Thursday, December 28, 2017

Westland Park

Westland Park is bounded by W. Water Street, Woodland Avenue, and Elm Street.
It was originally part of the Lewis dairy farm property, which I wrote about here.
You can read all of my posts about the Westland area here.
The first mention of the park is in the Kerrville Mountain Sun for June 11, 1936, when it reported a birthday party for Emily and Mary Carol Busch thus:
Little Emily and Mary Carol Busch celebrated their birthdays last Thursday afternoon in the home of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Busch on Elm Street in Westland Place.  The young hostess invited their guests to play in Westland Park, which adjoins their home, and here many games and contests were enjoyed.
Emily was 7 or 8 and Mary Carol was 3. The family home was 510 Elm Street.

In March 1937 a crew of city workmen began work on Westland Park, including building curbs, work on adjacent streets and landscaping.
In April the Civic League gave a benefit card and domino party at the Blue Bonnet Hotel to raise money to purchase playground equipment "before the summer tourists arrive in Kerrville".  The price for the event was 35 cents, which included prizes.
They didn't meet their goal, as the first playground equipment wasn't installed until mid-September, the Rotary Club providing financial assistance. The June 8, 1937, Kerrville Mountain Sun reported "It is the hope of Civic League officials to have a supervised playground at Westland Park by next summer.  The park is open for the use of all white children in the city."  Only white children.  Sadly, this was common during the Jim Crow law era. In fact, the entire development was originally "whites only".

In 1939 there was a "Clean-Up Week" in preparation for Summer Playground activities sponsored by the public school system.

The April 28, 1977, Kerrville Mountain Sun reported that Westland Park was rename Elm Street Park and gave the following unfortunate report about some park history:
Due to the heavy flow of traffic on Water, the younger children not only use the park, but Elm Street also, and this is a three block street without much traffic.  It is in constant use, and not as much misuse as when it was built.  The original barbecue pit was demolished, wooden tables and benches were used for firewood, and the swings and other equipment wrecked. … It is now well kept and many adults bring lunches to eat there.  There is a deep well, which furnished water for the Lewis dairy cattle, in the area.  The long cement picnic table was the horse watering trough.
Some time later the park regained the name Westland Park.
Joe Herring Jr. has blogged about this park, including photos of the watering trough.  You can read more from his blog here.

No comments:

Post a Comment