While not officially a part of campus, the stretch of Guadalupe Street from 21st to 28th, known affectionately as The Drag, has been an integral backdrop to the University of Texas experience for generations of students.
From streetcars to light rails, book stores to sports bars, post-win football parades and impassioned protests, the Drag is an ever-changing, ever-evolving symbol of both Austin and UT’s cultural, economic and social history. The Daily Texan took a look at the rich history of The Drag in this special collection.
Over 100 years of shopping, socializing, student traditions on The Drag
Once paved by dirt and now the home to sprawling national chains, The Drag has remained a University staple. For over 100 years, The Drag has been the most famous strip of Guadalupe Street. The Daily Texan explored The Drag through the decades as it evolved from a dirt road to the center of the campus community.
1910s to 1920s
When students rolled up and down in Ford Model Ts, horse-drawn carriages and trolley cars, the University Co-op first opened on The Drag in 1917 after relocating from the Tower. Students, faculty and Austinites worshipped at churches like the University United Methodist, University Baptist and St. Austin’s Catholic Church, all of which still operate today. Austin staple Martin’s KumBak, later known as Dirty Martin’s Place, also opened in 1926 with dirt floors from which the establishment gained its name. In 1923, a funeral procession marched through the street for the University’s first mascot, Pig Bellmont, before students paid respect to him outside the University Co-op.
1930s to 1940s
After World War II ended and enrollment at the University more than doubled, veteran students traded war stories at the shops and drive-up drug stores on the strip, according to UT History Corner. Local cinema Varsity Theater opened in 1937, where CVS stands today, with its distinctive Art Deco style and film reel mural. With its first film showing, “The Texas Rangers,” the theater began a long tradition of entertaining students and patrons with a wide range of movies, including European art films, cult classics and nostalgia pieces.
1950s to 1960s
Up until the 1960s, not everyone was free to enjoy The Drag. The University admitted its first Black undergraduates in 1956, yet they found few businesses that opened their doors to them. A petition against segregation in University events, restaurants and theaters along The Drag circulated on campus. In 1960, 100 mostly white students led “stand-ins” at the Varsity Theater and Texas Theater. The peaceful demonstrators lined up for the 7:30 p.m. showing and asked the ticket seller, “I would like to buy a ticket if everybody is being admitted.” As each person was denied entry, they returned to the end of the line to restart the process. The demonstration drew attention, including from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
“I am personally grateful to the Texas students for making the effort to bring about the end of this kind of segregation in their state,” Roosevelt said in her column, My Day.
The stand-ins continued for five months until the theater managers agreed to desegregate in August 1961. Most of the shops on the Drag were integrated within that year.
1970s
By the 1970s, students ate at food carts lining the strip or restaurants like Salvation Sandwiches Co., Legs and Thighs and Bluebonnet Circle Cafe. But the biggest events that brought the Austin community together were post-game celebrations.
In 1977, following a 26–0 football win against Texas Tech University, Longhorn fans carried on the tradition of “raising hell on The Drag every Saturday night” for the first home game in a month and filled The Drag for a nine-and-a-half-hour celebration. In a 1977 Daily Texan article, students recalled the “block-party-on-wheels” of horn-honking, bumper-to-bumper lights, fraternity trucks driving by with at least 25 riders and a masked moped rider throwing up “hook-ems.” By nightfall, the celebration became more raucous as a new crowd entered. People tossed water, cans and items at passing cars below from the Goodwall-Wooten dormitory, and nearly every car antenna and windshield wiper was bent under beer cans. Authorities shut the party down by 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
One Catholic school principal, Lynn Goodman-Strauss, who lived behind Night Hawk restaurant on The Drag, took her complaints to the Austin City Council to propose an ordinance prohibiting demonstrations without permits. She suggested throwing wads of chewed bubble gum into the street to halt traffic.
“It hasn’t come to that yet,” Goodman-Strauss said in a 1977 Daily Texan article. “But 1,000 wads of gum on Guadalupe wouldn’t bother me one bit.”
1980s
Students frequented cheap spots for lunch like Conan’s Pizza, Dobie Mall and I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt. Students looking for a unique bargain went to the Renaissance Market set up in the alley where 23rd Street meets Guadalupe Street, or Discount Records.
“For the grand old lady (The Drag) is, I’d say she’s weathered it pretty well,” Discount Records manager Ray Williams said in a 1983 Daily Texan article.
A.J. Rather, UT alumnus and manager of Sommers Discount Drug Store on The Drag, noted the change in students’ behavior from formerly wild Saturday nights.
