AUSTIN, Texas — On the 21st floor of a downtown tower once known as the Chase Building and now the Procore Tower, beyond a modest elevator lobby and a stretch of walnut-paneled walls, the Headliners Club still greets visitors with the quiet confidence of a place built for conversation.
The renovated reception lobby, viewed from the window, welcomes members into the updated Headliners Club. (Credit: Headliners Club)
For nearly 70 years, this private club, part newsroom, part salon, part civic crossroads, has hosted governors, reporters, CEOs, and the occasional movie star, all bound by the belief that the public’s business is better conducted face to face.
A newly renovated hallway-lobby space features updated finishes and a prominent artwork. (Credit: Headliners Club)
“In the beginning, it was a simple idea,” said Meade Bauer, the club’s current chairman.
Charles Green, who edited the Austin American-Statesman, imagined a place where the newsmakers would meet the reporters of the news. That was the genesis of the club.
A portrait of Charles E. Green, founder of the Headliners Club and former editor of the Austin American-Statesman. (CBS Austin)
What followed was a distinctly Austin story of ambition, proximity, and timing.
Founded in the basement of the Driskill Hotel in the mid-1950s, the club moved to the Westgate Building and, finally, in the early 1970s, settled into its eyrie above 6th Street with a 360 view of the city.
The Procore Tower, once the Chase Tower, stands at the heart of this downtown view; the Headliners Club has occupied its 21st floor for over half a century.
From there, members could look north toward the Capitol dome and the University of Texas Tower, two symbols that once appeared as fixed in the landscape as the club itself.
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Looking north from the Press Club, the skyline reveals both the UT Tower and the Goddess of Liberty crowning the Capitol’s pink dome. (CBS Austin)
Today, both landmarks are barely visible, crowded by a skyline that has grown taller, slicker, and more congested than the city Green would have recognized.
Inside the Press Club, where updated finishes blend with the Headliners Club’s longstanding newsroom heritage. (CBS Austin)
“It used to be the most prominent thing you saw,” Bauer said, gesturing toward the Goddess of Liberty statue that sits on top of the pink dome.
Now you can just see the very top of each. The rest is gone behind everything new.
Newspaper front pages line the walls of the Headliners Club, reflecting decades of historic moments in Texas and American journalism. (CBS Austin)
A Living Archive in Frames and Woodwork
Walk the corridors and the club’s past reveals itself through framed front pages and photographs: a Dallas Morning News banner announcing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a portrait of Lucille Ball throwing up the iconic “Hook Em Horns” hand sign and trading a grin with former Texas Governor John Connally, political dealmakers leaning over linen-draped tables.
In this web exclusive, John-Carlos Estrada and Chairman Meade Bauer highlight historic photos from inside the Headliners Club, including Lucille Ball throwing up the “Hook ’em Horns.”
“These are the sorts of people who used to come to the club,” Bauer said during a quiet midmorning tour.
It was a place where the governor met a movie star.
Much of that history remains intact, but only after a delicate, $8 million renovation that required both reverence and reinvention.
The project, which began last year, confronted both practical and aesthetic issues.
A bust of Farrah Fawcett, who grew up in Austin, attended UT, and studied under sculptor Charles Umlauf, stands along the interior wall of the Capitol Lounge. (Credit: Headliners Club)
The kitchen was outdated and noncompliant. The décor felt heavy, dim, and out of step with a city that no longer rested comfortably in its past.
“It looked a bit like great-grandmother’s house,” Bauer admitted.
We needed to update the ambiance, but we wanted to keep the feel of the old club. That mattered to our members.
From the Headliners Club, an east-facing view frames the Frost Building and Waterline, now Texas’ tallest tower. It is one of many skyline shifts the Club has witnessed over five decades in the Procore Tower. (CBS Austin)
Preserving a View and a Legacy
The club turned to Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, one of the city’s most influential design firms. For senior principal Maija Kreishman, the challenge was both architectural and emotional.
In this web exclusive, architect Maija Kreishman walks John-Carlos Estrada through the Headliners Club’s new entrance, highlighting the expanded views and redesigned bookshelves.
