8 replies to this topic

[Doohickie]

I noticed that the building that is now occupied by the private Hill School (on the same superblock as South Hills Elementary) was first built between 1952 and 1956 according to HistoricAerials.  According to the Hill School history page though, they didn't move into that site until "1991: A new facility is built on Odessa Avenue".  So what was in that building prior to Hill School?  It appears that more than half the current footprint was there before it was Hill School.

[Doohickie]

To be clear, Hill School is just west of South Hills Elementary, as seen here:  https://goo.gl/maps/bekccp7n8QD2

[John T Roberts]

The Hill School was originally built as a neighborhood shopping center.  It was kind of like a smaller Westcliff.  It had a Worth Food Mart (I think) which later became a Piggly Wiggly in the center section.  I know that back in high school, when I was riding my bicycle into South Hills and Wedgwood using the Gambrell Street connection, I would stop in the store and get a soft drink and snacks.

[Doohickie]

Ah.  That makes sense.  I didn't consider that it was anything but a school.  Another question:  Up through 1979, there was a building in the northwest corner of the parking lot. By 1990 it was gone.  Do you remember what that was?  Maybe a fast food restaurant? 

 

 

 

Dang.  I wish we still had a grocery in the middle of the hood.

[John T Roberts]

I think it was a gas station.

 

As for the grocery stores, there used to be more.  The McCart Thrift Center was a c.1968 Buddies Super Market, which was later converted into a Winn-Dixie.  They later moved and built a larger store at Westcreek and Walton.  Then W-D left Texas, and now they are bankrupt.

[Doohickie]

Yeah, you've touched on that previously.  You're just enough older than me I think that you remember the transformation from grocery stores to supermarkets.  I was oblivious to that.

[bailey]

The corner of the lot was a 7-11.  There was also a Moreland's drug store, a Mott's, a beauty shop, and Jakes Barber shop which was the last store closesl to South Hills.  Jake West was the only barber I went to from my first hair cut in about 1954 until I was in high school in the late 60's.  It was a regular affair for me and my Dad to go to the barber on Saturday for our $1.00 hair cut. It was a busy place.

[John T Roberts]

Bailey, thanks for the clarification.  You can see my memory is kind of cloudy.  I remember the shopping center, I just can't remember the stores.  Even though I grew up and still live on the same "side" of the city, I actually did not live in the neighborhood of South Hills.

[Doohickie]

The Hill School was originally built as a neighborhood shopping center.  It was kind of like a smaller Westcliff.  It had a Worth Food Mart (I think) which later became a Piggly Wiggly in the center section.  I know that back in high school, when I was riding my bicycle into South Hills and Wedgwood using the Gambrell Street connection, I would stop in the store and get a soft drink and snacks.

I found a post in Mike Nichols' Hometown By Handlebar that talks about the shopping center.  The post is about Mott's but has a section about the South Hills location.

 

The following were the original tenants:

• Gilmore's South Beauty Salon
• Mott's
• Moreland's Rexall Drug
• Worth Food Markets

The 7-11 was apparently added later.

 

The Hill School, incidentally, does not own the plot of land where the 7-11 stood.  3121 Bilglade, the northwest corner of that block, is owned by South Hills Christian Church and is their parking lot.  You can see a yellow curb that delineates the east edge of the 7-11 lot in the aerial view.  When I walk my dogs I often walk over that curb and wondered why it was there.  Now I know.

 

The blog post also states that Nichols lived a block from there:  "The [South Hills Elementary] school opened in 1954, the year my house was built one block away."  I don't know if that refers to where he grew up or where he lived when he wrote the post.