Okey doke… we’re one week into the tweak and it’s already clear the detail involved in mapping Austin can eat up all the time we should reasonably expect anyone to give. So we’ll be releasing additional content through happyheat.org and our social media channels. The weekly drop — this — might cover one topic and might cover more, but we’ll keep it to a five minute read. THIS WEEK: Charting the Patterns In researching Guero’s on South Congress, for example, there’s the founder’s statement from a 2017 profile —  “some very successful restaurant guy said that when he looks for locations he looks for hookers and parking. That’s what’s going to make the place work.” What does that even mean? Something to do with proximity to the city’s center? Undervalued property because of the vice? What are the signs that something’s about to change? What gives rise to a scene?  To look forward let’s look back, starting with a giant. Alan Berg, Publisher. GREEN PASTURES, WHERE POPULISM TOOK ROOT. You have to understand this country has more good people in it that it has evil people in it. John Henry Faulk, 1981, North Texas State University Oral History Collection. South Congress and Live Oak, 2024. The sign’s easy to miss, little hint that it points to one of the city’s early progressive outposts, the childhood home of John Henry Faulk. Martha “Mattie” Faulk and her husband, Henry Faulk, moved to this old South Austin farm house in 1916. Henry was in love with the 23-acre property, along with the gardens and pastures it accommodated. Mattie and her five children were less enthusiastic as it was a long buggy ride to visit their friends in the city. Mattie’s, 2024 The Faulks shared their 20-acre property with an African American family, and as a boy, John Henry Faulk would accompany his family to African American church services. Faulk was transfixed by the powerful oratory of the preachers. John Nova Lomax, Texas Highways, 2021 Faulk attended The University of Texas, he was a protege of J. Frank Dobie, and by the early 1950’s he had his own radio show in New York City with a national following. CBS even auditioned him briefly as a guest host on the new thing, television, along with another rising star — Dick Van Dyke. The honeymoon ended when Faulk publicly denounced an anti-communist group at the height of McCarthyism. CBS cancelled his show. Faulk was blacklisted. Ostracized and broke, he returned to Texas. I became an untouchable. I opened a little advertising agency in Austin. I borrowed a great deal of money from friends that thrust it on me, literally. They felt that I was carrying the burden for this thing. John Henry Faulk, 1981, North Texas State University Oral History Collection. Faulk continued to fight, suing the group that blacklisted him and winning a then-record libel judgement of $3.5 million dollars in 1962. In 1975, the story was recounted in an Emmy Award winning movie starring William Devane as Faulk and George C. Scott as his lawyer. The Newark Advocate, Oct 2, 1975. John Henry Faulk’s homestead, and the witness it provides to the power of truth, is where we resume our trip down South Congress. 1946 GREEN PASTURES OPENS In 1946, Henry and Mattie gave the house to their daughter Mary Faulk Koock, who soon turned it into a restaurant, calling it Green Pastures. Frequent customers in the early days included local luminaries J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb, and Roy Bedichek, as well as other writers, poets, musicians, and thinkers. Though Austin restaurants would not desegregate until after the Civil Rights Act became law some 18 year later, Green Pastures was open to people of all races and religions from the moment it first opened its doors to the public in 1946. Will Can Overbeek, Texas Highways, March 20, 2018. 1955 TWIN OAKS SHOPPING CENTER PIONEERS “PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY LIVING”. “One of the symbols of progressive community-living American style is the shopping center. Clusters of attractive stores centrally located are replacing highly congested downtown shopping areas, and we in Austin certainly boast the most modern of these new commercial developments in the Twin Oaks Shopping Center.” Our Town Austin, 1955. 1958 SOUTH FIRST RENAMED BEN WHITE BLVD TO HONOR LONG-TIME CITY COUNCIL MEMBER. In 1958, South Austin residents wanted to remove the confusion caused by having three First Streets (East, West and South). More than 500 residents signed a petition asking the Austin City Council to rename South First Street to Ben White Boulevard. "The Honorable Ben White ... is a resident of South Austin, and has for many years worked untiringly as a private citizen and civic leader for the improvement of South Austin, including the widening and paving of South First Street," according to the petition. Joe Olivieri, Community Impact, 2012 Ben White . Tireless, hard working…right most of the time. During his tenure, I-35 and the Longhorn Dam were being built. MoPac did not yet exist. White supported the construction of MoPac, but predicted that "Austin will never grow to the point where we'll need anything more than I-35." Joe Olivieri, Community Impact, 2012 1950s THE SOUTH CONGRESS CLUB HUB. Ben White also is Highway 71, a dividing line. Where the pavement stopped. Where you turned south to let your hair down. “Wild-eyed rockabilly veteran Ray Campi wrote his first song on the last day of 1949 and left Austin at the end of 1959. He's a man of the Fifties in his hometown. He still calls far South Congress Avenue – home of such Fifties clubs as the Cinderella, Rudy's Drive In, the Alibi, Gil's, and the Top Hat – "the San Antonio Highway.” Michael Corcoran, The Austin Chronicle, March 30, 2012. 