“It’s lots quieter than it used to be in the Fifties and Sixties,” Rather said in the same article. “Kids don’t have time to play like they used to. They’re more materialistic.”
1990s
In the decade of frosted tips, grunge music and the birth of the World Wide Web, The Drag adapted to students’ changing tastes. The street received a beautification makeover to make The Drag more pedestrian-friendly with new lighting, trees and sidewalks.
As technology advanced, so did transportation modes. Capital Metro proposed a light rail running through Guadalupe Street in 1994, but the plan never took hold as it required eliminating parking and bike lanes and increased noise pollution.
“The Drag is a tradition,” then-speech communication senior Karen Netzer, chairwoman of Future Alternatives for Safer Transportation, told the Texan in 1994. “Certain things should not be touched for futuristic modes (of transportation.)”
At the time, The Drag had three competing bookstores — Wallace’s, Bevo’s Bookstore and University Co-op, until emerging bookseller giant Barnes & Noble opened where the University Co-op now stands.
“The Drag is a vibrant, alive, historical section of town,” Jeanette Nassour, owner of ‘90s Drag business the Cadeau, in a 1990 Daily Texan article. “If townspeople would think to support (the businesses) on The Drag, there would never be a question of survival. I can’t think of a prettier shopping center.”
But the ‘90s also brought closures of several of the area’s landmarks, including Garner & Smith Bookstore, The Drag’s true “liberal arts” bookstore, and women’s department store Yaring’s and Leautweiler’s Jewelers. Varsity Theater also shut down, which became a dollar movie theater in 1988 as a last attempt to fill seats until being forced to shut down in 1990. Tower Records took over the space, a spot UT communication studies alumnus Ty Denton said he remembered visiting often.
“Most change is good, but sometimes it’s nice to see familiar faces,” Denton said. “You want some things to stay the same because it’s part of your history, just as much as it’s part of The Drag’s history.”
2000s to 2010s
By the end of 2005, seven stores closed, including Nomadic Notions, Mojo’s Daily Grind and Le Fun Arcade, as rising rent prices overwhelmed them. The Austin Independent Business Alliance began having “Third Thursday” to promote local businesses on The Drag, and stores stayed open longer, offered special discounts and featured live music to entice customers.
2020s
Today, chain stores have overtaken The Drag, but still retain a few “old Austin” spots, like Dirty Martin’s and Hole in the Wall.
“Change is inevitable,” Denton said. “There’s always going to be the next popular store coming in, and it changes … with the next generation, so something that’s there today that’s popular is probably not going to be there 10 years from now because you got a new group of students that want something different.”
The Drag: a historical center of Austin art, music, culture
On the corner of 21st Street and The Drag, a single wall rises above the rubble. Austin local Rhi Spicer can’t help but notice it every time she walks home to 21st Street Co-op. As she passes, she gazes up at the mural on the wall, which poses a simple question: “Hi, How Are You?”
The mural now stands alone, but it was once part of a local record store called Sound Exchange, which commissioned Austin artist Daniel Johnston to paint it in 1993. Though the original building has since been demolished, community efforts have kept the 32-year-old mural standing, establishing the piece as a symbol of Austin’s cultural identity.
“Having art, and having ways that people express (themselves) throughout redevelopment is really important,” Spicer said. “So it’s special that there’s still some (murals) around West Campus, and I wish that there were more.”
The Drag has been a hub for Austin art, music and culture for decades. Commercial, legal and structural changes to Austin have impacted the artistic scene of The Drag, but the culture has persevered. Beloved pieces of Austin’s past remain, leaving a mosaic that honors the street’s roots and the students who call Austin home.
Music, murals and markets
For some alumni and long-time Austinites, The Drag’s “Hi, How Are You?” mural symbolizes a changing Austin, where classic buildings are demolished and local businesses are outpriced by larger corporations. Though Sound Exchange closed its doors in 2003, its legacy lives on through the image on its side, which has presented generations of UT students with the opportunity to engage with art authentic to Austin’s values. For Spicer, the mural is more than paint on a wall — it represents Austin’s history and relationship with art.
“I’m glad that, even though they tore (the) building down, they kept the mural, because art should be preserved, and (this) is no exception.” Spicer said.
But this isn’t the only space connecting modern students to the artistic history of The Drag.
Just a few blocks north of Johnston’s mural sits the “Austintatious” mural on 23rd Street. Painted by UT students in 1974 to celebrate what makes Austin special, the piece is one of the city’s oldest remaining murals.