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“When you first walked in, it was surprisingly dark,” she said.
You didn’t see the full view, and that view was one of the things the Headliners was most famous for.
The Press Box reveals its updated bar and modernized seating, part of the Club’s recent renovation. (Credit: Headliners Club)
The team removed a wall that once blocked the entryway, allowing natural light and a sweeping view of Austin’s now-vertical cityscape to make the first impression.
Looking south from the Headliners Club, the skyline opens toward downtown Austin and a narrow glimpse of Lady Bird Lake. (CBS Austin)
They preserved the club’s signature walnut woodwork, pairing it with updated textures and a restrained palette meant to bridge past and present.
Photos of politicians, journalists, and well-known public figures line the Headliners Club, reflecting its long history as a gathering place for newsmakers. (CBS Austin)
Books authored by club members, once stored in a private room, now line open shelves near the entrance, inviting thumbed pages and accidental conversations.
“We wanted it to feel like the same club,” Kreishman said. “Just ready for its next chapter.”
The Headliners Club displays a collection of newspaper headlines that chronicle major political, cultural, and local milestones. (CBS Austin)
The Headliners Club has renewed its lease at the Procore Tower for an additional 30 years.
One of the most beloved spaces, the Press Box, part bar, part social commons, received a complete facelift.
In this web exclusive, John-Carlos Estrada and Chairman Meade Bauer tour the newly renovated Press Box, highlighting historic front pages including the Dallas Morning News edition published the day President Kennedy was shot and the Club’s changing view of downtown Austin.
New finishes soften the room, while its walls still tell the story of a state where politics and personality have always shared the stage.
A Place Designed for Encounters
A small statue of President LBJ, whose political and personal roots run through Austin, sits on the bookshelf near the Headliners Club entrance. (CBS Austin)
The modern club now welcomes podcasters, filmmakers, television reporters, and social media creators, a far cry from the newspaper-dominated membership of its early decades.
But Bauer insists the mission has not changed.
The Headliners Club features this classic typewriter, a nod to the tools once used by generations of reporters. (CBS Austin)
“It is still important for reporters to meet the people who make the news,” he said.
That hasn’t gone away. If you don’t have a strong press, you don’t have the basis of a good democracy.
A look at the many photos lining the Headliners Club, featuring politicians, journalists, and notable celebrities from the Club’s storied past. (CBS Austin)
He says it simply, without ornament or nostalgia, as if stating a rule that requires no defense.
And yet, nostalgia persists here.
The Headliners Club displays this photo of Barbara Jordan, a pioneering congresswoman and one of Texas’ most revered political figures. (CBS Austin)
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Bauer paused near the bar, recalling a reception held after his wedding in 1982. His son later hosted his own celebration in the same room.
The Press Club sign marks one of the Headliners Club’s signature gathering spaces. (CBS Austin)
Many families, he said, have marked three generations of milestones under the club’s softly lit chandeliers. That continuity, more than the skyline or the shifting media landscape, may be the club’s true inheritance.
This web exclusive follows Meade Bauer as he introduces John-Carlos Estrada to the Club’s historic AP type machine, a relic from the days of wire-service journalism.
As the lunch hour approaches, the room fills with the familiar hum of quiet conversations, the sound that has always given the Headliners its purpose.
Outside, cranes ripple across the horizon, building the next version of Austin.
Historic Headliners Club embraces modern updates while preserving its storied legacy (CBS Austin)
Inside, the city’s most enduring gathering place remains what Green imagined: a refuge where people still sit across from one another, trading questions, answers, and the stories that shape a city.
“Newspapers change, the city changes, everything changes,” Bauer said. “But the need to talk to each other, that stays.”
EDITOR NOTE: #TBT or Turning Back Time is an award-winning series of stories by CBS Austin This Morning Anchor John-Carlos Estrada. The series focuses on the history of Central Texas and its impact on the community. If you want to share a story idea with him, email him (jcestrada@cbsaustin.com) or message him on social media via Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, BlueSky, or Instagram.