SAN ANTONIO in 1970 (Leon Valley, Highlands, Castle Hills: houses, neighborhoods, high school)

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by TexHwyMan

Actually, in 1970, the population of San Antonio (city) was 654,153 and it was the 15th largest city in the US.

http://www.census.gov/population/www...0027/tab20.txt

Hello ,TexHwyMan
Do you recall when they took down our giant Butter Krust sign by the Stockyards?

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by satx56

Hello ,TexHwyMan
Do you recall when they took down our giant Butter Krust sign by the Stockyards?

Wow, I had completely forgotten about that. No, I can't remember when that happened. Or the one on San Pedro at Hildebrand.

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by TexHwyMan

Wow, I had completely forgotten about that. No, I can't remember when that happened. Or the one on San Pedro at Hildebrand.

Must have been mid or late 70's. I remember even in childhood days going north on I-35 just past Hwy.90 cloverleaf seeing the " Corral Motel " sign always lit up at night. That was on the Nogalitos overpass.

You the Man!

[huckster]

Originally Posted by gy2020

In 1970 the population was about 750,000 and Jefferson High School was still one of the best high schools in San Antonio. I believe Northside School District still had one high school, Northside High School. But things were about to change. There was a major purge at Jefferson forcing about 1/2 the teachers to move or retire. And Northside was beginning to get more population. Everntually NISD became the district with about 8 high schools and building schools every year while population trends changed forcing SAISD to start closing schools in recent years due to a lack of resources.

I went to high school and graduated in 1961. At that time Jeff was the best followed by Alamo Heights, Robert E. Lee.

I could really tell you more about the early 60's because I moved to Austin in 1963 and later to Houston in 1968. I returned to San Antonio in 1976 and lived here until 1999. I moved to St. Louis in 1999 and returned to the area in 2006. I now live in Seguin.

Moderator cut: derogatory comment Holmes and Marshall and John Jay were already open.
The new northside stadium was already under construction and the district pool was already open at the same location, culebra and 410 loop.
Times were much better back then, less troubled of course.
Moderator cut: personal attack
Jefferson was not even close to being the best school, the best schools were of course -where the money was.
Til' the Edgewood suit.

[GSherman]

I was born and raised in SA. In 1970 I was 7. Went to Maverick Elem. Good school. Shopped at Solo Serve, North Star Mall and Wonderland (now Crossroads. Ate at Jims, Hungry Farmer (Closed) and Qunicy's downtown (Closed). The riverwalk was just a river. Couple of places to eat. Not like it is now. Miss SA and go back once a year.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by wCat

I don't know of one book that would target that time period. But I know a LOT of resources that would provide you with enough references, photos, maps and articles to write one. Hint: these are not in one place. Took me 10 years to find what I have, and I'm still hunting! My favorite hobby....

I just got into this hobby over a year ago and wCat is right, there is no one good source. You have to find bits and pieces of this stuff by looking every where. Used book stores and libraries are a good start. There are more than a few gems on the internet, but it's hard to find them. All in all it does take a lot of time and $$$. The early 1970's has proven a particualarly tough era for me to get actual photographs of favorite places. What I've found I've posted on Gone But Not Forgotten. I'm always hunting for more. Just this past holiday weekend I spent Saturday hitting used bookstores on Broadway and downtown looking for old maps of the city.

Of course, if you're married, your wife will first think of you as a crazy person for awhile until phase II, where they just roll their eyes at you.

And if you are like Primo and me who sometimes like to out on "Field Excursions" (we call them "psycho nut job incursions") to some of these forgotten places, get used to hearing the phrase "I'm not bailing you out of jail!" when you leave the house. Not that we ever go anywhere.....questionable.

[Merovee]

Reposting on this thread with permission from a mod since the other two threads were closed due to the OPs (I believe those were the reasons).

Blockbusting is one of the reasons the city began to change before the 1970's but the pattern that began then continued into the 1970's and well after.

Jefferson and Harlandale, for example, were newer areas in the 1930's. The subdivisions there had restrictive covenants where houses could not be sold or rented to those not of the "Caucasian race."

Anglos and Mexicans in the making of Texas, 1836-1986 by David Montejano pg 265 (or search these terms in Google Books: Jefferson Harlandale covenants)

It was after WW2 when these covenants were lifted by real estate agents who would sell one house to a minority and then tell everyone else on the block that it was going to be desegregated, go into decline, and so before the value of the home would drop it would be best to sell and move to a newer subdivision.

