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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$459,000
603 Davis Street #1908
Austin, TX -
$795,000
603 Davis Street #1502
Austin, TX -
$595,773
70 Rainey #2009
Austin, TX -
$365,000
54 Rainey ST #519
Austin, TX -
$649,000
54 Rainey Street #1207
Austin, TX -
$849,000
70 Rainey Street #2507
Austin, TX -
$1,200,000
603 Davis Street #102
Austin, TX -
$349,900
54 Rainey Street #815
Austin, TX -
$815,000
54 Rainey Street #1018
Austin, TX -
$535,000
MLS # 8828702
Austin, TX -
$568,382
70 Rainey Street #2903
Austin, TX -
$629,000
54 Rainey Street #914
Austin, TX -
$3,684,000
70 Rainey Street #3203
Austin, TX -
$459,000
54 Rainey Street #408
Austin, TX -
$385,000
54 Rainey Street #703
Austin, TX -
$695,000
54 Rainey Street #1212
Austin, TX -
$599,900
54 Rainey Street #521
Austin, TX -
$795,900
603 Davis Street #1202
Austin, TX -
$600,000
54 Rainey Street #101
Austin, TX -
$798,000
44 East Avenue #1407
Austin, TX -
$1,010,000
44 East Avenue #3704
Austin, TX -
$449,000
40 N Interstate 35 Highway #3C4
Austin, TX -
$579,000
40 N Interstate 35 #6D3
Austin, TX -
$1,752,995
54 Rainey Street #1222
Austin, TX -
$374,999
603 Davis Street #906
Austin, TX
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$459,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size923 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$795,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,597 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$595,773Lot SizeN/A
Home Size718 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$365,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size756 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$649,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$849,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,128 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$1,200,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,910 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$349,900Lot SizeN/A
Home Size756 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$815,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,956 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
$535,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size663 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$568,382Lot SizeN/A
Home Size663 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$629,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$3,684,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size3,684 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths5 Baths
-
$459,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size893 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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$385,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size865 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
$695,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$599,900Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,164 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$795,900Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,597 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
$600,000Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size1,294 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$798,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,221 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,010,000Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,258 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$449,000Lot Size1,307 sqft
Home Size1,459 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$579,000Lot Size1,307 sqft
Home Size1,533 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
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$1,752,995Lot Size436 sqft
Home Size2,418 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths3 Baths
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$374,999Lot SizeN/A
Home Size809 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
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?
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