Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Highland Park: auction, drivers license)

[BudB]

Originally Posted by tclhd

The old main library is now the The Briscoe Western Art Museum

Looks like an interesting place and I'm happy to see the old library building saved and restored. So where's the Hertzberg Cirucus collection now remains in questions?

[BudB]

Since I've asked one question here's another ... does anyone know how or why Comanche Park got its name? Its been out there on Rigsby as long as I can recall which is nearly 60 years but how much longer I do not know and would like to. Somebody probably wrote it up in the old Southside Reporter but when it sold a while back, the archives were tossed, I was told.

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by BudB

Since I've asked one question here's another ... does anyone know how or why Comanche Park got its name? Its been out there on Rigsby as long as I can recall which is nearly 60 years but how much longer I do not know and would like to. Somebody probably wrote it up in the old Southside Reporter but when it sold a while back, the archives were tossed, I was told.

This pretty well explains it Bud!

Comanche Park

I used to see the soap box derby's at night many years ago there.

[BudB]

[quote=satx56;15691203]This pretty well explains it Bud!

It sure does, thanx to good ol' Tommy Adkisson. Estabished in 1914 makes it older than I might have guessed and that explains why my family was so familiar with it. My great-great-great uncle was Redmond Rice jr. who lived nearby thanks to an artesian well on his property. He gave the name to Rice Road out there but the old Rice homestead is long gone now. Family lore says that my grandmother's cousin loved diving off the original bridge there into Salado Creek aka the Slough which rhymes with cow. That old pecan bottom must have been an Indian campground for eons as usual and the fact that Stephen Austin encamped there before the Battle of Bexar makes it extra special. Many thanx for the link my friend. Happy trails, Bud
ps; I never attended the midget races there but saw drivers practice there occasionally.

[RGJ]

I remember going to Comanche Park many times in the early-mid sixties. It's where Highland Park Little League held their annual picnic/BBQ.

[SATEX38]

Dr wWells was my doctor too remeber his office on Clark ( my mom said that he was in the old McCreless ) i took my kids too him for a while before he retired ... ( 20 years later )

[RGJ]

Dr Wells and Dr Burton were originally in Little McCreless and then moved to S. Gevers between Hiawatha and Channing(near the Bamboo Room). Dr. Owensby a dentist, an X-Ray office and several other doctors were also in that Gevers building

[SATX56]

[quote=BudB;15699050]

Originally Posted by satx56

This pretty well explains it Bud!

It sure does, thanx to good ol' Tommy Adkisson. Estabished in 1914 makes it older than I might have guessed and that explains why my family was so familiar with it. My great-great-great uncle was Redmond Rice jr. who lived nearby thanks to an artesian well on his property. He gave the name to Rice Road out there but the old Rice homestead is long gone now. Family lore says that my grandmother's cousin loved diving off the original bridge there into Salado Creek aka the Slough which rhymes with cow. That old pecan bottom must have been an Indian campground for eons as usual and the fact that Stephen Austin encamped there before the Battle of Bexar makes it extra special. Many thanx for the link my friend. Happy trails, Bud
ps; I never attended the midget races there but saw drivers practice there occasionally.

No problem, I was interested as well. I never attended the midget races either but saw them often at night while passing thru. I faintly remember Rigsby Drive In. I'm sure we attended movies there as most others. Most likely pre 60's. Last outing to Commanche was attending a mother of twins picnic with wife mid 80's.

[BudB]

[quote=satx56;15703375]

Originally Posted by BudB

I faintly remember Rigsby Drive In.

As mentioned here previously, I'm working on book number six about SA, this time a history of the Eastside/Denver Heights, focusing on the historic African American experience from 1930 to 1980. The Rigsby Drive-In was a regular movie venue for my family and its screen tower-front with a 40 foot tall Xs & Os game appearing and disappearing every ten seconds in bright red & green neon is burned into my memory. I mention my current book project to say that it will include childhood memories of a black Eastsider telling about his family's trips to a segregated Rigsby Drive-In thru the 1950s. After his dad paid, their car was channeled across and back toward the rear parking area into the "Colored Section". It had no snack bar or restroom but was still a bigger than TV movie experience for the whole family. And it was the only drive-in theater in that part of town offering movies on these terms to black citizens. "Separate but equal" ... think about it.

[BudB]

Originally Posted by RGJ

Dr Wells and Dr Burton were originally in Little McCreless and then moved to S. Gevers between Hiawatha and Channing(near the Bamboo Room). Dr. Owensby a dentist, an X-Ray office and several other doctors were also in that Gevers building

Visited Dr. Burton a few times during junior hi especially when I mashed my tailbone horsing around then falling down in the showers at Poe after PE. The doctor's offices sat on Gevers near Podnuhs Drive-In and the Bamboo as stated.