly
formed Republic of Texas.
In the back of the house, considered the best example of French
colonial-style architecture outside Louisiana, is a re-creation of the
only known authentic Creole(early French)
kitchen in the United States. A shop focuses on Texas history from the
time of the republic to the present.
General Land
Office
The only surviving government building from Austin's first 30 years was
designed and built in Gothic style by its German-born and -trained
architect, Conrad Stremme. This 21/2 story structure of stuccoed stone
and brick was opened for business in the spring of 1858 as the first
home of the Land Office.
Writer O. Henry worked as a draftsman here and used the building as the
setting for two of his short stories. In 1989 the legislature approved a
$4.5 million renovation project to restore the building to its 1890s
appearance. The structure now houses a permanent exhibit on the history
of the Capitol and has space on the second floor for traveling exhibits.
E. 11th and Brazos Sts., Austin.
George Washington Carver Museum
The many contributions of Austin's African-American community are
highlighted at this museum, the first one in
Texas to be devoted to black history. Rotating exhibits of contemporary
artwork share the space with photographs, videos, oral histories, and
other artifacts from the community's past. Cultural events are often
held here, too. The museum's collection is housed in the city's first
public library building, opened in 1926 and moved to this site in 1933.
The newer George Washington Carver branch of the public library is next
door.
Governor's Mansion.
In an 1856 letter to his wife, the mansion's first resident, Governor
Elisha M. Pease, described the view from the balcony, writing that all
he saw were the recently constructed Capitol (which later burned), the
Baptist church, open prairie all the way to the Colorado River, and a
few head of cattle grazing on Congress Avenue. Every sitting governor
since then has lived on the second floor, witnesses to the ever-changing
views. The beautiful mansion is in the Greek Revival style, with keyhole
molding and fluted Ionic columns in front.
Guadalupe Street. Known
locally as "the Drag," this bustling area bordering the west side of the
University of Texas campus is lined with record stores, trendy
boutiques, and restaurants. It's a great place for window-shopping or
people-watching.
Jack S. Blanton Museum Of
Art. A fragment of this museum's stellar collection is housed in two
campus locations. The original Huntington space houses more than 12,000
drawings, etchings, and engravings, a mere fraction of which are
displayed on the attic-like second floor. The main downstairs gallery
features rotating exhibits of large sculptures, canvases and
installations. The rest of the museum, in the August Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center, showcases a world-class collection of Latin
American art and antiquities as well as Renaissance and Baroque
paintings and sculptures. The Old Masters collection includes works from
Ricci, Passeri, and del Piombo; the 20th Century collection includes
works from Thomas Hart Benton, Franz Kline, and Marsden Hartley.
Lyndon Baines
Johnson Presidential Library And Museum
The largest presidential library in the nation is on the grounds of The
University of Texas. The building is the repository for all 45 million
documents produced during the LBJ administration and contains many
exhibits on Johnson's life, family, and presidential years, as well as
information on the assassination of JFK.
MEXIC-ARTE
Museum
The first organization in Austin to promote multicultural contemporary
art when it was formed in 1983, MEXIC-ARTE has a small permanent
collection of 20th-century Mexican art, including photographs from the
Mexican revolution and a fascinating array of masks from the state of
Guerrero. It's supplemented by visiting shows, including some from
Mexico, such as a major retrospective of muralist Diego Rivera. The
museum also programs an average of two music, theater, and performing
arts events each month and runs mural tours to Mexico.
Neill-Cochran
Museum House
Abner Cook, the architect-contractor responsible for the governor's
mansion and many of Austin's other gracious Greek revival mansions,
built this home in 1855. It bears his trademark portico with six Doric
columns and a balustrade designed with crossed sheaves of wheat. Almost
all its doors, windows, shutters, and hinges are original:which is
rather astonishing when you consider that the house was
used as the city's first Blind Institute in 1856 and then as a hospital
for Union prisoners near the end of the Civil War. The beautifully
maintained 18th- and 19th-century
furnishings are interesting, but many people come just to see the
painting of bluebonnets that helped convince legislators to designate
these native blooms the state flower.
Old Bakery and Emporium
On the National Register of Historic Landmarks, the Old Bakery was built
in 1876 by Charles Lundberg, a Swedish master baker, and continuously
operated until 1936. You can still see the giant oven and wooden baker's
spade inside. Rescued from demolition by the Austin Heritage Society,
and now owned and operated by Austin's Parks and Recreation Department,
the brick-and-limestone building is one of the few unaltered structures
on Congress Avenue. It houses a gift shop, selling crafts handmade by
seniors, a reasonably priced lunchroom, and a hospitality desk with
visitors' brochures.
