Fifth and Red River Tower Fixing Up Downtown’s Historic Old Depot Hotel

Image: Austin History Center

A longstanding plan for an apartment tower at the corner of East Fifth and Red River Streets in downtown Austin by local developers Stonelake Capital Partners will rehabilitate the 150-year-old building at the property most recently known as the longtime home of Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant, which closed in 2017 after 32 years of business at this historic site located at 504 East Fifth Street.

Originally built in 1872 and designed by famed early Austin architect Abner Cook, the limestone structure served as a boarding house adjacent to the former passenger depot of the Houston and Texas Central Railway located one block away at San Jacinto and Trinity Streets, accommodating travelers under various names including the Railroad House, the Depot Hotel, Schaeffer’s Boarding House, and the St. Louis House. Designated as a historic site in the 1960s and known from then on as the Old Depot Hotel, the structure housed Mexican restaurant Mi Casa es Su Casa and later Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant in 1985.

A view of the former Carmelo’s site at 504 East Fifth Street from its parking lot, where an apartment tower is currently planned. Photo by James Rambin.

Presented earlier this week in a briefing to the Historic Landmark Commission’s Architectural Review Committee, the restoration of the building as part of the adjacent tower project known as 5RR plans to bring the structure as close as possible back to its original 1870s integrity, removing multiple non-historic additions built during the site’s decades of restaurant use between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Image: O’Connell Architecture / City of Austin

Overseen by local preservation firm O’Connell Architecture, in addition to the non-historic demolitions the project aims to repoint the structure’s limestone arches, restore its exterior masonry with era-appropriate materials based on period photos of the site, remove several areas of stucco added by less sensitive renovations during the site’s restaurant era, replace several windows and doors, and install a new roof. The sizable oak tree rising from the center of the site will also be preserved.

Image: O’Connell Architecture / City of Austin

Preservation work here will be split between two phases, with the first kicking off as early as next month — the apartment tower planned to rise from the part of the property currently occupied by a parking lot is expected to begin in fall 2023, according to the briefing. The ultimate goal of the restoration is to open a new restaurant and coffee shop in the Old Depot Hotel structure, serving as a street-level retail amenity for the adjacent tower. Further details of the expected restaurant tenant aren’t provided just yet, and we’re still not entirely sure what that apartment tower next door is going to look like — but for now, it’s good to know that there’s a better future in store for this historic property.