Years before Austin city leaders declared the Texas capital the Live Music Capital of the World, a watering hole in the self-proclaimed weirdest Central Texas city was a haven for some of the world’s biggest artists.
Today, near the intersection of Barton Springs Road, Riverside Drive and South First Street is the 13-floor One Texas Center, a city services building constructed in the 1980s that houses several Austin city departments, including the Downtown Austin Community Court, the City Auditor’s Office and Financial Services. But more than half a century ago, a prolific live music venue and beer garden once set the stage for acclaimed artists traveling through the state capital.
Armadillo World Headquarters opened on August 7, 1970 at 525 1/2 Barton Springs Road, with the half address marking it as to the rear of what was then the Skating Palace. The inspiration for the venue came from the closure of the Vulcan Gas Company, the city’s inaugural rock music venue that closed after a three-year stint in 1970, leaving a gaping hole in the city’s music scene.
It was the brainchild of local music partners Eddie Wilson, Spencer Perskin, Jim Franklin, Mike Tolleson, Bobby Hedderman and others, who re-imagined and converted a National Guard Armory into a 1,500-capacity music hall, according to Texas State Historical Association archives. It served as an alternative venue option contrasting the municipal auditorium located just across the street along the banks of Lady Bird Lake.
“The name Armadillo World Headquarters evoked both a cosmic consciousness and the image of a peaceable native critter, the armadillo, often seen on Texas highways as the victim of high-speed technology,” author John Wheat wrote in the TSHA entry…