Museums | Austin Downtown Diary

I’ve been to the Texas State Capitol many times but not the adjacent Capitol Visitors Center. Time to take a look…

This building on the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds used to be the Texas General Land Office. The GLO was commissioned in 1837 by Sam Houston to collect and store land records. This state agency still exists today. Their archives are now located in a building just north of the State Capitol.

GLO had a very famous employee in the late 1800s: William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the pen name O. Henry. One of the rooms in the Capitol Visitors Center is devoted to Porter’s work as a GLO draftsman from 1887-1891. The City of Austin maintains a separate O. Henry Museum on East Fifth Street.

The Capitol Visitors Center also has exhibits about early settlers in Texas, the Texas Governor’s Mansion (currently being renovated) and of course, the State Capitol.

The Capitol Visitors Center is not a huge museum and is geared more for children. But no complaints here, since it is free!

Austin has a plethora of museums. I am trying to visit all of them, especially the ones within walking distance of our downtown apartment. Last weekend a friend and I checked out Arthouse at the Jones Center at the corner of Congress Avenue and 7th Street.

This location used to be the Queen Theater in the 1920s and was purchased to be a contemporary art space in the 1990s. Recent renovations have made the second floor into usable space. According to the Arthouse web site, the 177 small windows are “clustered to selectively allow light into the building.”

“Graham Hudson Rehearsal at the Astoria” is the current exhibit. The artist (that would be Graham) has recreated scaffolding from the Astoria Theatre in London. Then the stage is used by musicians for rehearsals only. No performances are allowed.

An all-girl band called Schmillion was practicing when we visited last weekend. The idea is that the audience (that would be me, my friend, and parents of the band members) become part of the exihibit too. Which we were.

Arthouse at the Jones Center also hosts a Rooftop Architecture Film Series. As the name implies, this involves watching movies about architecture on the roof of the building. Can you believe that Bill has not been to a movie there yet?