About Austin's Bouldin Creek

I've been asked the same question for close to 3 years now, "When is the new library in Bouldin going to open?" I'm happy to announce that the grand opening of the new Twin Oaks Library is finally set for tomorrow (Saturday, August 21st) at 10am.

The festivities will include music by the Academy of Jazz Players, food & drink from South Austin eateries, and even magic acts & face painting for the kiddos (and Leslie.) This will also be the first time us green building types get to see all the concepts they employed while designing & building the library - such as the solar energy array, rainwater harvesting system, and daylighting control system.

And to top it all off, they will also have books - lots & lots of books.

The new Twin Oaks Library Branch is located at 1800 S 5th St, at the corner of W Mary & S 5th. While you're there be sure to check out two of our local favorites Cafe Caffeine & Thai Fresh. You'll soon see why it's fast becoming one of the coolest corners in Austin (just don't tell anybody.)

Rob Albertson is a part-time musician, full-time Realtor, and proud South Austinite for over 10 years. He specializes in South Austin Homes for Austin Fine Properties, a Private Label Realty Company, and can be reached day or night (thanks to his newborn son's fickle sleeping habits) at 512.653.8939 or rob@austinfineproperties.com.

Austin Home Search

Read a great article I found about Bouldin Creek in Austin.

Bouldin Creek Austin Neighborhood

One of our favorite stories about Bouldin Creek involves David Ansel, the Baltimore native who moved to Austin to follow his soon-to-be-ex girlfriend, found himself in a hi-tech box and quit it all to become The Soup Peddler.

Ansel was following a tried and true Austin entrepreneurial model -- he went to Mexico, got inspiration and came back to Austin to start his own business. He began making soup and then delivered it door-to-door using his bike and three-wheeled cooler chest, accompanied by his dog. He became a legend in his Bouldin Creek neighborhood, was written up in national newspapers and now has a catering business. These days, trucks deliver his soup and he has a nationally published cookbook and he still lives in the neighborhood.

It is a neighborhood where those kind of Austin stories happen. Small Bouldin Creek apartments and homes fill this neighborhood where the local coffee shop is definitely not part of a chain. The mission of the Bouldin Creek Coffee Shop, its owners say, is to inspire "community action, intellectual foment and people-watching." They also provide water bowls for dogs on the small, funky patio on South First Street.

Given its proximity to downtown and hip, nearby SoCo, parts of Bouldin Creek have become gentrified, but it maintains an eccentric air, helped partly by its varied history. Tucked away in the neighborhood of unassuming small homes is Green Pastures restaurant, a small family mansion on West Live Oak that has been a classy Bouldin Creek dining spot for more than 50 years. The mansion was the childhood home of the late writer and radio humorist John Henry Faulk, one of Bouldin Creek's first free thinkers who was blacklisted during the McCarthy witch hunt era in the 1950s.

South Congress Avenue borders the Bouldin Creek neighborhood in the East and its Western edge is marked by Bouldin Creek. Running through the heart of the neighborhood is South First, a street that reflects the melting pot flavor of the neighborhood. With its Mexican bakeries, independent "revolutionary" bookstores, tattoo parlors, an art gallery or two, and various cafes South First gives Bouldin Creek a flavor all its own.