1955 GIL’S CLUB OPENS. Walter "Big Gil” Stromquist, at six-foot, ten inches tall, was a noted Austin Golden Gloves Champion and then professional boxer, having fought in Madison Square Garden in 1943. Mr. Stromquist entered the nightclub business in 1955 opening Gil’s Club, one of Austin's most well known clubs for 27 years. Angora Chronicles, April 11, 2024. 1957 THE GOODNIGHT FAMILY BUYS OUT HILL’S CAFE. courtesy The Angora Chronicles, 2024 1960 THE ORIGINAL ROLLING STONES PLAY GIL’S. Mick Jagger was 10 years old and and Keith Richards, nine, when Austin country musician Leon Carter, just back from the Korean Conflict, registered his band’s name “the Rolling Stones” with the Travis County clerk’s office on August 28, 1953. Michael Corcoran, Overserved, Oct 2013. 1965 THE TOP HAT CLUB INTRODUCES “DISCO” TO AUSTIN. In the summer of 1964, a short sleeveless dress called "discotheque dress" was briefly very popular in the United States. The earliest known use for the abbreviated form "disco" described this dress and has been found in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 12, 1964, but Playboy magazine used it in September of the same year to describe Los Angeles nightclubs. The History of Disco, Wikipedia Ad from The Austin American-Statesman, May 26, 1965. 1960s CHARLES GOODNIGHT DREAMS BIG, COURTS DISNEYLAND. "We were talking to the Disneyland people about putting a second facility out there," he says. "We got down nearly to the lick log. We had the land, about 100 acres. A representative of Disneyland met with us and an architect several times." That architect, Jack Goodman, said the plans for the Goodnight-Disneyland venture were adapted from a proposal for a water-oriented theme park originally planned for another location in Austin. That plan fell through, and Goodnight's land became the prime candidate for the amusement park, which was to have been called "Little Texas," Goodman says. But for some reason, the Disneyland people opted for Florida instead of South Congress Avenue. "Like a lot of dreams, it just didn't work," Goodman says . Cheryl Coggins Frink, The Austin American-Statesman, June 1, 1986 1962 THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL When construction of Interstate 35 was completed in 1962, the importance of South Congress as a primary artery into downtown lessened considerably. The previously bustling neighborhood transformed over time into a seedy area frequented by prostitutes and drug addicts. Matt Shiverdecker, Texas Monthly, March 2021 1964 AUSTIN, HOME TO THE GIRL WITH THE TWIN SKUNK TATOOS. In a one-paragraph description of Austin, a 1964 Time Magazine article mentioned our moonlight towers, our broad, clean streets — and a well-known South Austin brothel where “the star attraction has a skunk tattooed on each buttock.” John Kelso, Austin American-Statesman, Sept 24, 2016. Austin's most famous madam, Hattie Valdes, operated a thriving business that, according to legend, catered to members of the Legislature and others for 30 years. Valdes, who died in 1976, operated primarily out of Hattie's Place, which was located in the 5900 block of South Congress. Cheryl Coggins Frink, The Austin American-Statesman, June 1, 1986 1985 THE TOP HAT CLUB IS BULLDOZED AND REPLACED BY STORAGE UNITS. Before it was torn down in March 1985, the Top Hat was the site of a shooting that left two brothers dead and another wounded out in its parking lot. By that time, things had gotten so out of hand at the tavern, management had posted a sign at the door that read: "We are not responsible for any knives or guns that are left here. Leave them in your car." Cheryl Coggins Frink, The Austin American-Statesman, June 1, 1986 1989 THE GOODNIGHT FAMILY CLOSES HILL’S CAFE. “I thought this place would have been gutted and was surprised to see it looked like it was just closed for the day.” Unknown Photographer, 2023 The family served the public for nearly 50 years before closing the restaurant. They moved their real estate offices into the front of the building and wisely rented out the kitchen to a mobile food vending and off-premise catering operation to keep city permits active. Claudia Alarcon, The Austin Chronicle, Sept. 12, 2008 1990s OUT OF CONTROL HOOKERS…AGAIN A twice-told anecdote: A friend and his young son were