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The Hobbit Hole

Submitted by NickWallingford on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 2:06pm. Restaurants

Back when "The Lord of the Rings" had anything nothing more than minimal popularity, let me see now: 1971 or so it would have been, there was a really nice restaurant down near Rio Grande and about 5th St.

I can remember bicycling down there from the University area in the late, late nights for coffee and desserts.

I don't think the place was around all that long - the food business is like that, I guess - but I remember the building as a converted grand old house, lit up brightly in an otherwise dark and quiet neighbourhood.

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Grand Old Houses vs. Condos

Submitted by clex on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 9:32pm.

This is something that has certainly been lost. The core of downtown used to have many grand old houses that began as boarding houses and became rentals and folks' homes. These were literally mixed in with modern government and business buildings in the downtown area. This "feeling" still somewhat exists west of downtown from the Bremond block northward to the courthouse but it used to be much more common and made downtown seem more unique. I knew some folks that worked at Old Pecan Street and lived just north of there in a huge old boarding house within walking distance.

Today, downtown is being overtaken by high-price, high-rise condos. I doubt that the affordable housing and social community aspect that the grand old boarding houses provided will ever be seen again.

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