Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Marshall: magnet school, shopping mall)

[LilyLady]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

...In fact, the owner, James Hill, also bought a restaurant called Talk of the Town in downtown San Antonio and renamed the LongHorn and was it became successful. Anybody remember this restaurant. This was sometime in the 50's or early 60's.

E-bay has a vintage postcard up for bid from a place called Longhorn Cafe at 309 N St Mary's street. I wonder if that was the same place?

[Primo]

Originally Posted by LilyLady

E-bay has a vintage postcard up for bid from a place called Longhorn Cafe at 309 N St Mary's street. I wonder if that was the same place?

309 N St. Mary's really doesnt exist anymore, it shows the old AT&T headquarters which is 175 Houston (corner of St. Marys & Houston). But since that is a new building and the Texas Theater used to be there, I bet this was diner in the lobby.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by LilyLady

E-bay has a vintage postcard up for bid from a place called Longhorn Cafe at 309 N St Mary's street. I wonder if that was the same place?

Yep, that's it! I found several references to it in the Newspaper archives from 1954 when the new owners took over. There were several want ads in the newspaper hiring waitstaff, hosts, and accountants for the new owners at 309 N. St Mary's. Searching on Google, it was right across the street from the Gunther hotel, which is at 312 N. St. Mary's. I don't know when the AT&T building that's there currently was built, but it must have been long after 1954, since I don't think San Antonio had too many buildings that tall downtown then, at least not in any the old pictures I've seen of the San Antonio skyline from that time. The original building must have been torn down to make way for the current one.

Nice find!!!

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by Primo

Speaking of Celebrities in Colonies North, back in the day. I saw Red Foxx (Yes, Fred Sanford ) at the infamous Colonies North Handy Andy.
And this is when Sanford & Son was still a top rated prime time show.
I have no idea what he was doing there. We believe he was probably in town doing a stand-up show at the near by Turtle Creek Country Club.

"Elizabeth, I am coming to see ya!"

Not sure where they were located, but I found a reference to Redd Foxx playing at clubs in San Antonio called the Eastwood Country Club and King Arthurs Court. Legendary Guitarist Curley Mays would open for him.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Not sure where they were located, but I found a reference to Redd Foxx playing at clubs in San Antonio called the Eastwood Country Club and King Arthurs Court. Legendary Guitarist Curley Mays would open for him.

Interesting note: actor Jamie Foxx named himself after Red Foxx. He took on the stage name after someone dared him to perform a comedy routine in, you guessed it, San Antonio!

[GWhopper]

Here's an old ad from the Longhorn.

[AlamoCpl]

Adds George Hill to the gone but not forgotten list.

[wxboy]

WOW! Talk about coming to the party late....can't believe I've missed this wonderful treasure-trove of memories and conversation over the past 4 years. Thanks to all contributors for sharing so many vivid memories.

I lived in the Deer Run neighborhood from 1977 to 1984 on the northwest side between Bandara Rd. and Grissom Rd., below the thin green water tower that always seemed a little out-of-place. When we moved there, the neighborhood was about 5 or 6 years old, with a thriving Circle K icehouse at the end of the block, and represented the far end of the San Antonio city limits on the northwest side. Looks a little run down these days, at least from what I can tell from the Street View of Google maps (lots of graffitti on the wood fences and that Circle K looks very unkept). I attended the brand new Carlos Coon elementary in 1978 before they transferred my neighborhood to Lean Valley Elem. in 1982. In 1978, Carlos Coon was kind of out by itself. There was nothing between it and Culebra, and northing south or east of the school either. Our big intersection was Bandara and Huebner, which consisted of two main strip centers, one on the northeast corner anchored by an HEB and a Winns and the other on the southwest side anchored by what I think was a Kroger and an early incarnation of a Walgreens. There was also a Fargo's Pizza in that center that my mom would take me to every other Friday after her bi-weekly grocery shopping trips. I used to LOVE sitting in the little theatre watching those old Three Stooges movies and some very old cartoons. There was a GW Jr.'s on the northwest side and a Whataburger on the southwest side. I loved them both, but I would kill for a GW Jr.'s burger right now...they were soooo juicy and nicely wrapped in the fun orange foil paper. South of the intersection, where I think there is a Bandara Bowl now, was Woolco's, a cousin of the Woolworth chain and what my memory tells me was the first "club grocery store"..it was called Commisary Grocery or something like that. I'm guessing that HEB closed in the mid-80s because I remember some rumblings of building a new HEB further out Bandara, where the new neighborhoods were popping up around Braun's Station. We were slated to attend Rudder Middle School, and then John Marshall.

