In 2004, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s famous guitar, “Lenny,” was listed for sale at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival by the famous New York auction house Christie’s. It was the first time one of Vaughan’s guitars was sold, and bidders went wild. The instrument, which Vaughan’s wife purchased for him after soliciting $50 donations from a handful of his friends, cost $350 in 1980 at an Austin pawn shop. He was given the instrument onstage at the legendary Steamboat Springs club at a gig that October. By the time it hit auction, the instrument had been heavily modified: Vaughan replaced the neck with a maple wood neck given to him by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and the back of the instrument was adorned with a signature from Yankees great Mickey Mantle, which the guitar player obtained after he played the national anthem at an Astros game in 1985. Like most of Vaughan’s guitars, it featured a custom adornment of the “SRV” initials along its face. Guitar Center purchased the guitar for a whopping $623,500, and currently displays it at the chain’s Austin location on Anderson Lane. It’s the most expensive Vaughan guitar to hit the market, but not the only one: This past April, the 1951 Fender his brother Jimmie gave him sold at a Dallas auction for $250,000.
So if you’re a big-time collector of Stevie Ray Vaughan memorabilia, his actual childhood home is a downright bargain.
The listing for Vaughan’s home, spotted by Dallas real estate maven Candy Evans, went up earlier this month, and it appears the Oak Cliff home is already under contract. That’s not a surprise, given that the list price of $169,000 is both reasonable for a piece of one-of-a-kind Stevie Ray Vaughan memorabilia and a good deal on a home just three miles from Oak Cliff’s hot Bishop Arts District.
As a house, there are some appealing details to the property at 2557 Glenfield Avenue in south Dallas: original hardwood floors, a covered back patio, and one of the most purple kitchens you’ve ever set foot in. It’s small, at 1,100 square feet, with just two bedrooms and one bathroom—but one of those bedrooms is where Stevie Ray Vaughan first learned how to play guitar.
Vaughan’s history at the Glenfield property is fairly deep. He lived in the same house in Oak Cliff until he left for Austin during Christmas of 1972, skipping his high school graduation to pursue his rock-and-roll dreams. It took a decade of toiling for that decision to pay off. In 1982, Vaughan and Double Trouble became the first unsigned band without a record to play the famous Montreaux Jazz Festival, and his ascent was rapid—maybe a bit too rapid, as Vaughan ended up in rehab in 1986. Upon his release, he returned to his childhood home, according to a 2010 story from the Oak Cliff Advocate. After the helicopter crash that claimed his life in 1990, Vaughan was buried just five miles from the house on Glenfield.
There’s no information about the buyer or their intentions for the property. It’s entirely possible (likely, even) that the Stevie Ray Vaughan mythology is an afterthought for someone who just needs a reasonably-priced home in Oak Cliff. Either way, it’s a fascinating bit of Texas music history—and one that’s priced considerably cheaper than one of the guitar hero’s signature instruments.
