Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part I (College Station: trees, dining)

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by 940

Loop 13 was the original name of Loop 410 when it was just being built.

This came from... San Antonio @ LoneStarRoads.com

"Loop 13 was first designated in 1939, and steadily expanded over the years to become a full loop of the city until IH-410 was designated. The north half of Loop 13 became part of IH-410, until all that was left is the present day alignment."

I think the south side of loop 13 was/is SW Military Drive. I seem to recall the loop 13 drive in sign close to the corner of SW Military and IH 35...within a couple blocks anyway....

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by 940

I went back looking through some of my old SA newspapers I have from the mid 60s, and I found this huge ad for Piggly Wiggly in San Antonio. The ad lists these locations for Piggly Wiggly's in SA circa 1965.

2103 Goliad
3526 S. New Braunfels
1032 Donaldson
3414 Nogalitos
607 Dwight Ave
1925 Military Dr NW (NW Military Hwy now!)
6402 N. New Braunfels
3625 West Ave
3719 Blanco Rd
2302 Cincinnati
102 Corrine Dr
Southcross & Pleasanton Rd
3614 Pleasanton Rd
146 Darby Blvd
3622 Fredericksburg Rd
3010 N McCullough
2020 Austin Hwy
940 Pat Booker Rd (Universal City)
Cupples & Castroville Rd
1950 Bandera Rd (coming soon in Inspiration Hills)

Other stores were in Brady, Del Rio, Fredericksburg and Luling.

Not sure when they disappeared from the scene but I remember going to the Piggly Wiggly on Fredericksburg Rd in the early 70s as a young kid.
There's still some locations scattered around and in fact, there's a Piggly Wiggly in Denton, TX about 3 or 4 miles north of where I live now.

940 you are so awesome, thanks. Now would you have a listing of the handy andy's from the 60's and 70's?

[linskie]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Last post for today, and I apologize for its length, but I am getting a little excited!

This thread has really awakened an interest in San Antonio history for me. Before I thought it was all about the Alamo and whatever Henry Guera told us on the radio, now I see there was much more going on here. Last week I had gone to a wedding reception at the Wurzbach estates. That's the old one-story mansion on Wurzbach across from the Hooters. While there, I just assumed they called it Wurzbach estates simply due to the street it was on. Turns out, that wasn't the case, it is the actually estate of the Wurzbach family.

For those of you interested in this, I did some research and found out the NW side of modern San Antonio (Wurzbach, Huebner, Lockhill-Selma, NW Military) was like the Park Avenue of old time San Antonio, it's where all the big time movers and shakers used to live. You can still see some of the old mansions and big stone houses littering the area. In addition to the house where Aldo's is and the Wurzbach estates, you have those old stone mansions along Vance Jackson, Dreamland, and NW Military by West Avenue, where the Lodge Restaurant is. A lot of these families have names like Eckert, Braun, Ritter, DeZavala, Orsinger, and others who are immortalized today as street names.

Turns out there were two famous Wurzbach men, the first who fought in the Civil War and made the original fortune, and the second who was a congressman and politician and is responisble for codifing San Antonio's law in the early 20th century. The neighboorhood I grew up in, Colonies North, and that surrounding area was actually the Wurzbach family farm! They donated or sold it for development in the 1930's, but nothing got built there for a couple decade presumably because there was no city supplied infrastructure, like plumbing, electricity, roads.....or actual people

Talk about history coming to life, I was telling this to my friend (Primo!) today while I was driving, and just happened to be near that area, and he said "Of course it was farmland, the old farm house is still in the neigborhood I grew up in!" Natrually, I had to go find it and sure enough, among all the satelite dishes, basketball poles and tract housing from the 60's and 70's, stands a large, old-fashioned clapboard farmhouse that definitely does not belong there. It is surrounded by a low retaining wall of, what else? the big lime stone used to build those mansions and big stone homes in the area!

All this leads me to the Wolfe Inn. I had always assumed it was another one of those old family homes. It wasn't. It was known in the 30's and 40's (and probably way before that) as the Wolfe Inn Resort and Spa. It was supposedly a world famous retreat for wealthy and the elite, not just from San Antonio, but from all over the country, a lot like Hot Wells. In fact, it is probably the reason the elite from old San Antonio decided to cluster all their big homes in this area. I found some old postcards on Ebay that have paintings of the "Garden Patio of Wolfe's Inn Resort and Spa" , but that's as far as I've gotten researching this on the internet. I even thought the former Mayor Nelson Wolfe might have been a descendant of this familiy, but can't find anything on the Wolfe family. Does anybody reading this thread have any information on the Wolfe's Inn or know where I can go to get some more? I'd really appreciate it!

One last thing, I've contacted Mall Management from North Star Mall to see if they have any old pictures of the interior of the mall from the 60's and 70's. I've even offered to scan them for them for free if I can post them on this forum. I'll keep you all informed of what they say.

