A view of the house at 96 Rainey Street in 1980 and 2017, which is now a sports bar called Bar 96. Photos courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission and the Austin Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.
Austin’s changed all over, but you might not find a better example of the city’s transformation over the last decade than Rainey Street. This formerly quiet residential road close to downtown looks almost nothing like itself ten years ago, even though many of its historic homes haven’t been demolished — they’ve just been converted into bars and restaurants, remodeled to the extent that you might not recognize them in the shadow of the district’s new condo towers and other improvements.
Rainey Street Condos For Sale
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$359,000
603 Davis ST #1206
Austin, TX -
$849,022
603 Davis ST #2202
Austin, TX -
$543,000
48 E East AVE #2705
Austin, TX -
$622,750
44 East AVE #1808
Austin, TX -
$470,000
54 Rainey ST #809
Austin, TX -
$1,927,500
44 East AVE #3401
Austin, TX -
$459,900
54 Rainey ST #319
Austin, TX -
$339,000
44 East AVE #2806
Austin, TX -
$631,583
70 Rainey ST #2505
Austin, TX -
$1,828,570
70 Rainey ST #2506
Austin, TX -
$830,700
70 Rainey ST #2307
Austin, TX -
$548,382
70 Rainey ST #2803
Austin, TX -
$1,274,242
70 Rainey ST #1501
Austin, TX -
$1,319,242
70 Rainey ST #1801
Austin, TX -
$2,800,000
44 East AVE #4504
Austin, TX -
$735,184
70 Rainey ST #3105
Austin, TX -
$2,285,000
70 Rainey ST #2801
Austin, TX -
$1,300,000
44 East AVE #4005
Austin, TX -
$945,000
44 East AVE #1310
Austin, TX -
$594,999
603 Davis ST #1204
Austin, TX -
$475,000
54 Rainey ST #607
Austin, TX -
$1,130,000
70 Rainey ST #1602
Austin, TX -
$1,250,000
70 Rainey ST #1304
Austin, TX -
$899,000
54 Rainey ST #1018
Austin, TX -
$590,000
603 Davis ST #703
Austin, TX
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$359,000Lot Size175 sqft
Home Size809 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$849,022Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,513 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$543,000Lot Size17,904 sqft
Home Size706 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$622,750Lot SizeN/A
Home Size793 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$470,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,927,500Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,114 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths4 Baths
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$459,900Lot Size175 sqft
Home Size756 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$339,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size481 sqft
BedsN/A
Baths1 Bath
-
$631,583Lot SizeN/A
Home Size837 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,828,570Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,179 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$830,700Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,128 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$548,382Lot SizeN/A
Home Size663 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$1,274,242Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,697 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,319,242Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,697 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$2,800,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,858 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths4 Baths
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$735,184Lot SizeN/A
Home Size837 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$2,285,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,851 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$1,300,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,594 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$945,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,260 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$594,999Lot Size218 sqft
Home Size1,252 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$475,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,130,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,154 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,250,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,321 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$899,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,956 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$590,000Lot Size175 sqft
Home Size1,176 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
Nobody seems to note Austin’s frequent and drastic transformations more than the folks at r/Austin, the city’s page on Reddit, and this week a poster dug up some old Google Street View images of Rainey Street circa 2007 — a single decade may not seem like a long time, but for Austin that’s something more like an epoch. If you click around, you’ll find that most of the street is navigable via 2007-era Street View, and if you only know the area in its current incarnation, you may find it truly baffling to connect what you’re seeing to anything in the present.
Check out the changes to the house at 79 Rainey Street that became Banger’s Sausage House & Beer Garden between 2007 and 2017 for a real shocker. It’s amazing what some red paint and picket fences can do!
Another poster in the Reddit thread linked to a Flickr album with a tour of Rainey Street back in 2005, a year after the area was rezoned to Central Business District and just before development began on the street in earnest.
Whether you were in Austin to see the street like this in person or not, it’s worth spending some time clicking around Rainey Street’s digital past — if nothing else, you can impress your friends with your historical knowledge next time you’re out at the bars. That stuff impresses people, right?
