Victoria Courts - Victoria Commons (Refugio: apartment, rent, crime rate)

[pastorjim]

I lived at 110 McMonergral (sp?) in the VC when I was in the 5th grade. It was pretty bad in 1954 and I was glad my mother married an Air Force officer which enabled us to move out of there. My best friend's older brother was murdered there and his twin supposedly killed the guy who murdered his brother. To say it was anything but a sad place to live is a lie.

[Cecilia's nephew]

No one seems to look back on why Victoria Courts was created. Homeowners were evicted by eminent domain to create HemisFair Park for the World's Fair in 1968. The plight of the homeowners was well documented by KLRN in an edition of "San Antonio Remembers".
Categorizing a group to discriminate against them for personal convenience is uncivilized.

[Montirob]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's nephew

No one seems to look back on why Victoria Courts was created. Homeowners were evicted by eminent domain to create HemisFair Park for the World's Fair in 1968. The plight of the homeowners was well documented by KLRN in an edition of "San Antonio Remembers".
Categorizing a group to discriminate against them for personal convenience is uncivilized.

While HemisFair DID displace people, it was not responsible for the creation of Victoria Courts.

The Victoria Courts were built decades earlier, and my great aunt actually lived there for a while "back in the day". My mom lived adjacent to the Courts in the 1950's and 60's and remembers when HemisFair started construction.

[LILLIEPAD45]

The Victoria courts was a great place to live in the 1950's, the apartments were new and clean.we slept with our windows open And didn't lock our Doors, I Lived at 221 pear walk and at 506 Leigh St.The courts go worse in the 70's and 80's, but I loved living there and we didn't know anything about drugs, I pass by once in a while just to remember my youth and my memories.

[LILLIEPAD45]

In 1954 it wasn't as bad as the drive by so now days and kids being kidnapped and raped,we also got our. Behinds whipped if we did something wrong, spare the rod,spoil, the child I'm not saying beat them to death but we respected our parents and elderly in those days..san,Antonio has it good and bad neighbors everywhere.

[ranchodrive]

I lived in VC in the mid 50s. I recall good memories of that
place. But being very young, perhaps I was not aware of
the bad things that were happening. If something tragic had
occurred there, I would also have the same negative feelings
as those that feel that way because of what they had to
endure.

[301suertest]

I lived on Suerte street in the the victoria courts from 1958 to 63. I believe Alaska became a state during that period. Needless to say Texans were in mourning. I guess things were better then. The kids in the neighborhood would leave in the morning to go out and play and not come home until supper. Our parents had no Idea where we where. Victoria courts bordered an industrial zone at that time. our playgrounds were the rail road tracks, the sand pits, the paper company, the creek, and a company making huge cement pipes, swimming, collecting bottles for 2 cents, and of course going to the boy's club which was a huge converted airplane hanger. It had (all indoors) a full basketball court, 4 trampolines, 8 pooltables, a complete woodshop, regulation boxing ring with 100 chairs, 6 ping pong tables, weights and speed bags, and some rings that went the length of the club, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. I believe page high school (or jr high) was across the street. We were all on welfare.

It was a safe neighborhood where we would frequently leave our doors unlocked and people took care of their little patches of grass by their apartment. I guess all that went to hell in a basket.

Any body else has those experiences?
Thanks,
Gavin

[ranchodrive]

Doesn’t seem like a year ago that I wrote about the time I lived @ the Victoria courts.

The school I attended was Herff Elementary on Hackberry St.
The courts were not far from downtown.
I went to the movie premier of Davy Crockett which was being shown at the Majestic.
Got to see Fess Parker & Buddy Ebsen in person. This was in ’55.

My friend next door & I walked to the theater. There was no Hemisfair park or tower.
Just old buildings, bars & small parking lots.
Joske’s was the big department store downtown.
There were no shopping malls at all.

In ’57, I went to the Municipal Auditorium. There was a “Rock & Roll” show.
On the bill was Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Everly Brothers & a rising young singer
from Lubbock, Texas by the name of Buddy Holly.


One of the main streets by Victoria Courts was known as Durango St.
There was no freeway just small shops.
And one of my favorites was an ice cream parlor located in the area where
the freeway is now situated by the courts. The courts are now gone.

I used to visit the Spanish television station on Durango (now Cesar Chavez)
and watch for free the programs that were being telecast live.

The station would bring a television (black & white) to the outside of the
front building for the public to enjoy.
Didn’t have a television until 1960.

There have been other locations that I have lived in San Antonio.
Victoria was one of them that I remember as a kid in elementary.

[pamdooley13]

My mom was a public health nurse for Victoria Courts. I once asked her if I could go to work with her. She told me that VC was the last place she would take me. She had to have a security guard escort her to her car when she would work late.

[lisamarie1250]

I lived with my mom and bother at VC's in early 1979- 1982. Neighborhood was bad. I remember my brother and i finding a man stabbed to death in a stairwell about 7am on a Saturday morning.