I'm getting a little excited too. This thread could conceivably go on for another 130 pages: which, by God I hope it does. It has amazed me that this town affects us like it does, I say "town" because that's what it is. San Antonio is a city only by definition. I don't care how many people live here or how many square miles the city limits cover..San Antonio is a teenager that will NEVER grow up, because she does not want to. I envy to death the people that have grown up here, still live here, and those that have passed through here for whatever reason. Wherever we go on our journey through
life, these San Antonio memories will be forever seared into our minds. Of course there are other regions or cities whose inhabitants are equally as proud of where they are from, and that's OK. God love 'em. However.. having said all that, I remember watching a documentary some years back about the band AC/DC in which at some point one of the members was wearing a T-shirt which said "Nowhere Else But San Antonio!" I was in a theatre in San Antonio at the time, and the applause made me cry.

[eyeta2]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

I may be wrong or mixing it up with something else, but wasn't this on 4-10 near the airport, close to where the Papadeaux is now? I think (again, I could be wrong) this may have become a Boston Sea Party before closing down.

Zuider Zee was on Fredricksburg down near Club Drive, somewhere in that area. I remember it well. We lived in Balcones Heights at that time and occasionally my dad would take the family over there to eat.

[tcs]

Originally Posted by Macgrad89

The Boston Sea Party was on 410 between McCullough and Jones-Maltsberger inside the old Kiddie City building. When Boston Sea Party shut down (I think I was in high school then, so the mid-to-late 80s) the building was torn down. The old San Antonio Sports Palace was next to the Sea Party and it too was demolished around the same time. The property then changed hands and now has the hotel, etc. on it. Pappadeaux is now on what was the parking lot of the Sports Palace closest to Loop 410. Some Sports Palace trivia - the old animated neon bowling ball hitting the bowling pins is alive and well at Country Lanes on 281.

Anyone remember Victoria Station in the parking lot of the Century building on 410? It became Red Lobster in the 90s but the restaurant was forced out when Time Warner Cable bought the Century and demolished Red Lobster around 2000-2001.

I had forgotten the old concrete spiral staircase near Frost Bros at North Star until it was mentioned. The old fountain with the blue Mexican tile in it is missed too; I remember when I had grown tall enough to look in it without Dad giving me a boost...

Lastly, for you old-timers - what car dealership was once located on the site of what is now La Mansion del Norte at 410 and McCullough? It's been almost 30 years since they moved to the 'burbs...

Macgrad89

Was it Jordan Ford? or Hemphill Ford?

[tcs]

My dad was in that car dealership looking at cars and at that time he was only into Fords i think. But while he was in the dealership I walked out on McCullough and remember the days when the traffic lights had the steel plates in the road that detected the cars rollong over them, well i rolled a heavy rock on the plate and slowed down traffic. OOOOOH what a brat I was!

[tcs]

Yes linki I agree. People who grow up in SA have something special. At my office in Flower Mound yesterday there are a bunch of us old SA folks and just yesterday we were talking about Jacala, the Quiniones ( i cant spell anymore) party house, The Milam building, Downtown Joske's, Cinema I & II at North Star, the deer at the Ft Sam Quadrangle and on and on. I went to High School at TMI when it was on College Blvd in Alamo Heights, and our receptionist has a grand son who graduated the last class at the old building. It is wierd driving up College Blvd and seeing the rock entry but no school. And Alamo Cement with a shopping center in it.

[Primo]

I had forgot about the barber shop in North Star Mall. The blue tile foutain you speak of...was it in front of the theather?...was it a tall square..and then another similar sized square was on the ceiling and it basically rained down from the ceiling down to the bottom?
I can remember when Oshmans was near the present day Haagan Dazs...there was this steep inclince ramp that was covered in green carpet that led up to the entrace of the Oshmans? Does anyone remember that? I also remember there was a basement area and the 2 escalator entrace was across from the oshmans(@ the present day starbucks).....and down there was an ancient video game acarde and I think slot car tracks...I just remember all the pot smoking teenagers with afros (and these were white people - think of the movie Dazed and Confuzed) hung out down there and my mom wouldn't let me ever go down there.
And then you could enter Rhodes Department store around there...one entrance was where the present day American Eagle is...and that was their top floor. It had a lower floor...and you could exit some stair where the Eddie Bauer store was...I think it is now a Forever 21. I know it existed.

[940]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

I think the south side of loop 13 was/is SW Military Drive. I seem to recall the loop 13 drive in sign close to the corner of SW Military and IH 35...within a couple blocks anyway....

You're right, johnrex..even on the site I posted above, it lists SW Military Drive as the southern part of loop 13...

Originally Posted by Willsatx

940 you are so awesome, thanks. Now would you have a listing of the handy andy's from the 60's and 70's?

If I find anything here about Handy Andy, I'll post it. There's plenty of ads in some of these old newspapers I have, but they don't always put the locations except a few of the newer ones at that time. I'll look closer and see what I find.

Originally Posted by tcs

People who grow up in SA have something special. At my office in Flower Mound yesterday there are a bunch of us old SA folks

Hey "neighbor"...I'm just north of you in the Corinth/Oakmont area...nice to know there's quite of few of us SA folks up here that still remember how things were before the city exploded in growth to what it is now.

[irnag]

The Piggly Wiggly on Fredericksburg, if I had to guess was at Northwest Center. It's funny, after not seeing Piggly Wigglys for years, I went Texas A&M from 81-85 and there were Piggly Wigglys all over College Station/Bryan.

I remember the staircase at North Star. It was in the boring part of the mall because upstairs there were just offices, no retail at all. I don't recall the fountain being spectacular or anything, just something for me to toss pennies into.