Historical Markers in Lubbock County
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History
Monterey High School
Opened in 1955. Named for town of Monterey, one of the two original townsites for Lubbock. It was founded in present northwest Lubbock by W. E. Rayner in 1890. In a unique compromise in 1891, Rayner joined the promoters of the other townsite to establish Lubbock in its present location. 1969
History
New Deal
The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway, part of the Santa Fe system, extended from Plainview to Lubbock in 1909 and established new settlements along the line. Invited to name two of the towns north of Lubbock, Mollie Abernathy suggested 'Monroe' and 'Abernathy' for her husband, a land agent and official liaison to the Santa Fe Railroad.
History
Peaceful Gardens Memorial Park
In 1963, George Assiter (1920-2006) purchased ten acres to develop as a cemetery with individually named gardens (sections A-F). Peaceful Gardens has grown to over 23 acres and nearly 13,000 interments. Since the beginning, the cemetery emphasized a park-like atmosphere, evident in the landscaping of trees, flowers and shrubs.
History
Rockwell Lumber Company Office Building
In 1911, Rockwell Brothers and Co. purchased land from the Pecos and Northern (part of the Santa Fe) Railway for the construction of a lumberyard to serve the new town of Slaton. This two-story vernacular structure was then erected as an office, with living quarters above for the manager and his family. Robert W.
History
Site of Old Lubbock
A predecessor of present Lubbock, this area was, in 1890, a subject of heated dispute by three factions (led by W.D. Crump, W.E. Rayner, and Frank Wheelock) that vied in the founding of the county seat. Unlike most county seat debaters in Texas, though, these men had no long-established towns to support. Their main interest was in organizing the county.
History
Slaton
The town of Slaton traces its history to the Santa Fe Railroad. O. L. Slaton, a Lubbock businessman and banker, was instrumental in securing the right-of-way for the railroad through this area. When the new town was laid out in 1911, it was named for him. The Pecos and Northern Texas branch of the Santa Fe Railroad line reached Slaton in May 1911, one month after the first town lots were sold.
History
Slaton Harvey House
The city of Slaton has historic ties to the railroad. For decades the site was ranchland until the Santa Fe Railway sought a location for a division point to service trains. The Santa Fe bought the land in April 1911, naming the townsite for rancher and banker O.L. Slaton.
History
Slaton Volunteer Fire Department
The Santa Fe Railroad established Slaton in 1911. In 1919, residents established a bucket brigade to help fight fires. Alex DeLong served as fire chief of the group, which used chemical tanks and buckets of water drawn from wells to extinguish fires. The following year, the city began work on a water system and fire mains, and in 1922 the city bought is first fire truck.
Military
South Plains Army Air Field
During World War II, nine preliminary and advanced military glider pilot training fields operated in Texas; one of the most prominent sites was located here. The U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) leased Lubbock Municipal Airport, and with help from the City of Lubbock expanded it for glider training.
History
St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church
Early Catholic settlers in Lubbock and on the Texas South Plains celebrated Mass with traveling priests in private homes. Beginning in 1905, Father Joseph Keller traveled from Slaton to offer Mass for Catholics at the Merrell Hotel. In December 1924, Bishop Joseph Lynch and the Diocese of Dallas started Lubbock's first Catholic parish, dedicated to St. Joseph. Father M.G.
History
St. John's United Methodist Church
Established in 1939, St. John's was at first announced by Methodist Bishop Ivan Lee Holt to be located one mile south of campus to serve faculty and students of Texas Technological College. Several methodist faculty members, encouraged by Sallie Maud Horn, widow of Texas Tech's first president Paul W. Horn, petitioned for a site, closer to campus.
History
Texas Tech Alumni Association
The first graduating class of Texas Technological College received their diplomas on May 30, 1927. Wanting to stay connected to their alma mater, these students immediately formed the Alumni Association of Texas Technological College. Offices were originally located in the Administration Building and supported by a small staff.
History
Texas Tech Judging Pavilion
One of the first four buildings on the Texas Tech campus, the Livestock Judging Pavilion was the school's first structure built specifically for agricultural education. Completed in the 1920s, it was designed by the noted Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick as part of the school's proposed agricultural focus. It has been used for a variety of college functions, including early basketball games.
Architecture
Texas Tech University Dairy Barn
The dairy barn at Texas Tech University was completed in 1927 and was built to house the cows used by the Animal Husbandry Department. The barn and adjacent silo were designed by the architectural and engineering firm of Sanguinet, Staats & Hedrick.
History
The 1970 Lubbock Tornado
The major tornado that struck Lubbock on May 11, 1970 was one of the most destructive in American history. That evening there was an outbreak of thunderstorms with strong winds and hail. An initial tornado touched down East of Mackenzie Park at 8:15 p.m., traveling northeast through a sparsely populated part of the city. A second tornado formed at 9:35 p.m.
History
The Free Range Era of Ranching
The Free Range Era of Ranching Northwest Texas, 1878-1885 After Indians and buffalo were removed in 1870s, several hundred cattlemen with small herds came to rolling plains near site of later Lubbock, to graze free range. Vital natural water sources were found east of the Caprock, where springs and streams were fed from the Ogallala Formation of the High Plains.
Industry & Science
The Fujita Scale
The Fujita Scale is a tool used to estimate wind speed by looking at the damage tornadoes cause. It was developed by Dr. Tetsuya Theodore (Ted) Fujita (1920-1998), who began studying tornadoes and thunderstorms in the late 1940s at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan and later at the University of Chicago. While Dr.
Architecture
The Mast House
This house was constructed in 1925 by prominent Lubbock builder A.M. Hensley for the family of Dr. Clarence S. Mast (d. 1936). Mast served as a physics professor on the original faculty of Texas Tech University. The home exhibits elements of the Colonial Revival style of architecture and features paired Doric columns on the porch.
History
Triumph Missionary Baptist Church
In the late 1920s in the house of 'Sister' Mecca Davis, Triumph Missionary Baptist Church organized as the second historically African American church established in Slaton. The city, created in 1911 by the Santa Fe Railway, experienced rapid growth, accompanied by increasingly tense racial relations.
History
V-8 Ranch
Nestled into a small, shallow valley created by a bend in the North Fork of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, the 1,500-acre V-8 Ranch contains the headquarters of the vast IOA ranch, which was a 14 by 30-mile contiguous block of land covering most of the southern half of Lubbock County.
History
W. G. McMillan Construction Company
W.G. McMillan came to Lubbock in 1924 to assist in the construction of the Hotel Lubbock. McMillan stayed, and over the next thirty years oversaw over 850 construction projects. Some of McMillan's first projects included the 1926 Conoco service station, followed by completion of the Meadowbrook Golf Course. In 1930, McMillan completed the Lubbock Municipal Airport that still exists today.
History
Willie Lusk Jr.
(1914-1976) Born in 1914 in San Angelo, Willie Lusk Jr. worked as a shoeshine boy in N.A. Brown's boot shop when he was 12 years old. He then apprenticed with Czech bootmaker Frank Urban, earning a daily wage of one dollar. In 1934, Lusk moved to Lubbock and worked for Brown's brother, E.E. Brown, at Brown's boot and saddle shop on Broadway.
History
Yellowhouse Canyon
Known to Spanish explorers of the 17th and 18th centuries - Described by Albert Pike who visited the region in 1832 - The last battle in Lubbock County between white buffalo hunters and the red men who had called the plains their own occurred on this site in 1877 Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Elsewhere in Texas
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