The modern “Austintatious” overlooks hundreds of students daily as they make their way into West Campus. In decades past, however, “Austintatious” watched as students attended the 23rd Street Renaissance Market, where local artists sold handmade jewelry, trinkets and clothing nearly every day after its establishment in 1969.
Slowly, the market lost popularity as Austin’s changing atmosphere prompted students to move farther from campus and shifted tourism from The Drag to downtown. The COVID-19 pandemic scattered the remaining vendors in 2020, and the Renaissance Market has since fizzled out.
However, markets on The Drag aren’t a thing of the past.
Every Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., dozens of local vendors set up stands outside vintage clothing stores Pavement and Leopard Lounge for the Guad Vintage Market. For vendor Kamdin Montagne, the market is a place to enjoy The Drag’s unique community and share the items she loves curating.
“All the clothes that I’m selling are the things that I love, that I’m creating from my own taste,” Montagne said. “All the other vendors are doing that too, so everything is very unique.”
On top of music, street art and markets, The Drag also has a long history with motion pictures and theaters.
One block past “Austintatious,” a scroll of film unreels above 24th Street, showing 12 still images captured from influential movies. Painted in 1979 to highlight the history of motion pictures, the “Varsity Mural” was named after the building it initially decorated: the Varsity Theater.
Once perched on the corner of Guadalupe and 24th Street, the Varsity opened with a showing of “The Texas Rangers” in 1936 and quickly became a hotspot for UT students and film lovers. The once-acclaimed theater closed in 1990, as rent rose and visitors waned.
Tower Records soon moved into the space, and from 1990 to 2004, the corporate record store was a contentious sign of changing times. UT mechanical engineering alumnus Eric Chang remembers how the Varsity’s replacement by a corporate company aggravated some Austinites, who chose to buy their records at Sound Exchange instead.
After closing in 2004, Tower Records was replaced by a handful of stores until a CVS Pharmacy took over in 2021. UT radio-television-film alumna and The Austin Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, Kimberley Jones, said the loss of nearby theaters reduces students’ access to formative art.
“While it’s helpful to have toothpaste readily available to you (at CVS), it’s not going to be super helpful in your development of who you’re going to be as a person and what kind of art is going to move you,” Jones said.
The mural and the Varsity marquee still decorate the CVS, reminding passersby of the building’s cinematic history. But the Varsity Theatre wasn’t the only cinema to come and go on The Drag.
Located on the second floor of Dobie Mall, the Dobie Theater opened its doors in 1973. To support art close to home, Dobie hosted extended screenings for films from Texas-based filmmakers like Richard Linklater and S. R. Bindler. The theater closed in August 2010 and is now owned by the office space company Regus. Jones was sad to see it go.
“Dobie filled a void there,” Jones said. “When that went away, UT students had to go a lot farther to see those kinds of movies.”
What remains and what’s to come
Many spaces of culture have come and gone on The Drag, but Hole in the Wall is one location that remains standing.
General Manager Clayton England described the Hole in the Wall as a “genesis” for live music in Austin. Situated just off Dean Keaton and Guadalupe streets, the Hole was first established as a sports bar in 1974. One year later, the bar built a stage for singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith, whose performances drew crowds before the Hole was known for its music. The venue is one of the oldest continuously-operating venues in Austin, now celebrating 51 years in business.
“(The Hole in the Wall) really has this long-lasting impact,” England said. “It has a representation of its history that speaks for itself, as far as how it represents Austin, and I’m very grateful to be a part of that.”
Over time, the Hole has built a tight community where long-time staff and visitors can meet to revisit a taste of “old Austin.”
“It really is one of the last places in Austin that’s still an every-person’s bar and community space,” England said. “When you walk into that front room, and the bar is worn down in a cozy way, and staff are friendly, it’s nostalgic … of what Austin has always represented and what people have loved, without being (exploitatively) capitalized as a brand.”
With the shift from physical media to digital streaming, Jones said today’s students have less incentive to explore bookstores, record shops or indie theaters.
Even as The Drag’s cultural fabric changes, its legacy endures in the music, murals and markets that remain. For Jones, the culture of the Drag helped shape her identity. Yet, as the city changes, Jones wonders how The Drag will continue to impact the students who visit it.
“Those places certainly contributed to the person that I became,” Jones said. “I hope that there are new places that are serving the same function … (because) it felt pretty magical to me at the time.”
Local businesses on Guad ride Austin’s economic waves through the decades
Restaurants and stores on Guadalupe Street come and go with alarming frequency. In recent years, the balance between national chains and local businesses on the Drag has grown increasingly precarious.
