My Grandpa Bryan's Would-Be Honky Tonk

When I was looking up some information for my Uncle Bobby, I ran across this website taking about the history of North Lamar. It was interesting to see this, as my Grandpa Bryan owned the land that the honky tonk was built upon but lost it in a poker game. Grandpa Bryan owned a lot of land on that side of Lamar. I guess he lost it all playing poker. He was an alcoholic and was abusive to each of his wife's. He was a mean drunk and everyone knew to stay away when he'd been drinking.

http://fryr.tripod.com/cfhistnlamar.html

The Skyline Club, a 1950s Landmark

In the 1950s, the roadway known today as North Lamar was a very loud and colorful place, at least it was on weekends. At 11306 North Lamar, where CVS Drugs is today, stood the Skyline Club. The Skyline Club opened in 1948. It was a very large and well-known landmark with room for approximately 500 people. The Skyline Club was often a crowded place: on the Wednesday or Thursday "Nickel Beer Night" the cars visiting the Skyline Club would park not only near the Skyline Club, but also on the east side of the roadway where Albertson's grocery is today. "Sometimes you could hardly get through there because of the cars" said Clyde N., a North Lamar resident from 1948.

In the late 1940's country and western music was at a peak and in 1948 the Skyline Club opened two and a half miles north of Austin's city limits, on the old Dallas Highway, a roadway lit up by nightclubs. The club was jointly owned by Warren, Gerald and Margaret Stark and was a "roadhouse" in the traditional sense. Hank Thompson said, “It was a small place. You were right there with the audience, and they’d just all gang around. It was a fun place to play from that standpoint. The ceiling was low and the stage sat only a few inches higher than the hardwood dance floor. “At that time it would only hold about two hundred, maybe two fifty at the most. We’d always have it jam- packed with people. It was a very intimate place to play.”
(www.scottymoore.net/skyline.thml)

This is the Eckerd Drugs built at Braker and North Lamar in the late 1990s (photo taken 4/27/01). This is the previous location of the Skyline Club.


This is a sketch of the Skyline Club.
The Skyline Club was located where the Eckerd Drugs at Braker and North Lamar is located today.
The Skyline Club was a well-known venue for country music and provided the setting for such noteables as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Horton. One of the most interesting accounts of local events of the era involves the last public performance of Hank Williams in 1952 and of Johnny Horton in 1960. See Hank and Johnny.  The club had a house band and also hosted many famous acts, including Elvis Presley and the last show of Hank Williams Sr. before his death. In later years it became a venue for experimental country and punk rock music of the 1970s 1980s. After being bought and renamed as The Soap Creek Saloon Annex, it continued to entertain for a short time in early 1980s hosting acts such as Willie Nelson, Devo, and The Misfits.

Hank Williams and Johnny Horton (second and fourth in this photo) played at the Skyline Club: Hank in 1952, Johnny in 1960.

Elvis Presley (photo may have been taken at the Skyline Club in 1955).