04/20/2026
Perez Prado’s “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” was still purring through Austin radios. Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” was rattling the first rock-and-roll thunderclap across America. And on a hushed, oak-shaded lot in Zilker, a modest brick ranch quietly went up.
The year was 1955.
Austin looked different then. East of Barton Creek was mostly scrub and cedar — save for a dozen or so visionary low-slung homes by A.D. Stenger and an honest-to-God rural quiet. That same year, the city bought the old Rabb homestead and 29 acres of creek bank that would become South Zilker Park.
801 Spofford Street watched it all happen.
Seventy-one years later, this midcentury original — featured by — has been restored to its better self. Architects Rick and Cindy Black kept the bones honest. Christina Simon of (formerly Mark Ashby Design) gave it a luxe, Southwest-tinged soul.
Inside:
— Terrazzo floors and rhythmic beamed ceilings — A sunken living room, set free by one strategically removed brick wall — A kitchen anchored in slatted oak, dark stone, and Bedrosians tile — A primary bath in rich blue-green, with unglazed tile and gold Waterworks fixtures — Centuries-old oaks standing guard over 0.34 private acres
3 bedrooms. 3 baths. A dedicated office. 2,711 square feet of history re-tuned for the way Austin lives now — minutes from Barton Springs, where the water still runs the same 68° it did in ‘55.
Offered at $2,650,000.
Question for the feed: what would you put on the turntable your first night here — Perez Prado, or Bill Haley & His Comets?
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Listed by Sarah Cox!!
#78704
