![]() When I-35 was built through downtown Austin in 1956, Rainey Street was severed from East Austin, creating feelings of isolation for many residents. The rebuilt homes were created in bungalow style, including several featuring large porches. Following the floods, many of these families fled for the suburbs and the street attracted primarily Hispanic residents beginning in the 1950s. Neighborhood children attended nearby Palm School, and the district initially consisted of working class tradesman and their families. The original Rainey Street homes were built between 18, though many of those of the original homes were wiped out by the devastating flood of 1935. The district was mapped in the southeast downtown quadrant between Rainey Street and the Colorado River, long before I-35 dissected East Austin from downtown. When cattle baron Jesse Driskill (proprietor of The Driskill Hotel) and Frank Rainey (confederate Army veteran) designated this small 120-acre neighborhood in 1884, little did they know that it would one day become a flourishing entertainment district with international fanfare. In fact, the neighborhood's transformation from, well, a neighborhood into an Austin nightlife district only occurred in the past decade or so. In 2019, Rainey Street conjures images of barhopping, day drinking, and the perpetual bachelor/ette party.
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