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
-
$469,700
40 N Interstate 35 #2D1
Austin, TX -
$559,000
54 Rainey #518
Austin, TX -
$1,593,000
54 Rainey ST #1222
Austin, TX -
$555,000
54 Rainey ST #913
Austin, TX -
$599,999
603 Davis ST #603
Austin, TX -
$269,999
603 Davis ST #809
Austin, TX -
$335,000
54 Rainey ST #317
Austin, TX -
$480,882
70 Rainey ST #2103
Austin, TX -
$621,583
70 Rainey ST #2405
Austin, TX -
$770,700
70 Rainey ST #1707
Austin, TX -
$875,000
54 Rainey ST #1206
Austin, TX -
$1,225,234
70 Rainey ST #1201
Austin, TX -
$1,408,900
70 Rainey ST #1406
Austin, TX -
$339,900
54 Rainey ST #1015
Austin, TX -
$355,000
603 Davis ST #606
Austin, TX -
$529,900
40 N Interstate 35 #3D3
Austin, TX -
$465,000
40 N Interstate 35 #4A4
Austin, TX -
$820,000
603 Davis ST #1803
Austin, TX -
$635,900
603 Davis ST #1009
Austin, TX -
$525,000
54 Rainey ST #PH09
Austin, TX -
$699,000
54 Rainey ST #502
Austin, TX -
$3,299,000
40 N Interstate 35 #PA1
Austin, TX
-
$469,700Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,533 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$559,000Lot Size304 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$1,593,000Lot Size609 sqft
Home Size2,418 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths3 baths
-
$555,000Lot Size304 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$599,999Lot Size217 sqft
Home Size1,175 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$269,999Lot Size87 sqft
Home Size535 sq ft
BedsN/A
Baths1 bath
-
$335,000Lot Size217 sqft
Home Size865 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$480,882Lot SizeN/A
Home Size663 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$621,583Lot SizeN/A
Home Size837 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$770,700Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,128 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$875,000Lot Size348 sqft
Home Size1,341 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$1,225,234Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,697 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$1,408,900Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,743 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths3 baths
-
$339,900Lot Size174 sqft
Home Size756 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$355,000Lot Size87 sqft
Home Size702 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$529,900Lot Size1,219 sqft
Home Size1,533 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$465,000Lot Size958 sqft
Home Size1,234 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$820,000Lot Size304 sqft
Home Size1,699 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths3 baths
-
$635,900Lot Size261 sqft
Home Size1,286 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$525,000Lot Size304 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$699,000Lot Size392 sqft
Home Size1,557 sq ft
Beds3 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$3,299,000Lot Size4,878 sqft
Home Size6,639 sq ft
Beds4 beds
Baths5 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?
