11 replies to this topic

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

Westsiders of a certain age may remember hearing what today is West Vickery called Stove Foundry Road. I have a 1969 Ashburn map that has it Vickery east of Southwest Blvd. and Stove Foundry west of it. One thing I have never learned is where the foundry it was named for was or what happened to it and when.

So, does anyone know where the stove foundry was? When it was built, and when it disappeared, and how?

[Buck]

The Dallas News has clippings about a stove foundry in the 1880s and '90s.

It sounds as if it might have been somewhere southwest of downtown on what is now Vickery.

Maybe it's on some old map?

[RogerH]

I think the foundry was just south of where Montgomery runs into Vickery, but I'm not positive. I think I've got an old map somewhere at the office that shows it. I'll look around when I get a chance.

[JOCOguy]

I grew up in Ridglea Hills, I was always told it was near Mary's Creek.
Where Vickery splits to Winscott Rd. was changed when the old bridge was rebuilt some years ago, Stove Foundry continued dividing the Wycliff Addition and Boaz Park. I think it is now Mary's Creek drive.
I was also told it was their before Camp Bowie was (the military instalation).

[Buck]

yes, the road is older than any of the homes -- it used to connect to Old Aledo Road

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

If the foundry was close to downtown it might be listed in the older city directories. The impression I always had, however, was that it was close to Benbrook. Somehow the industrial site that once was "Dave Bloxom's Speed Fab-crete" and now is ADS, right next to Mary's Creek, seems a possibility.

I never knew that about Mary's Creek Drive and Aledo Road. I know that the bridge over the creek that runs through the park has a Tarrant County benchmark dated 1941. Long ago I was poking around by Mary's Creek just past where the road stops and found an obelisk-like monument a couple of feet tall that had been fixed in the ground at one time with the letters ESCRO ROW down its side. Puzzling.

I guess I'll be shlepping myself to the central library tomorrow to see what turns up — if I can find a close-enough parking space. Dang I miss the subway...

[Dismuke]

The answer to this thread's question was recently made available in a link someone put up in the Al Hayne / Texas Spring Palace thread.

http://www.birdseyev...891&extra_info=

Zoom in and follow the T&P west out of town and you will see the "stove works." Looks like they were just beyond where the T&P crossed the Clear Fork of the Trinity.

Of course, the problem is, it is possible that the railroad tracks and the river are not in the exact same location today. The small semi-circle the tracks made before crossing the river is not there today. And I do know that the river just north of the area was rerouted in Trinity Park in the early 20th century. Maybe someone else is better at fixing the location than me. My best guess is looking at that image and a modern google map is it might have been near the intersection of today's Vickery and University.

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

Ah, good work ! Better than I was able to come up with using the city directories. I couldn't find a one from the 19th or early 20th centuries whose business section didn't end before "st-".

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

The definitive story, courtesy of Hometown by Handlebar: https://hometownbyha...ar.com/?p=15130

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

And to wrap up, the results of a search on "Stove Foundry" in the UTA library collection. I think the first one is really Old Benbrook Road. 

 

https://library.uta....earch for items

[johnfwd]

And to wrap up, the results of a search on "Stove Foundry" in the UTA library collection. I think the first one is really Old Benbrook Road. 

 

https://library.uta....earch for items

Thanks for these historical pieces.  When I was growing up on Roanoke Street at West Vickery we called it the "Old Stove Foundry Road."  Going south to Benbrook it was the "old Benbrook highway."  Some of the old shops in that area are long gone, including a small fishing bait shop/grocery store at West Vickery and Roanoke Street.  At one time, near that same location, a company ran a roller skating rink under a large tent.  The only company I remember toward the south along West Vickery was the Speed-Fab Crete business run by the Bloxom family.

[Ghost Writer in Disguise]

I remember a bait shop right in the corner of Stove Foundry and Old Benbrook next to the bridge.