“We have something that those other businesses don’t have, and that’s a lot of history and nostalgia and generations of Austinites and UT students,” said Daniel Young, the general manager at Dirty Martin’s Place. “Last weekend, there was a table that came in that had a current student with their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents — four generations that had all eaten here. The great-grandparents ate here in the 1940s. That’s something Whataburger, and certainly In-N-Out, doesn’t have.”
According to market value data from the Travis Central Appraisal District, local businesses more closely represent Austin’s economy than national chains, which are often insulated from local booms and slumps.
The Austin-Round Rock business cycle index, which reflects the overall health of the greater Austin area’s economy, rose steadily from an average of 667.5 in 2020 to 882.7 in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2022. The index, calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, uses a variety of factors ranging from wages and employment to business activity in order to approximate an area’s value.
When compared to market value, the appraised value of a business’s property, local businesses on The Drag appear to mirror the rise in Austin’s business cycle index.
Architectural engineering senior Kira Kanagaki works at CoCo’s Cafe as the general manager for the business’s Guadalupe Street location. She said the business sets itself apart from national chains by prioritizing UT students in every aspect of its operations.
“All of our employees are all college students,” Kanagaki said. “I work with the owner sometimes (on) our seasonal drinks, so they get student input on that.”
The owner and co-founder of Medici Roasting, Michael Vaclav, said that competition with national chains means more variety for students.
Coffee shops on Guadalupe Street offer a snapshot of the larger economic picture. Over the last four years, Medici’s market value appraisal rose steadily, following Austin’s index trends. Lucky Lab Coffee Co., another local coffee shop on The Drag, also saw a steady rise in market value. Starbucks, the largest chain coffee shop on The Drag, saw a decline in market value appraisal each year since 2020.
“There’s different markets for different types of customers,” Vaclav said. “One thing that Starbucks has is you can get the same drink in Tokyo as you can on UT campus. … When you provide that type of consistency across a large market, you have to bring (the quality of) everything down a little bit. … We have a little bit more intimacy with our product and can do things that are unique and different.”
Medici opened its own roasting facility in August 2019, a business endeavor which Vaclav said did not gain momentum until 2023 due to the pandemic. While Vaclav said Medici’s stores account for a majority of bean purchasing from their own roasting facility, Medici also sells its beans wholesale at H-E-B, Central Market, Fresh Plus and a string of local coffee shops.
“Five stores and a roasting facility makes us self-sustaining,” Vaclav said. “So if we do wholesale, that’s a bonus on top.”
Beyond roasting, Medici uses a number of local providers for its products sold alongside coffee, a choice Vaclav said is not necessarily in the interest of profitability.
“We’re not a taco company that sells coffee, we’re a coffee company that sells tacos,” Vaclav said. “We’ve always tried to keep that ethos, so our margins are not as great on our on our food offerings. We try to keep that (rate) a little bit lower than what we should probably be charging.”
Vaclav said Medici prioritizes giving back to the local economy and coffee community. Over the years, Vaclav said about eight or nine other coffee shops have come from former Medici employees, including Houndstooth Coffee and Fleet Coffee.
Many local businesses prioritize local suppliers for sourcing ingredients, pouring money back into the local economy.
Medici sources its sandwiches from The Green Cart, a company located in East Austin. Vaclav said that over the years Medici has sold a slew of local businesses’ pastries, including Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery, Texas French Bread and Easy Tiger. Medici currently sources pastries for its six locations from the locally-owned Teal House Coffee and Bakery. Young said Dirty Martin’s sources its buns from San Marcos and uses the Austin-based produce company, Segovia Produce.
While coffee pricing remains a contentious topic, Vaclav said that, compared to other beverages, “nobody pays what coffee is actually worth.” He said people expect an experience when they purchase a beverage, whether alcohol or coffee. While people are willing to pay $20 for a cocktail, they expect lower prices for coffee. Still, he said that for coffee, the process justifies the price point.
“This is a three-to-six month process before (the beans) even make it here,” Vaclav said. “If coffee is not done well at (one) point … you’re not going to have a good cup of coffee.”
In 2013, Vaclav said the Medici on The Drag nearly shut down after an old sewage pipe under the building caused a 10-foot crack in the floor next to the register, accompanied by a nauseating stench and flies. He said that incident, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, both nearly forced the café to permanently close its doors on Guadalupe Street.
“There’s a lot of medium-to-low crisis, even medium-to-high crisis moments, but that’s just part of business,” Vaclav said. “You talk to any business owner, that’s just par for the course.”
