This Might Be My Favorite Old Building In Austin

If you were asked to name the most iconic historic building in Austin right now, it’d be natural to think of the statehouse first (largest state capitol building in the country), or maybe the Driskill down on 6th (Lyndon Johnson took Ladybird there on their very first date).

But for my money, it’d be hard to beat the little brick ​​Haehnel building at 1101 East 11th street, which is currently home to Vintage Books and Wine Bar.

It’s been here just as long as the other two. Longer even, though a fire took the original and it had to be rebuilt in 1900.

But more importantly, this unassuming little storefront with a residence over the back has played a surprisingly important role in the rise of Austin as we know it right now, and is, in my opinion, a powerful symbol of both the changing and immortal nature of the city.

…And did I mention you can buy books and wine there?

The More Things Change…

If you were a time traveler looking for a drink, the Haehnel building on East 11th would be a pretty safe bet no matter what era you found yourself in.

It started as a saloon. Today, it’s a wine bar. In between those two are a hundred and forty-odd years, twenty-eight presidents, and seventy-ish wars (though the real number depends on how you define “war” and “US involvement”).

But through much of it, this was a place you could stop to wet your whistle.

The one that long-time Austin residents will recognize is Shorty’s Bar, which was run by Claude “Shorty” Bonner Jr. and his cousin Henry, and existed here for about two decades starting in the 70s.

Back then, East 11th was a very different place.

“Prostitution, homicide, robbery, thefts, assaults, you name it," a senior patrol officer with APD said of this stretch at the time, “It's just not a good area at all."

It hadn’t always been that way.

Despite red-lining in 1928, black businesses thrived here right up through the ‘50s. But in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the effects of segregation coupled with a lack of adequate infrastructure, schools, and money for small business investment, caught up with the neighborhood, sending it into a tailspin that lasted decades.

Drugs, gambling, and prostitution were the big ones. There was violence too. Newspaper archives show that a man was once stabbed to death in the street in front of this very building, though you’d never know it now.

At the time of Shorty’s tenure, there was a real question of whether East 11th could ever turn it around.

“Eleventh Street and its surrounding area has a 24-hour a day crime problem,” the Austin-American Statesman once reported. Even if new businesses made their way into the neighborhood, “...the police department would not have the manpower to ensure protection of the new business’s patrons.”

The More They Stay The Same…

Ultimately it was the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA) that got the ball rolling. 

But saying it that way makes it sounds less impressive than it really was. Because the “Austin Revitalization Authority” sounds like something your aunt Margery bakes cookies for on the weekends. 

And what the ARA really was, was one of the most impressive and successful community-based revitalization efforts in the history of the country.

You see, by the early ‘90s, Shorty’s bar had gone under. The building slipped further and further into disrepair along with the rest of the block until by ‘94 or ‘95, it was one of about 20 parcels on East 11th that the city owned and was preparing to sell.

By that point, I think it’s fair to say that no one really knew what the hell to do with the area.

Revitalization had stalled for years. The task was too big for most individual investors to take on. And any that had the scratch, didn’t have the heart to sink rail cars full of money and sweat into the neighborhood for years.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, and possibly fearing more of the same, a bunch of long-time locals – all members of the black community – banded together to form the ARA, a non-profit contracted with the city to handle the restoration themselves.

Among them were representatives from, “three chambers of commerce, the neighborhood college, three neighborhood associations, and two business owners whose boundaries and shops are within the 11th and 12th street business corridor, two neighborhood residents, the Urban League, the Banking Consortium, the Real Estate Council, and a representative of area churches."

They worked with an urban design team to develop the East Austin Master Plan, a 146-page vision to eliminate the blights of vacant and deteriorating properties, and reestablish a “thriving walkable community in which to live work and play.”

Now, you could fill a book with the stuff the ARA did over the next 30 years, but suffice it to say, they transformed East 11th in so many critical ways.

They buried the power lines, widened the sidewalks, prettied up the bus stops, and brought in new sewer pipes.

They installed the mural you can still see on the corner of 11th and Waler. The clock tower too.

And they managed the rehabilitation and construction of multiple buildings along the strip, starting with… you guessed it… the historic Haehnel building.

It wasn’t easy. Small businesses were pushed out. Long-time locals were priced out too.

But when you think about the impact the group has had – decades of work, breathing life into one of the most up and coming neighborhoods of America’s most up and coming city – it’s hard to say that this isn’t one for the record books.

I ponder all this as I sit on the patio at Vintage Books, drinking chilled New Zealand white and watching the sun go down. A time traveler in search of a drink. It’s funny how things change and stay the same.

The street is once again walkable, even late into the night. People are excited about the area too.

“I think it's a great time to get in,” David Shapiro told me. He’s a long-time realtor here in Austin, and actually lived on 11th more than a decade ago, so he’s seen how far it’s come. “I know of some future development that is in the works,” he said. “Like boutique hotels, so it will continue to have new cool amenities added making it a desirable place to be.”

In short, local sentiment is nothing like it was in 1985.

Well, I shouldn’t say nothing like it was. Some things, it turns out, never change. Like New Yorkers whining about Austin’s growth.

“​​It sounds like Austin is turning into New Jersey,” said Benno C. Haehnel Jr. back in a 1985 issue of the Austin-American Statesman. He was the last of his family to own the Haehnel building before the ARA was formed, though at the time he was living in New York writing off-broadway plays.

“I'm glad that Austin is becoming an important city,” he told the Statesman way back then, “but I remember what a lovely, sleepy little town it used to be."

Seems like we all do, Benno.

Other things on the front page that day?

A story about astronauts, a president (Reagan) who was being criticized for his age on the campaign trail, and a piece about how Austin really needed a light rail network to cut down on traffic.

My my, how things change.