Paramount
Theatre
The Marx Brothers, Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Hayes, and Katharine Hepburn
all entertained at this former vaudeville house, which opened as the
Majestic Theatre in 1915 and functioned as a movie palace for 50 years.
Restored to its original opulence, the Paramount now hosts Broadway
shows, visiting celebrity performers, local theatrical productions,
including an impressive Kids Classic series, and, in the summer,
old-time films. There are no formal tours.
Governor's Mansion
The lovely Greek Revival structure (1856) is a few blocks west of the
Capitol. Under Texas law, the governor is required to reside here when
in Austin. It's open for tours daily except during state holidays,
official functions and whenever the governor's feeling private.
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Texas Memorial
Museum
During a whistle-stop visit to Austin in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt broke
the ground for this museum, built to commemorate the centennial of Texas
independence. Whatever your age, you'll probably remember going on a
class trip to a place like this, with dioramas, stuffed animals, and
other displays detailing the geology, anthropology, and natural history
of your home state.
In addition to the
requisite child-pleasing dinosaur displays (including footprints outside
the building), three things make this museum well worth a visit: an
intriguing exhibit on the history of firearms; the original zinc goddess
of liberty that once sat on top of the capitol; and a good gift shop,
with lots of ethnic crafts and educational toys.
Treaty Oak
Legend has it that Stephen F. Austin signed the first boundary treaty
with the Comanches under the spreading branches of this 500-year-old
live oak, which once served as the symbolic border between Anglo and
Indian territory. Whatever the case, this is the sole remaining tree in
what was once a grove of Council Oaks:which made the well-publicized
attempt on its life in 1989 especially shocking. But almost as dramatic
as the story of the tree's deliberate poisoning by an attention-seeking
Austinite is the tale of its rescue by an international team of
foresters. The dried wood from major limbs that they removed has been
allocated to local artists, who are creating public artworks celebrating
the tree. You can also buy items such as pen sets, gavels, clocks, and
wooden boxes made out of the tree's severed limbs, as well as less
expensive mementos. The proceeds go to the forestry unit of the City of
Austin Parks and Recreation Department.
Umlauf
Sculpture Garden and Museum
This is a very user-friendly museum, one for people who don't enjoy
being cooped up in a stuffy, hushed space. An art instructor at the
University of Texas for 40 years, Charles Umlauf donated his home,
studio, and more than 250 pieces of artwork to the city of Austin, which
maintains the lovely native garden where much of the sculpture is
displayed. Umlauf, whose pieces reside in such places as the Smithsonian
Institution and New York's Metropolitan Museum, worked in many media and
styles. He also used a variety of models; you'll probably recognize the
portrait of Umlauf's most famous UT student, Farrah Fawcett. With
advance notice, the museum can arrange American Sign Language tours for
the deaf and "touch tours" for the blind.
University of Texas
Museums & Galleries
The LBJ Library on the University of Texas (UT) campus is a highlight of
a visit to Austin. Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th president of the
USA. A jovial native Texan, LBJ balanced the John F Kennedy campaign
ticket with a southern political presence. Supported by Lady Bird
Johnson, the former first lady, the museum contains information on the
JFK presidency and assassination, the Bay of Pigs, Krushchev, the civil
rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert
Kennedy, and the Vietnam War. Upstairs, a new exhibit on Mexican Texans
details pre-republic Texas life.
The Texas Memorial
Museum
A building filled with displays of Texas' natural and social history.
Exhibits focus on geology, paleontology, anthropology and natural
history. There is even a pterodactyl skeleton.
The
Archer M Huntington Gallery at UT
This is one art museum in two buildings: the Harry Ransom Center (HRC)
on the West Campus and the Art Building on the East. The collection
focuses on 20th century North American and Latin American art and on
drawings from the 15th century forward.
Women &
Their Work Gallery
Founded in 1978, this gallery is devoted to more than visual art. It
promotes and showcases women in dance, music, theater, film, and
literature. The gift shop has a great selection of unusual crafts and
jewelry created by female artists.
Zilker Park
The city's largest public park connects to Town Lake's popular hike and
bike trail. Free rides are offered on the miniature Amtrak train that
circles the park's perimeter.
Zilker Botanical
Garden
Across from Zilker Park, this 26-acre garden of horticultural delights
includes butterfly trails and Xeriscape (a water-conserving method of
landscaping) gardens with native plants that thrive in the arid
southwestern climate.
Texas State Capitol
Like a pink mirage in the city center's sea of green, the (1888) is
certainly Austin's most distinctive landmark. Constructed of
sunset-colored Texas limestone, the capitol is topped with a statue of
the Goddess of Liberty and (as its proud staffers are only too happy to
tell you) ranks as the seventh largest government building in the world.
