The Culture of South 1st Street in Austin
By Dane Smith
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South First Street between Riverside and St. Elmo’s is one of those streets, one of the last in Austin where , block after block, the old magic of the city that once attracted musicians, artists and other creative minds to move and settle down here, is still palpable, still crackling in the air. Going south from Riverside, you pass shops and boutiques on the right, converted from 1930’s private homes, turned into artsy clothing and import stores. They sit across the street from the broad, green campus of the Texas State School for the Deaf. Further south, the Bouldin Creek Coffee house serves up its eclectic, health-hip food and drink to its neo-Bohemian clientele. Beyond that, Jovita’s, one of the city’s more venerable but less well-known music venues, beckons the eye with Joyce Dibona’s colorful, Aztec-theme artwork adorning the outside walls. As you drive still further south, you pass more colorful buildings and businesses that crowd the four-lane street. Some are well-established and thriving, some look almost abandoned, decrepit even. All are obviously small operations, like the Resistencia Bookstore. At the corner of Oltorf and South First, one of the more eye-catching businesses houses what may be the perfect Austin enterprise for the times, Baby Green’s, a fast health food joint. Continuing on, you pass one of the less visually appealing buildings, which however happens to be the home of the GHS Lounge, an old neighborhood drinking establishment with street cred to burn. Boot repair shops, used book stores, bicycle shops, art galleries and a nursery in a converted private home line the street as you head towards the intersection with Ben White. Before arriving there, you may notice the Summermoon Coffee house on the east side of the street, one of the coziest and most intimate of neighborhood coffee shops in the city. The surrounding neighborhoods of Barton Hills and Travis Heights are populated by people that have a steadfast devotion to their local businesses neighborhood businesses. Next door is the SHAC, the Self Help and Advocacy Center which is run by the Austin Area Mental Health Consumers, an organization of people with a mental illness. This community center provides services and information to people suffering from mental illness and to the community at large. The mostly volunteer staff here has helped many people to find housing, jobs and renewed hope to re-integrate them selves into society. Of course, along the way there has been a colorful liturgy of Mexican food restaurants: Aranda’s, Polvo’s, Little Mexico, Mexicana Panderia, Evita’s Botanitas. Even San Antonio would be hard pressed to present a street with so many colorful and deliciously promising establishments in a stretch of so few miles. And all up and down this road which has somehow escaped the clear-cut style of development that brings condos and super-centers and grid-locked traffic, there is still the green of the Austin hills. From a long stretch of the street, if you’re heading north, you can see the towers downtown floating in the hazy distance. This is indeed Austin without the cookie-cutter architecture of anywhere USA. It’s local in character, content and color, a true reflection of the creativity and productivity of the people who live here. It may only be a matter of time before this fine old street cedes to the pressure of development and big money, like so much of the rest of the town has. But for now, it’s still Austin the way it used to be, or nearly, ready for a road trip with no clear destination when the trip itself was all that mattered. |
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Article added 04/08/2008.
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