The stony cowboy poets of progressive country held court there, and so did Austin's blues big shots (Asleep at the Wheel's Served Live and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Live Alive albums both capture performances from that stage), but the venue – managed by late concert promoter and Austin music scene legend Tim O'Connor – hosted a wide range of bigger touring acts, in a range of genres that included most everything except opera: Iggy Pop, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Eagles, Patti Smith, Muddy Waters, Lou Reed, King Crimson, Butthole Surfers, BB King, Tom Waits. Its remaining motels rented rooms by the hour. It sat on a fragment of land, with an enormous surface parking lot facing the street, tucked between historic Fairview Park – part of the super-neighborhood that most latter-day Austinites simply call Travis Heights – and a SoCo that was just as active and commercial, but extremely different in character, from the strip that exists today.

Then Willie Nelson bought it, and in the summer of 1977 the Austin Opera House (known colloquially as 'the Opry House') debuted as a 1,700-capacity concert hall, with stadium seating and standing room in front of the stage. It used to be an event and meeting space attached to the Terrace Motor Court, one of the Southside's many motels dating back before the interstate, when South Congress was the highway into town from points south. With Council slated to take its first vote on the case at its January 27 meeting, we'll soon know: Is it showtime for a new Austin Opera House, or is it last call for live music off Music Lane? Where Magic Happened But it's an Austin cultural landmark dating back 45 years, home to vitally important sites on the map of the city's music scene, and poised for a renaissance as part of a mixed-use redevelopment on what's become very valuable land in the urban core.īut for that to happen, the current owners of 200 Academy need to overcome implacable opposition from neighbors and gain nine votes on a 10-1 City Council that often splits 7-4 on the relevant land use issues.

The long, one-story, gray building on the oddly shaped parcel at 200 Academy Dr., within walking distance of the South Congress strip, looks wholly unremarkable today. 200 Academy Dr., site of the former Austin Opera House (Photo by John Anderson)

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