I grew up around that area on 24 and Van Buren. Of course that was in the 70s and 80s looking at this picture of the water tower brought back memories thank you for sharing.
The house to the left of the tower was owned by my maternal grandmother who also owned the house behind it; where I was born in 1965. It was a thrill to find this aerial photo when Nora Vazquez shared several negatives taken in the 1950s. Those two houses are still there surrounded by UTRGV parking spaces. A part of the compress tower still remains although why the college would want to preserve it is a curiosity since parking space seems of more value and use to students than the ol' compress. Thanks for leaving a comment! ~ JGarcia
.....the lot underneath the tower....is where we would play football, baseball and fly our kites back in the 60s....these are the grounds/neighborhood/East Brownsville Elem School we grew in............
That space is now occupied by a parking lot where boys from the neighborhood would play soccer from the late afternoon into the evening - at least when I was renting an apartment behind my grandmother's ol' house next to the back house in which I was born into this world via midwife as was common back in the day - year 1965
At the end of Jackson St. here there was a dead end Compress gate when I was growing up in one of those houses next to the "monte" or "wooded area." Also, at the end of the street were barracks that were rented out to people, some of whom worked for the Compress during the height of the cotton compress era. These bales were taken away by huge trucks that rumbled down Jackson St. toward International Blvd. There were also railroad tracks for trains that went into the Compress and one could hear their noise when they came in. The empty lot next to the water tower, it is where Dona Carlota who lived by the gate at the end of Jackson street would take her cow in the morn to feed on the grass there and then bring back home before nightfall.
Thanks for all those details about your experiences growing up there. My Mom tells me that Dona Carlota may be the midwife that delivered her as a baby and yes - she lived at the end of Jackson St. My mother was Gloria and her mother was Santos Grant. My aunts Frankie and Helen also lived on that corner where the Brownsville Compress water tower was. My aunt Frankie and Pete "Choche'" Echeverria lived off Jackson St where the railroad tracks went into compress.
I grew up around that area on 24 and Van Buren. Of course that was in the 70s and 80s looking at this picture of the water tower brought back memories thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe house to the left of the tower was owned by my maternal grandmother who also owned the house behind it; where I was born in 1965. It was a thrill to find this aerial photo when Nora Vazquez shared several negatives taken in the 1950s. Those two houses are still there surrounded by UTRGV parking spaces. A part of the compress tower still remains although why the college would want to preserve it is a curiosity since parking space seems of more value and use to students than the ol' compress. Thanks for leaving a comment! ~ JGarcia
ReplyDelete.....the lot underneath the tower....is where we would play football, baseball and fly our kites back in the 60s....these are the grounds/neighborhood/East Brownsville Elem School we grew in............
ReplyDeleteThat space is now occupied by a parking lot where boys from the neighborhood would play soccer from the late afternoon into the evening - at least when I was renting an apartment behind my grandmother's ol' house next to the back house in which I was born into this world via midwife as was common back in the day - year 1965
DeleteAt the end of Jackson St. here there was a dead end Compress gate when I was growing up in one of those houses next to the "monte" or "wooded area." Also, at the end of the street were barracks that were rented out to people, some of whom worked for the Compress during the height of the cotton compress era. These bales were taken away by huge trucks that rumbled down Jackson St. toward International Blvd. There were also railroad tracks for trains that went into the Compress and one could hear their noise when they came in. The empty lot next to the water tower, it is where Dona Carlota who lived by the gate at the end of Jackson street would take her cow in the morn to feed on the grass there and then bring back home before nightfall.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all those details about your experiences growing up there. My Mom tells me that Dona Carlota may be the midwife that delivered her as a baby and yes - she lived at the end of Jackson St. My mother was Gloria and her mother was Santos Grant. My aunts Frankie and Helen also lived on that corner where the Brownsville Compress water tower was. My aunt Frankie and Pete "Choche'" Echeverria lived off Jackson St where the railroad tracks went into compress.
Delete