Food 4 thought
What was at the La Bahia location?
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Q. The building that's now the home of La Bahia Restaurant was formerly occupied by Maverick Clarke Office Products. Was it originally a Ford Motor dealership? Can you tell me what was at this location?
Since we uncovered a mass of very old and sawed cow bones buried in the parking lot, we surmised that the site may have once been a meat processing center. Of interest, the palm tree we planted over the old cow bones has grown twice as fast as the other palm trees planted around the parking lot.
Buz Maxwell
A. Henry Kinney, the town's founder, operated a beef-packing plant on Water Street about 1850 in the block where the Nueces Hotel was later built. I don't know of another meat packery in the downtown area. In the 1880s and 1890s, the La Bahia site was where photographer Louis de Planque had his home and photo studio. I think the studio was where La Bahia is and his home was where Dentoni's Pizza is now.
De Planque would put photos of the town and people on display in his studio windows. People liked to stroll down William to look at them. There was a Roy Murray Motors there in the 1930s.
Q. My mother remembers a restaurant in downtown Corpus Christi in the 1940s. She believes the name was Miller's Grill and thinks it was on Chaparral. Do you have any information about this restaurant? She has fond memories of the place.
Elaine S. Lingle
A. It was on the north side of Lawrence Street, around the corner from the Centre Theatre. Down the block and across the street was Merrill's Sandwich Shop. Miller's rivaled Shoop's Grill for having the best seafood in town, according to my friend, Cecil Ferrell, who said he tried more than once to get someone at Miller's to reveal their recipe for the breading on fried shrimp, but he never got it.
Q. Wasn't there a Cage's Hardware on Leopard Street? Was there a restaurant on Peoples called Eat-A-Bite, next to the Oyster Bar? And wasn't there an orange juice bar that sold sandwiches on Peoples?
Peggy Nelson
A. Cage's had a big farm implement store and warehouse on Leopard Street, near the Lester Street intersection. It was called Cage Implement Co.
The Eat-A-Bite in 1940, according to the City Directory, was down on Chaparral, near the Givens Apartments. Perhaps it moved later.
In 1951, the Oyster Bar restaurant was in the middle of the block on Peoples, across the street from the Furman Building. I think Sherman's Orange Oasis was in that same block, but across the street.
Q. Do you have any information on Rand Morgan? I know he owned a cotton gin and became wealthy from oil. What time frame did he live in? When did he die? Where was the big oil find?
Jeffrey Lee
A. Randolph Morgan came to Corpus Christi in 1918 from Italy, Texas. He bought farmland in the Saxet area, part of the old Dunn holdings. This became the site of the first major oil discovery in Corpus Christi.
Gas was discovered in the Saxet area in the early 1920s. Then, on Aug.16, 1930, the Dunn No. 6 hit the first pocket of oil in Nueces County.
Rand Morgan died on Nov. 23, 1963. He left an estate valued at $2 million to his daughter by his second marriage, Mrs. Hayden Head, and her son Randy Farenthold. His daughter by his first marriage, Mrs. Elmer Campbell, unsuccessfully contested the will.
Q. Are you related to the R. Givens who produced candles here in the 1890s? I own one of these; they show up fairly regularly on eBay.
Grady Price Blount
A. No relation, but Royal Givens was a prominent merchant in Corpus Christi in the 19th century. He shipped seafood (live and canned) all over the world.
I recently looked up information for a radio script on the disastrous fire that burned a large part of downtown Corpus Christi in 1892. One of the structures destroyed was Royal Givens' grocery store in the 200 block of Chaparral. This fire, by the way, led the city to establish its first municipal water system, with untreated water piped in from the Nueces River.
Royal Givens' residence was on Taylor Street in the old R.C. Russell house, next to the Church of the Good Shepherd. It was at the Russell place where ex-Confederates had to take the "Ironclad Oath" of loyalty to the Union before they could vote. For years, it was called the Ironclad Oath house.
Murphy Givens, Viewpoints editor, can be reached at 886-4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com. His radio commentary airs on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday on KEDT (90.3 FM) and KVRT-Victoria (90.7 FM).
