Up on stilts, behind a fence at the southwest corner of Dawson and Barton Springs Blvd., is a place that has sat undisturbed while change has been the rule for its neighboors. For fifteen years, more and more Austinites are clueless to the club that seems to draw bad luck. The structure was built in 1977 as a nightclub, Mackedrick’s Treehouse, which offered the combination of live music and a postcard view of downtown Austin.
In July of 1982, Steve Wimberly bought the place and it began a new life as Lola’s in the Fall of 1983. It was later that year that disaster hit. During the Christmas season a pipe burst in the unusual cold snap. Water damage closed the club until its grand opening May 15 of 1985 as simply "The Treehouse." Artists such as Marcia Ball and WC Clark and the Blues review brought their live music just down the street from where the Armadillo World Headquarters played its last show 5 years earlier.
The Treehouse
In March of 1986, more bad news for the club - Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Treehouse kept on as a live music venue for another two months then it became a disco. By the December, 1987 phone book it was no longer listed. Nancy Neal who handles public relations for the current owner, PPT Development, says the property "no longer meets any (building) code requirements." She said the roof and floor are in poor shape, plus the steep slope make this "a funky piece of land," she said. Currently the owners are looking to develop the property, most likely with the Treehouse demolished she said.