Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part I (Houston: wedding, construction)

[Torrey]

Joskes is gone a long time now. Now Foley's has gone. I and my wife were upset Foley's went and Macy's came in. We're not big Macy's fans, as Macy's doesn't carry all the same stuff Foley's did. Change isn't always good. Earl Abels getting demolished wasn't a good thing, I was upset it wasn't deemed a historical monument or something to keep them from building yet another ugly high rise building.

[smuboy86]

Hey, I work for Macy*s! Some stuff we got rid of, but we brought in a comparable Macy*s replacement. May Co. Foley's parent was very weak and didn't have the money to make capital improvements like Macy's has.

[Torrey]

Originally Posted by Willsatx

Yeah I remember going to Windsor in the last days when they opened up a flea market in there and Luca's was still in the food court. It was sad because I would say in the whole mall there might have been about 50 to 75 people, and back in the late 70's early 80's it was always packed.

Old man Luca had the best NY style pizza around. Windsor Park fell as a great mall because of all the scum moving up to the northeast side from the invading east side neighborhoods. Gangs of scum bags, and now Windcrest which used to be considered upper middle class is now surrounded by a sea of scum.

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by Torrey

Old man Luca had the best NY style pizza around. Windsor Park fell as a great mall because of all the scum moving up to the northeast side from the invading east side neighborhoods. Gangs of scum bags, and now Windcrest which used to be considered upper middle class is now surrounded by a sea of scum.

I agree with you.

[catriona]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

Does anyone remember the "old" train station at Brackenridge Park? It was located a little closer to the zoo and closer to the main road. A quaint little brick building with train on the side near St Mary's Street and a gift shop at the back. The train side was like a covered port and a semi-barrier on the outside, all made of brick or rock. I think the building is still there. It was really cool. I don't really like the new station. It just doesn't have any of the ambience of a train station. I have absolutely no idea when the station relocated, possibly in the 80's or 90's sometime. I only rode the train when I was a little kid in the 70's. I didn't go to the park often enough after that to notice the change.

There were also little walkways going over water streams where you could buy fish food from gumball type machines and toss down to the fish, kind of like they have in the zoo. The walkways led to the little restaurant which the train station is now located in the back of.

The old train station building is still there, but I think they use it for storage or something. I loved crossing that little walkway and checking out the fish, too. I guess they closed the old station when they closed the road. Remember the road used to go on through the park up to Hildebrandt and now it ends at the zoo. You are so right about it having more ambience than the new one does. The old one was made of rock, similar to the rock in the park. The new station seems more like a miniature ice house that just happens to sell tickets to the train. At least they didn't mess with the train route!

Do you remember the "old" Brackenridge Eagle? The one that looked like a sleek Amtrak passenger train? They added the one that looks like a steam engine back in the 70's, I think. Then they did away with the Amtrak model and just had two steam engines.

[catriona]

Found this on ebay! It's a postcard of the old Depot!

http://cgi.ebay.com/San-Antonio-TX-Brackenridge-Eagle-R-R-Depot-1950s_W0QQitemZ160050554124QQcategoryZ20237QQcmdZV iewItem#ebayphotohosting (broken link)


If you can't load the page, try searching for "brackenridge eagle" on the ebay search page.

There's another forum called RailroadForums.Com that has a thread in the railroad preservation section regarding park railroads. One of the threads is our Eagle!

http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/...ead.php?t=6367

[OzzyRules]

Thanks. Those are cool pictures. I'm not sure if I remember the old Amtrack style train, but it does sound very familiar. I'm partial to the covered cars of the old-fashioned one.

Do they still let people "jump" the train at the train stop over by Avenue B? I'm not sure exactly where the train stop is. Might be close to the Witte Museum.

[OzzyRules]

I don't like the convenience store ambience of the new station either. I don't remember what the old shop was like inside exactly. I know it was smaller.

What they should do is have a separate ticket window inside the store. Just a separate enclosed part of the counter in the new store that looks like a traditional ticket window.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by irnag

wCat, sorry can't help you on the Edge Falls thing, but on doing a Google map search, there is an Edge Falls Road east of Boerne. It crosses the river and follows along the river for a short while. That may be what you speak of.

Thanks Irnag......That's it! We just happened on "Edge Falls Rd" while trying to find it about 10 years ago. That's where we found some of the land owners out there that knew a bit about the history of it being closed up.

I was hoping to find another Edge Falls junkie! My mother NEVER would have approved of me going there! But it was awesome. It had that "Huck Finn" kind of mischievious feel to being there. Totally hidden....lot's of teens having WAY too much fun.....GREAT summer memories there!

[Minz]

Originally Posted by Torrey

Joskes is gone a long time now. Now Foley's has gone. I and my wife were upset Foley's went and Macy's came in. We're not big Macy's fans, as Macy's doesn't carry all the same stuff Foley's did. Change isn't always good. Earl Abels getting demolished wasn't a good thing, I was upset it wasn't deemed a historical monument or something to keep them from building yet another ugly high rise building.

I no longer live in SA but I did live there for 30 years.
Regarding Earl Abel's...isn't that where Henry B Gonzales punch some guy because he was bugging Mr. Gonzales.

No disrespect to Henry B...I was just trying to think if that is where it happened.

I loved going to Earl Abel's because it was like walking into a time warp. Has anyone been to the new one on Austin Hwy? Any comments on it?