.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Q. The building that's now the home of La Bahia Restaurant was formerly occupied by Maverick Clarke Office Products. Was it originally a Ford Motor dealership? Can you tell me what was at this location?
Since we uncovered a mass of very old and sawed cow bones buried in the parking lot, we surmised that the site may have once been a meat processing center. Of interest, the palm tree we planted over the old cow bones has grown twice as fast as the other palm trees planted around the parking lot.
Buz Maxwell
A. Henry Kinney, the town's founder, operated a beef-packing plant on Water Street about 1850 in the block where the Nueces Hotel was later built. I don't know of another meat packery in the downtown area. In the 1880s and 1890s, the La Bahia site was where photographer Louis de Planque had his home and photo studio. I think the studio was where La Bahia is and his home was where Dentoni's Pizza is now.
De Planque would put photos of the town and people on display in his studio windows. People liked to stroll down William to look at them. There was a Roy Murray Motors there in the 1930s.
Q. My mother remembers a restaurant in downtown Corpus Christi in the 1940s. She believes the name was Miller's Grill and thinks it was on Chaparral. Do you have any information about this restaurant? She has fond memories of the place.
Elaine S. Lingle
A. It was on the north side of Lawrence Street, around the corner from the Centre Theatre. Down the block and across the street was Merrill's Sandwich Shop. Miller's rivaled Shoop's Grill for having the best seafood in town, according to my friend, Cecil Ferrell, who said he tried more than once to get someone at Miller's to reveal their recipe for the breading on fried shrimp, but he never got it.
Q. Wasn't there a Cage's Hardware on Leopard Street? Was there a restaurant on Peoples called Eat-A-Bite, next to the Oyster Bar? And wasn't there an orange juice bar that sold sandwiches on Peoples?
Peggy Nelson
A. Cage's had a big farm implement store and warehouse on Leopard Street, near the Lester Street intersection. It was called Cage Implement Co.
The Eat-A-Bite in 1940, according to the City Directory, was down on Chaparral, near the Givens Apartments. Perhaps it moved later.
In 1951, the Oyster Bar restaurant was in the middle of the block on Peoples, across the street from the Furman Building. I think Sherman's Orange Oasis was in that same block, but across the street.
Q. Do you have any information on Rand Morgan? I know he owned a cotton gin and became wealthy from oil. What time frame did he live in? When did he die? Where was the big oil find?
Jeffrey Lee
A. Randolph Morgan came to Corpus Christi in 1918 from Italy, Texas. He bought farmland in the Saxet area, part of the old Dunn holdings. This became the site of the first major oil discovery in Corpus Christi.
Gas was discovered in the Saxet area in the early 1920s. Then, on Aug.16, 1930, the Dunn No. 6 hit the first pocket of oil in Nueces County.
Rand Morgan died on Nov. 23, 1963. He left an estate valued at $2 million to his daughter by his second marriage, Mrs. Hayden Head, and her son Randy Farenthold. His daughter by his first marriage, Mrs. Elmer Campbell, unsuccessfully contested the will.
Q. Are you related to the R. Givens who produced candles here in the 1890s? I own one of these; they show up fairly regularly on eBay.
Grady Price Blount
A. No relation, but Royal Givens was a prominent merchant in Corpus Christi in the 19th century. He shipped seafood (live and canned) all over the world.
I recently looked up information for a radio script on the disastrous fire that burned a large part of downtown Corpus Christi in 1892. One of the structures destroyed was Royal Givens' grocery store in the 200 block of Chaparral. This fire, by the way, led the city to establish its first municipal water system, with untreated water piped in from the Nueces River.
Royal Givens' residence was on Taylor Street in the old R.C. Russell house, next to the Church of the Good Shepherd. It was at the Russell place where ex-Confederates had to take the "Ironclad Oath" of loyalty to the Union before they could vote. For years, it was called the Ironclad Oath house.
Murphy Givens, Viewpoints editor, can be reached at 886-4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com. His radio commentary airs on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday on KEDT (90.3 FM) and KVRT-Victoria (90.7 FM).
.
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