The Pecan Park Eagle

Last Thursday afternoon. Mortimer II headed southwest on US 59, somewhere close to Goliad. He was either rolling on to the last roundup land of ancient hearses – or to a place where all our fire bird beings go to wait until they each shall rise again from the ashes – like all true Phoenicians. My hearse-collecting son Neal and I were headed for Beeville, to the place where Mortimer II shall rest in peace (forever or for now) on the quiet plains of South Texas. There would be time to explore some of the places of my birthplace hometown.

he Bee County Courthouse Building is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012. It replaced the wooden courthouse that had been lost in a fire. Bee County was formed in January 1858 and it is named for Barnard E. Bee. The county seat of Beeville was originally called St. Mary’s St. and it is located about 50 miles NW of Corpus Christi. This photo faces NW from St. Mary’s St. where it corners at the Houston Hwy.

The Joe Barnhart Bee County Library is located at 110 W. Corpus Christi at the corner of Washington St., Beeville’s main drag. It occupies the Albert Praeger Building, built in 1906. The Praeger Bldg. contained the city’s first elevator and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places..

Built in 1922, the Rialto Theatre in Beeville remains on the State of Texas List of Endangered Places with no clear plan or funding for its future. It would be sad to see the old girl fall to the always present indifference to history because this lady really is the embodiment of “The Last Picture Show” with her own small band of dedicated warrior-supporters.

Beeville today has a population that is just under 13,000 with a getting healthier economy based on the staples of cattle, farming, and oil, plus service as home for one of the TDC maximum security penitentiaries. (The view here is heading N up Washington St. – Next we will look at some Beeville houses that are notable to me.

The Beeville Art Museum occupies the old Hodges place on Fannin at the corner of Adams St. The BAM maintains a nice permanent collection and offers an active program for teaching the arts and art appreciation. The late Joe Barnhart is also responsible for the fact this beautiful slice of culture exists in Beeville,

The late Curt Walker, who batted .304 in the big leagues from 1919 to 1930, once lived in this still beautiful home near the Houston Hwy. – God bless you, Curt!

My late grandmother once lived here in this beautiful 2-story place on Cleveland St. She built it in 1924 for herself and her 4 kids (my dad and his 3 sisters) and she built it on the spot where my late grandfather built their original wood frame home in 1904. The property is no longer in the family. Grandfather McCurdy was a writer who started the town’s first newspaper, The Beeville Bee, in 1886. He died in 1913; grandmother passed away in 1966.

My Aunt Mary McCurdy Welder lived here on Adams St. in Beeville until her death in 2005 at the age of 99. This place also remains special to her four children and six nieces and nephews.

This little house on Fannin St. in Beeville was my first home back in 1938. Dad was already three years deep into his title at age 25 as the youngest car dealer in America with “WO McCurdy Motors” – a Dodge-Plymouth shop, but WWII would soon shut that industry down and re-direct us to my permanent home town of Houston.

Joe Hunter Field out ay Coastal Bend College still stands, but it is in need of a real groundskeeper and a couple of tanker trucks of “Rustoleum” and fresh paint.

Joe Hunter Field, August 25, 2012: Get the drift of my previous comment from this photo?

Joe Hunter Field is home to the both the AC Jones HS Trojans and the juco-level Coastal Bend College Cougars, who revived the sport in 2012 after years of non-activty in any sport .

In the end, Neal and I said goodbye (or good night) to Mortimer II on the plains of South Texas ….

… and drove home to Houston. – Have a nice week, everybody!