This allowed real estate agents to not only sell newer homes in the suburbs but also resell the older homes at high prices to minorities. More profits.

This was nationally covered in an issue of the Saturday Evening Post in July of 1962 in an article entitled "Confessions of a Block-Buster."

Confessions of a Block-Buster - Norris Vitchek is a Chicago real-estate agent who moves Negro families into all-white blocks - he reveals how he reaps enormous profits from racial prejudice

The Saturday Evening Post, July 14 - July 21, 1962 *DE GAULLE VS RAINIER / WARREN BEATTY / SANDY KOUFAX*

Of course in time with the emergence of "black flight", that is middle class and professional blacks wanting to move away from the inner-city, the suburbs are now integrated. In San Antonio itself the concept of black flight took a different form with respect to our own ethnic composition. This all only leaves us with the problem of decaying inner cores in the city and vehicular dependent suburbs and all the problems both bring.

Here in San Antonio by the 1970's many of the older subdivisions, which were once the new subdivisions, began to become part of the inner-city themselves. This in turn led to newer developments farther out. In part this is still occurring but without the racial issues of yesteryear but because of socioeconomic factors. As when the Victoria Courts were closed down and they moved many of those residents throughout the city into apartments when HUD started leasing apartment units for the first time.

Long ago Highland Park was one of the old money areas in the city before many of the residents relocated to Alamo Heights. My own parents moved into the Highland Park area in the mid-70's, right when others said it started going downhill, or was that in the 60's? The house itself was built in 1945 so it was one of the newer areas of Highland Park just north of Fair Ave, in fact I never really considered it Highland Park.

There were still quite a few white homeowners but by the mid-80's that had changed leaving just a few. Connell Middle School in the mid-80's was mainly Mexican-American while Rogers Middle School (Highland Hills and Pecan Valley areas) was known as the "white school". My mother moved into that area so I transferred. By the mid-90's that had changed and today there are many Mexican immigrants in the Highland Hills area.

Some of the older families are still around in very few numbers and by now I am starting to feel like one of the old families (not the oldest) too since I have seen so much change. Not sure if I would want to live in the home I grew up in but nearby is good enough to keep me grounded even if most of my family has moved to the far, far NW side. It certainly is not as safe as it was in the 1970's and early 80's but maybe a bit safer than it was in the 90's which was a terrible time for many parts of the city.

Quite fascinating to see the many changes within our cities history and I wonder how much growth and changing demographic we will see in the next forty years?

There are links to two census tract maps of San Antonio, one from 1970 and another from 1980, on another post. (link)

There is an even bigger census tract map for our city in 1970 which displays low-income neighborhoods but by default shows the middle and upper-class neighborhoods as well but without differentiating between those. I grew up in tract 1407 starting in the mid-1970's. The map can be found on page 11 in the following link below.

San Antonio, Texas (Part) 1970 Low-Income Neighborhoods

If you find any tract number listed above you can cross-reference it on the following map to even gather more data starting on page 11 and ending on page 158.

San Antonio, Texas 1970 Census Tracts

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by gy2020

In 1970 the population was about 750,000 and Jefferson High School was still one of the best high schools in San Antonio. I believe Northside School District still had one high school, Northside High School. But things were about to change. There was a major purge at Jefferson forcing about 1/2 the teachers to move or retire. And Northside was beginning to get more population. Everntually NISD became the district with about 8 high schools and building schools every year while population trends changed forcing SAISD to start closing schools in recent years due to a lack of resources.

I went to high school and graduated in 1961. At that time Jeff was the best followed by Alamo Heights, Robert E. Lee.

I could really tell you more about the early 60's because I moved to Austin in 1963 and later to Houston in 1968. I returned to San Antonio in 1976 and lived here until 1999. I moved to St. Louis in 1999 and returned to the area in 2006. I now live in Seguin.

I've wondered how the displaced residents of the Hemisfair area (downtown) felt when they were told to vacate their homes? did the City buy them out? force them to leave? was there an outcry from these people? did they just passively go along with it?

[Merovee]

That is a very good question. You made the same inquiry in this thread here (link) and a couple of partial answers were given but hopefully a few more posters who were already born then can offer additional first hand accounts or information.

[RGJ]

The city with either federal help and money(or both) purchased the homes and businesses through eminent domain process. So, they were forced to sell. Some were glad to sell, others were not. Some buildiings were kept, but most were razed.

Same thing happened when they built IH37/281 and IH10/90 through those areas. Same thing happened when they expanded Brackenridge(Wheatley) High school in the late 60's.