Kanagaki said that CoCo’s Cafe pushed through the pandemic and rising rent over the years by raising prices. Now, the Trump administration’s new tariffs pose a challenge for the business’s operations.
“We import a lot of stuff from Taiwan, so we’ve had to raise prices,” Kanagaki said.
In a competitive market like Austin, Vaclav said that people’s attention is a hard-earned commodity. Young said that after 99 years Dirty Martin’s has cemented its place in local hearts by understanding the value of a dollar.
“The old Austin folks and the tourists are always going to come, and they’re going to have the money to spend,” Young said. “I realize students are often on a budget, so every day we have a food special and a drink special and a happy hour. … We want to build this business on volume and loyalty, and if we can do enough volume, the costs even out.”
The future of The Drag: From dirt paths to speed rails
Thousands of cars and pedestrians pass through The Drag every day, commuting to and from campus. The current road allows for some bicycle and scooter traffic, and sees frequent bus traffic. Crashes in this area occur most often at 21st and Guadalupe streets, according to the city of Austin. However, this bustling area did not start as the crowded space it is known as today.
The Drag started as a dirt path at the University’s beginning in 1883, taking its name from the horse-pulled carts “dragged” down the road. The carts dropped students off where the University Co-op stands today.
“Pretty much every student that has ever gone to UT has been at that spot at one point,” said Jim Nicar, historian and author of the blog The UT History Corner.
The carts turned into electric trolleys at the turn of the century, operating as far north as 24th Street and then turning around to go back south. By 1969, students could access a shuttle system of repurposed school buses.
“They looked like old-timey school buses that were painted white with orange stripes,” Nicar said.
The school bus system for students continued until the 1990s, when the shuttles merged with CapMetro, the city of Austin public transportation system. This system allowed students to swipe their student ID for free bus fare and continues today.
In 2020, the city of Austin introduced Project Connect, a decade-long project that aims to “expand and improve Austin’s transit network.”
Project Connect would create a light rail, which would run across 9.8 miles of Austin and connect UT students to key locations like downtown and South Congress. This means that The Drag will become less accessible to regular vehicles due to the light rail, prioritizing pedestrians and bikers.
“There’s a whole history to The Drag itself that will change if it becomes pedestrian only,” Nicar said.
With fewer vehicles on The Drag, students commuting between the University and West Campus will likely reduce pedestrian injuries significantly. According to the World Health Organization, many of the measures Project Connect is taking, such as adding better footpaths, are proven factors for reducing unnecessary injuries for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Jennifer Pyne, Executive Vice President, Planning, Community & Federal Programs, Austin Transit Partnership, said the light rail will improve transportation for students living further from campus and travel more safely on The Drag.
As a key point of access for students and vehicles alike, The Drag is no stranger to vehicular accidents and injuries. Since 2010, at least 161 crashes on this portion of the road have resulted in injuries. According to the city of Austin, most crashes have happened at intersections between streets, namely at Guadalupe and 21st streets.
A 2014 study by MIT revealed that Guadalupe Street was the most dangerous street for bicyclists in Austin, citing its high pedestrian and driving population. According to the map, Guadalupe Street had a reported 84 crashes on bicycles between 2009 and 2014.
Austin has already made several efforts to reduce this danger. 2013 saw the construction of a protected stretch of bike lanes on The Drag, from MLK Boulevard to 24th Street. In 2021, the city updated its curbs to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
This danger will likely be curbed by the light rail. Pyne said the light rail’s changes to The Drag, which are still in the planning stage, will include more pedestrian and bike space, while still allowing buses and emergency vehicles to get through.
“Generally, it would be designed to be much more pedestrian focused and not a place you just drive through,” Pyne said.
Pyne said a primary goal of the changes is to help students remain safe.
“We want to design it to comfortably accommodate those people,” she said.
The light rail will also allow travel more quickly to popular spaces for students, like South Congress.
“The line is going from UT down to downtown, East Riverside and also down South Congress,” Pyne said. “If you’re living (there) or wanting to go to any of those places, this will be a reliable way.”
Pyne said the light rail will also help people travel more reliably.
“You (will) just show up, and you know that (the rail) will be there relatively soon. So I’m excited for that,” she said. “If there are special events, if it’s congested, people have choices.”
The first portion of the light rail, which includes The Drag, is set to open in 2033, after several years of construction and planning.
“Our intention is that if we’re designing for everybody, it’s going to benefit all different parts of the community,” Pyne said.
