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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$449,000
54 Rainey ST #916
Austin, TX -
$485,000
54 Rainey ST #607
Austin, TX -
$495,000
54 Rainey ST #421
Austin, TX -
$449,700
40 N Interstate 35 #2D1
Austin, TX -
$560,773
70 Rainey ST #1809
Austin, TX -
$621,583
70 Rainey ST #2405
Austin, TX -
$748,200
70 Rainey ST #1409
Austin, TX -
$339,000
54 Rainey ST #917
Austin, TX -
$499,000
54 Rainey ST #913
Austin, TX -
$363,000
603 Davis ST #1106
Austin, TX -
$575,000
54 Rainey ST #312
Austin, TX -
$349,000
54 Rainey ST #603
Austin, TX -
$540,882
70 Rainey ST #2703
Austin, TX -
$1,828,570
70 Rainey ST #2506
Austin, TX -
$435,500
40 N Interstate 35 #2C2
Austin, TX -
$1,259,242
70 Rainey ST #1401
Austin, TX -
$2,225,000
70 Rainey ST #2601
Austin, TX -
$429,000
40 N Interstate 35 #6B2
Austin, TX -
$749,900
603 Davis ST #1702
Austin, TX -
$1,575,000
603 Davis ST #2101
Austin, TX -
$819,774
603 Davis ST #2002
Austin, TX -
$865,000
54 Rainey ST #1206
Austin, TX -
$467,000
40 N Interstate 35 #5D4
Austin, TX -
$409,900
603 Davis ST #1708
Austin, TX -
$575,000
603 Davis ST #603
Austin, TX
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$449,000Lot Size218 sqft
Home Size852 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
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$485,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$495,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$449,700Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,533 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$560,773Lot SizeN/A
Home Size718 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
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$621,583Lot SizeN/A
Home Size837 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
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$748,200Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,128 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$339,000Lot Size218 sqft
Home Size865 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$499,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$363,000Lot Size131 sqft
Home Size809 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$575,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,164 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
-
$349,000Lot Size218 sqft
Home Size865 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$540,882Lot SizeN/A
Home Size663 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
-
$1,828,570Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,179 sq ft
Beds3 beds
Baths3 baths
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$435,500Lot Size1,133 sqft
Home Size1,459 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$1,259,242Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,697 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$2,225,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size2,851 sq ft
Beds3 beds
Baths3 baths
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$429,000Lot Size1,133 sqft
Home Size1,459 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$749,900Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size1,597 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$1,575,000Lot Size305 sqft
Home Size2,101 sq ft
Beds3 beds
Baths3 baths
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$819,774Lot Size304 sqft
Home Size1,597 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$865,000Lot Size349 sqft
Home Size1,341 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$467,000Lot Size1,046 sqft
Home Size1,360 sq ft
Beds2 beds
Baths2 baths
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$409,900Lot Size175 sqft
Home Size923 sq ft
Beds1 bed
Baths1 bath
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$575,000Lot Size218 sqft
Home Size1,175 sq ft
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?