on South Congress around dusk, why I don't remember, when they encountered a lady of ill fame stretched over the hood of a parked car, eating an orange. As they passed, she lifted her skirts to reveal a second orange wedged amidst the admirably supple muscles of her pelvic regions. She asked if they would like some juice. Mike Clark-Madison, The Austin Chronicle, June 14, 1996 1993 AUSTIN POLICE ESTABLISH SOUTH CONGRESS TASK FORCE The CrimeNet unit analyzed how much money the city receives in taxes from each motel, and compared it to the amount spent on police response. While all four motels between Oltorf and Ben White ended up in the red, one in particular, the South Congress Motor Inn at the corner of Havana Street, emerged with particular odiousness. Between January 1995 and March 1996, the 38-room inn generated 178 police calls resulting in 70 arrests, at a cost to taxpayers of $48,238; the motel returned only $10,500 in tax dollars to the General Fund over the same period. 2001 HILL’S CAFE BOUGHT BY AUSTIN RADIO LEGEND Local radio personality Bob Cole approached the Goodnight family with the intention of opening a barbecue restaurant in the historic facility, but his subsequent on-the-street research revealed the public's strong desire for aspects of the original Hill's to be reborn. Cole dropped his initial plan, and his willingness to preserve Hill's heritage persuaded the Goodnights to make a deal. Claudia Alarcon, The Austin Chronicle, Sept. 12, 2008 2013 WHY MESS WITH WHAT WORKS? As they did in the 1999, The APD invites the media to come along on a series of prostitution stings. 2014 CITY CHANGES ZONING FROM INDUSTRIAL TO MIXED-USE ON S. CONGRESS TRACT ACROSS FROM HILL’S CAFE. Looking east from the Hill’s Cafe Parking Lot, Unknown Photographer, 2023. 2016 SOCO DEVELOPER BETS BIG As we noted last week, Austin developer Abe Zimmerman and partners were the catalyst for redeveloping the heart of South Congress. Twenty years later, the Zimmermans joined a group of investors transforming the area between Hill’s Cafe and I-35, rebranding the tract as the St. Elmo Arts District. The family’s flagship development, The Yard, is home to Tesla, Icon, NASA, Still Whiskey, Arts+Labor and St. Elmo Brewery. "The St. Elmo Arts District is one of the most dynamic pockets of development in all of Texas right now," said Brad Stein, president of Intracorp Texas. Shonda Novak, Austin American-Statesman, June 7, 2024 2016 GREEN PASTURES CLOSES FOR YEAR-LONG RENOVATION, RE-BRANDS AS MATTIE’S Explore Mattie’s here 2018 HEB OPENS TEMPORARY STORE IN TWIN OAKS DURING REMODEL ACROSS STREET. Idk about yall but theres something I really like about the temporary heb on s Congress and oltorf. Its been cool to see that old building finally have a use and it gives 60s vibes. Not to mention being able to park right at the front door and be inside within 5 seconds. Its just so convenient Reddit, 2024 2018 HILL’S CAFE CLOSES AGAIN, MAJOR DEVELOPMENT PLANNED. Hill’s Cafe on South Congress will cease operations Wednesday evening as landowners prepare to develop the 14-acre tract of land the venue has called home for a quarter-century. Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman, Sept. 7, 2018 2020 GIL’S CLUB RE-OPENS AS SAGEBRUSH The new venue is a partnership between Denis O’Donnell, Marshall McHone and Margaret Bentley, all of whom are co-owners of east Austin bar the White Horse. 2023 DEVELOPERS UNVEIL BIG PLANS FOR TWIN OAKS SHOPPING CENTER Dallas-based developers Trammell Crow Company and its subsidiary High Street Residential are planning a mixed-use redevelopment of South Austin’s largely vacant Twin Oaks Shopping Center at 2315 South Congress Avenue on behalf of the 10-acre center’s owners at H-E-B. James Rambin, Towers, May 3, 2024 A FINAL THOUGHT TO PONDER FROM JOHN HENRY FAULK I had the evolved a theory that the statement in the scriptures that man was given dominion over all the earth and the things thereon was claptrap. That was the vanity of man at play, not reality, because actually man belonged to the earth like the other creatures of the earth, and it was best to learn to live in harmony and congenially with his surroundings, and to exploit them and to devastate them for short-term advantages of either housing developments or commercial use was a very shortsighted view.  John Henry Faulk, 1981, North Texas State University Oral History Collection. Thank you, see you next week. *quotes edited for concision and clarity. How are we doing? We want to hear from you. Take this quick survey and help us make Happy Heat better. Go see something, tell us about it, we’ll share more stories next week. Let’s build something together. We’d be forever grateful for your help, and an easy way to do so is by subscribing to the Happy Heat Substack. What comes in goes right back out in artist commissions and live shows. To which you’ll get to come! For the first 100 subscribers, we are offering 20% off forever. 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