I remember KKYX's transmitter being out there in the boonies northwest of us, and the drive up Huebner towards I-10 where there just wasn't anything until you got to the huge USAA campus on the east side of the road. I played baseball at Northwest Little League (off of Grass Valley behind the Dairy Queen), which seemed to have wonderful real-life uniform's and a field with REAL dugouts that you walked down steps to get into! I glanced at a Google maps satellite and the fields are still there, but they certainly don't look like they are being used anymore. I saw Star Wars at a 6 sceen theatre off of I-10 and I think Wurtzbach....am I crazy or wasn't there like a REAL Aladdin's Castle around there as well with a couple of mini-golf courses and more arcade games than I'd ever seen in my life. I remember school trips to ButterKrust, the Institute for Texas Cultures, and the symphony at the Northside fieldhouse, and mandatory swim lessons in 3rd grade at the Paul Taylor swimming pool, as well as many a Marshall/Holmes or Marshall/Churchill football game at the Northside Stadium.

San Antonio was a fantastic place to grow up....I remember at least a dozen good friends from my street alone. We ended up moving to Dallas, and looking back, I'm struck at how pretentious even middle school seemed in Dallas compared to San Antonio. I'm sure all middle school's are different, but I was immediately thrown into a world where if you didn't wear Jordache jeans, Kaaepa shoes, or have a Swatch watch...you weren't even in the suburb's of cooless. I don't remember San Antonio being hat way....maybe it was just my part of town, I don't know.

[homeslice60148]

A lot has changed, wxboy, and you wouldn't recognize your old neighborhood. The whole Deer Run area is starting to get really rough. There's some decent drug and gang activity out there now, and anyone who's districted to go to Coon lives in a questionable neighborhood. The Leon Valley Elementary has since been turned into one of Northside's Alternative High Schools (a.k.a. last stop before juvie)

The KKYX transmitter is still out there, but there will be 300k people moving into that area in the next decade. The tower is located at FM 1560 and Galm Rd, 1/2 mile East of where Shaenfield meets 1560.

The Northwest Little League fields are still being used, according to their website.

The movie theater is the Northwest Stadium 14 theaters on the south I-10 frontage rd about a half mile west of the 10/410 interchange, and right across 10 to the north is Malibu Castle, your arcade place. The Malibu Grand Prix track (with the bigger go-karts) closed in 05, but the track is still there.

You'll also be pleased to know that the Field House, Natatorium and stadium are all still there, but they now have ANOTHER natatorium and field on 1604 about a mile north of Bandera.

Hopes this helps dust out some of the cobwebs, but from the sounds of it, you are spot on with your memory!

[SuperKiki1019]

I'm new to this forum...native San Antonian for 46 years. Unfortunately, I have to get off of the forum in a few minutes.

So for my first post, does anyone have any memories to share of the day the KKK was given a permit to march through downtown SA on a Sunday afternoon around 1982, 83?

I was working in the then newly saved/reopened St. Anthony Hotel as a security guard, I was very embarassed that our city allowed this to happen. I was guarding the room of a very important guest to our city who was staying there during the craziness...Ms Barbra Streisand.

I'd love to know what others remember of that day. I recall standing on the roof of the hotel and hearing the hate-filled marchers coming down the deserted streets. All those who attended church downtown did their thing, left before the bigots hit the streets leaving the city a ghost town.