Looks like town lake wasn't dammed up as far down river as today. Appears to cut off around Lamar/South First...
Sorry I can't figure out how to make the pics smaller... Appears to be looking south from 2222 and Balcones maybe??
that first picture really highlights all the stewardship of Lady Bird Johnson toward the formerly Town Lake area. Shocking how barren the the edges of the lake look back then. The live oak trees you see today look like they have been there for hundreds of years. Apparently not. Looking out the window of my office at Town Lake this morning, the difference really is night and day. So beautiful. Thank you Lady Bird.
Seems like I remember reading that Austin had a minor league team that played on that field back in the day..
I want to say the minor league team was called the Austin Senators but I'm a little fuzzy on that. woohoo! the ol' memory still works! Austin Senators
Yes, the ballpark was the home of the Austin Senators until about 1967. The last remnants of the field (raised turf and arc of light poles around the OF fence) were destroyed just a few years ago, during the bldg. of that weird new music hall and park across the street from auditorium shores. I don't know the reason for the flowing river, but obviously they were releasing water out of the pleasant valley dam that day.
Many years ago, I had a chance to talk for awhile to Dusty Baker (when he played for the Dodgers). When he learned I was from Austin, he told me he played for the Senators and had a lot of stories about that old ballpark. I can't remember any of them. Damn, I am an old geezer. :-(
Dang. 2222 and Balcones has changed just a bit. I like the sign in that pic "Austin's Most Beautiful Homesites". Outskirts of town back in those days.
Good view of the ol' Armory that would become the Armadillo World HQ in this one.. South Congress Here's the link to the site..
Nice - what the heck was going on at Auditorium Shores? I think I see Dale Watson entering the Continental Club in the South Congress picture.
Someone please refresh my memory. The old Christie's Seafood place that used to stick out over the south side of the river: Was it just west of the First Street Bridge or the Congress Bridge? Used to eat there but I've lost my mind. It's not in these pictures, and I can't tell where it might have been built later on.
ScoPro and some of our other elder posters don't get near enough credit for their contributions to this site. Thanks for the insight.
Actually the Austin baseball team was originally the Austin Braves and affiliated with Milwaukee. I am not sure when it changed to the Senators but as a kid playing little league we were the Senators and we got to go to a game in our uniforms and meet the players in the dugout before a game. That stadium was Disch Field and it was a really cool ballpark. Roy Hobbs would have looked like a "natural" there.
I don't mean to nitpick, but the Austin Senators, a Milwaukee farm team, finished their last few years (1956-1964) in the Texas League. Then the Austin Braves, an Atlanta farm team, played at Disch Field from 1965-1967.
I didn't realize the river was still a flowing river through town in 1959, although after I made that remark I looked at the photos some more and began to suspect.
I had it bass akwards. I was pretty young but I remember going to games there and seeing both teams over that period you mentioned.
The Austin Senators games were broadcast on KVET 1300, I don't have to add "AM" because there was no FM radio in Austin at that time. Anyhow, I listened to many broadcasts of the games on my Rocket Radio. The broadcaster was Mike Mistavich (sp?). I went and peeked into his pressbox during one game my dad took me to, and he invited me to sit with him. He let me say my name and age over the radio. Very cool stuff for a little kid. For the away games he got the play-by-play over some sort of ticker tape device...I guess "over the wire." He had an endless loop of crowd noise he used for those away games.
