I had a few minutes to myself while downtown, yesterday, so I spent it walking around the old buildings. Since I had not been down Gonzales Street for a while, and the sun was in the right position for the buildings of interest, I started on Court Street, headed north on Austin Street for one block, and came to Gonzales Street.
Gonzales is not a long street, and traffic can only go in one direction. It is a good street to walk, though. One of the main attractions is the closest thing to an old pub, The Oak Tavern, founded in 1935. It is the second oldest bar in Texas, according to their web page.
The upstairs windows have some interesting decoration, don't you think?
Across the street, there is a very tiny alley that leads to the back entrances to some of the downtown businesses. You can see the front of the Oak from the alley. You can also see the red brick wall with the tiny rectangular window on the left.
I would love to know why it has tiny little windows with bars across them. This window looks like it should belong to an old-timer jail, I think. Anyone out there who knows the history, please send me an email. It would be great to find out some more about these windows.
On the corner of Gonzales and River Street, there is a set of black wrought iron stairs. The building is painted brick orange, so the color contrast is striking. Looking up toward the sky reminds of the old 60's rock song, "Stairway to Heaven."
Finally, I leave you with a ground-level view of River Street that I took while standing on the corner of Gonzales and River Streets.
