Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part I (Victoria: company, locations)

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

I am not sure of where Papadeaux is now, I don't get into SA very often anymore, but if it is where I am thinking it might be, that was Maggies once upon a time.

I don't think it was on 410, but back then 410 was a lot smaller than it is today so I could be wrong. My poor memory put it somewhere inside 410 and on the near NW side like Fredricksburg or Vance Jackson, but it was gone long before I was driving and aware of street names.

I don't think it was Maggies, because that was Reid's Red Derby prior to that, and that had been around awhile. Apparently, Janis Joplin played there back in the day. If you saw it today, it would break your heart. The family that bought San Francisco steakhouse also bought Maggies. They started tearing up the facade and redoing it as latin nightclub, but ran out of money halfway through and had to shut down both San Francisco Steakhouse and the remodeling project.

It might have been Fredricksburg. That area between where the Globemart was and over to Medical has been built, rebuilt, and built over so many times.

[GWhopper]

Primo's list has got the ole juices flowing.

Another memory: The place that was Rock Island and then an infinite succession of night clubs on Wurzbach between I-10 and Fredricksburg, at the bottom of the hill near the old Ghatti's, was originally opened as Jilly's Barbeque. They had great food and it was the place where I was first introduced to the concept of "an onion ring loaf". I remember being real saddened when that place closed down.

[irmadan6]

I remember Shakey's pizza. Does anyone remember Fargo's pizza my brother and I used to work there and evers rd outside the loop.

[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.

[Primo]

Actual after talking to GWhopper it dawned on me.....The farm house which we speak of is in the Summit of Colonies North...it is in direct line(Across the property of St. Mathews Catholic Church) of the Stone Arch on the corner of Vance Jackson and Wurzbach...it may have been the grand entrance road that lead up to the farm house with the farmland on either side with the house in the middle of the property? Just wondering.

Speaking of that area...does anyone remember the name of the country club/ golf course that is now Elm Creek. I belive it was already gone by the 40's. I remember reading an article on it. The club house and pool are long since gone, but the little "golf pagotas" and bridges, and retaining walls litter the woods of Elm Creek for those of you who have never been in there. This is where the high rollers GWhopper spoke of must have spent their time instead of hanging out with the 09ers.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by Primo

Actual after talking to GWhopper it dawned on me.....The farm house which we speak of is in the Summit of Colonies North...it is in direct line(Across the property of St. Mathews Catholic Church) of the Stone Arch on the corner of Vance Jackson and Wurzbach...it may have been the grand entrance road that lead up to the farm house with the farmland on either side with the house in the middle of the property? Just wondering.

Speaking of that area...does anyone remember the name of the country club/ golf course that is now Elm Creek. I belive it was already gone by the 40's. I remember reading an article on it. The club house and pool are long since gone, but the little "golf pagotas" and bridges, and retaining walls litter the woods of Elm Creek for those of you who have never been in there. This is where the high rollers GWhopper spoke of must have spent their time instead of hanging out with the 09ers.

I bet you are right, the stone gate and the farm house must be connected. I found some old city maps from and aerial phototgraphs and drawings of San Antonio from the 19th and early 20 centuries on another thread here on City-Data, but unfortunately that area was not part of San Antonio at the time, the City ended just outside where the inner loop is now.I am going to have to go downtown to the county records sometime and take a day to get some records of this area. Also, Shavano Park may have some data, the area might have been considered part of that township. I know DeZavala had a grocery store and post office there (he was actually the post master, too). His only customers had to be the people who lived in the houses we are talking about. The rest of the place was BF Egypt at the time.

Could the country club at Elm Creek be the Algo Differenchie that TCS mentioned? Its weird that you had Wolfe's Inn Resort and Spa on one end of Wurzbach, then a country club on the other. Then later on, we had the Turtle Creek Country Club in modern (relatively, I don't consider myself that old!) times near the same area.

[940]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

I don't think it was Maggies, because that was Reid's Red Derby prior to that, and that had been around awhile. Apparently, Janis Joplin played there back in the day. If you saw it today, it would break your heart. The family that bought San Francisco steakhouse also bought Maggies. They started tearing up the facade and redoing it as latin nightclub, but ran out of money halfway through and had to shut down both San Francisco Steakhouse and the remodeling project.

How sad to read what has happened to the old Reid's Red Derby and then Maggies. We spent a lot of good times at Maggies while growing up there.

Thanks for the list, Primo and GWhopper...after the Shenandoah Roller Rink was remodeled to the Book Stop, I worked there for about a year in the mid 80s. I remember walking through Book Stop on the wood floors that were still in there and thinking about rollerskating a few years before!!

[940]

Originally Posted by Willsatx

I had lunch at Grady's on Nakoma-281 and they had an old piggly wiggly ad from 1969, question for the experts here. Where were the piggly wiggly located and when did they close?

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.

[johnrex62]

Piggly Wiggly is still going strong in other states. There were several in the small towns around in Tennesse within driving distance of Huntsville Alabama. My wife used to have a field day when we drove to Nashville and she could wander through a couple of the Piggly's just to reminisce. I could not get into the spirit of things.

My fond memories were of the parking lot where my mom left me and my siblings while she went inside to shop. Apparently there was not a sufficient toy aisle such as Handy Andy had, or she did not need to get as many things and did not want to stay as long...I don't know, but us rowdies got to play in the car while she shopped there.

[pacific_trader]

I'd LOVE to get my hands on some photos of North Star Mall and Windsor Park Mall in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember the North Star Mall arcade, it was the only place I could find games like Space Harrier and Gladiator. I'd stay in there forever when my mom shopped. Keep us posted!