Someone actually went to the trouble to measure the building from the
basement floor to the top of the Liberty statue, and at 311ft (93m),
it's taller than the national capitol in Washington, DC.
The capitol's rotunda
features terrazzo seals of the six nations whose flag has flown over
Texas. Inside the building you'll find the standard assortment of the
state's top brass, including the chambers of the Senate and House of
Representatives and the offices of the governor.
East 6th Street
Along with adjoining Congress Ave, this central historical thoroughfare
has been the focus of Austin's downtown area for more than 100 years,
with many of the buildings holdovers from the late 19th century. When
the Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888, Congress Ave stole the
spotlight from East 6th St (then known as East Pecan) and the latter
went into a lengthy period of decline that left it a virtual skid row by
the 1960s. In the late '60s, local entrepreneurs took to restoring the
area's aged Victorian and Renaissance Revival structures, and by the mid
'70s, East 6th was jumping again as the city's main live-music and
entertainment district. Since then, the party's just kept getting
bigger, the lights brighter and the string of clubs and bars between
Congress and Sabine - in the area known as the Strip - have been the
main propellant in Austin's current rise to 'hipster' fame. On weekends,
the Strip is cordoned off for pedestrian traffic only and the revelers
take to the streets in droves. If you want to experience the Austin
you've read about in Rolling Stone, this is the place to go.
Congress Ave Bridge
What's so special about this downtown bridge? Bats! The bridge's 1980
reconstruction created crevices beneath the bridge that somehow caught
the attention of a homeless colony of Mexican free-tail bats. Each year
they fly in from central Mexico, arriving in March and departing in
early November. In June, each female gives birth to one pup, and every
night at dusk, the families take to the skies in search of food. The
spectacle of 1.5 million bats flitting forth at once looks a lot like a
fast-moving, black, chittering river. It's become an Austin tradition to
bring along a six-pack and cheer the bats as they head out to feast on
an estimated 30,000lbs (13,500kg) of insects per night. Bat Conservation
International has volunteers on hand and holds programs throughout the
bat season. Congress Ave Bridge crosses the Colorado at the southern end
of downtown.
Breweries and Vineyards:
Celis Brewery
Tours, followed by samplings featuring highly prized Belgian beers.
Pierre Celis found in the spring-fed water and limestone terrain of the
Austin area a perfect way to reproduce the "white" (wheat) beer that had
been brewed for 500 years in his native Belgian town of Hoegaarden. The
brewery was built around two huge, hand-hammered copper drums that Celis
imported to give his beer the desired flavor. Clint Eastwood helped to
develop the brewery's Pale Rider Ale.
Fall Creek Vineyards
The wines sold at this 65-acre vineyard, praised by critics around the
country, reward the long drive up to the northwest shore of Lake
Buchanan. An opportunity to sample the full range of award winners,
including carnelians, Rieslings, and zinfandels.
Hill
Country Cellars
Here the visitor can enjoy the fermented product of the grapes grown on
the premises of this vineyard/winery, about 20 minutes northwest of
Austin. A 200-year-old native grapevine is the centerpiece of the picnic
area, where various seasonal festivals are held.
Slaughter Leftwich
Winery
The Slaughter Leftwich vineyards produced the first chardonnays in the
high-plains region of Texas near Lubbock. Fortunately, there is a
Leftwich winery in Austin, near Lake Travis. The winery and tasting room
are in a native stone structure, built to resemble those popular in the
last century
Arts and Entertainment:
Ballet Austin
Features five productions each season, including the holiday classic,
Nutcracker, at the Performing Arts Center and Bass Concert Hall,
adjacent to the Huntington Art Gallery.
Austin Symphony
Founded in 1911, is the city's oldest performing arts group. The concert
season runs from September to April at Bass Concert Hall, and holiday
Pops Concerts are offered at Palmer Auditorium.
Austin City
Limits
Every Friday, get a behind-the-scenes look at the longest-running music
showcase on television.
Palmer Auditorium
The plan to renovate Palmer Auditorium into a gem of a performing arts
center is a key part of the City's bold initiative to create what Mayor
Kirk Watson has called "a Great Urban Park" on the banks of the Colorado
River.
ARTS* Center Stage
Created in 1997 to address the scheduling gridlock that Austin
performing arts groups are facing has created a plan to renovate Palmer
Auditorium into a performing arts center that is accommodating and
affordable to local performing arts organizations of all sizes and
disciplines.
Austin
Chamber Music Center
A teaching and performing group which features an Intimate Concert
series open to the public but held in elegant private homes. .
Austin Lyric
Opera
Austin's first professional opera company was founded in 1985, and now
presents four productions annually in Bass Concert Hall. Major national
and international artists perform.
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