Rainey Street Historic District

Rainey Street Historic District is a compact residential neighborhood of about 12 acres in East Austin, running along Rainey Street from River Street north to Driskill Street. It holds 34 buildings, 21 of them contributing, and all are used as homes. The lots were subdivided in 1884 by Austin developers J. L. Driskill and Frank Rainey, and the earliest houses, at 70 and 90 Rainey Street, date from 1885. Most buildings went up between 1885 and 1937, with the bulk built from 1885 to 1920. Wood is the main building material. The houses include Victorian cottages with intersecting gable roofs and ornate porch and gable trim, Pyramidal houses with generous porches, and bungalows of varying size. Many are T-plan or L-plan cottages. Original owners included a stonemason, a saloon keeper, a grocer and a railroad engineer. The district was drawn to capture the most intact historic blocks, excluding areas with heavy loss, newer commercial buildings or highway frontage.