Welcome to South Austin

She may be almost forgotten now, but Hattie Valdez was one of the most famous madams in Austin history. She had several houses and made millions of dollars.

It is said that when she walked into the Austin National Bank, all the bankers stood up and tried to help her. I figure her little black book contained the names of most of the prominent men in Austin at that time. Of course I have no proof of that.

Her residence was at 1405 E. Riverside Drive. It is on the southeast corner of I-35 and Riverside. Time Insurance Agency has been located there for the past 5 or 6 years.

There are two old homes on the site. I am sure they were beautiful homes in their time. The most interesting thing about these homes is the number of bathrooms. Almost every room has or did have a bathroom. Go figure…..

I have worked at Time Insurance in the past and I have a real good true story. One morning, one of the insurance ladies was writing a policy for this little old man that was probably in his mid 60’s. They were sitting in the dining area in the kitchen. The lady excused herself to go get some other paperwork. This little old man looked up at me and smiled and said, “ I’ve been here before, and it wasn’t no insurance agency”. I had to laugh..

I have another story told to me by an old south Austin wrecker driver. Waldo Harper owned a wrecker company in Austin. His son still owns the company. Waldo was the king of the little racetrack out by the Bergstrom Air Force Base. He almost always won the championship.

The story was told to me this way. Waldo was always looking for sponsorships for his racecar to help pay for the expenses. On day he hit Hattie up for a sponsorship. Hattie had a raspy voice from smoking. She said, “Hell, Waldo, what you put on the car”.

Waldo not missing a beat, said, “That’s easy Hattie, Hattie’s Hardware, the best screws in town.” True story.

I’ll have more to say about Hattie later…..

Below is a google map of Time Insurance Agency....


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This may not be in South Austin, but it's one of the reasons that I love Austin, Texas. This is the spirit of Austin.... Don't come if you don't want to fit in...
This may be the friendliest city in the country, so help pass it on...

These are all taken right along the river.