HomeMy WebLinkAboutLANCASTER - BRISON PARK SUPPORT LETTERSeptember 23, 2024
Texas Recreation & Parks Society
18593 RM 1431
Jonestown, TX 78645
Dear Lone Star Legacy Park Judges,
It is an honor to write a letter of support for the City of College Station Brison Park for the Lone Star Legacy Park award. My grandfather, Robert Roy Lancaster, along with four A&M
College colleagues, joined forces in the summer of 1921 to incorporate and form the Southside Development Company. These shareholders purchased approximately 85 acres in July 1921
to create the first off campus neighborhood. Members of the college Civil Engineering Department helped with surveying and street layout while Professor Frederick W. Hensel assisted
with the design of a neighborhood park that is now known as Brison Park.
Running through the middle of the park was a creek that provided drainage for the college. A dam was built in January 1922 to create a small lake. For nearly 18 years, the lake was
an oasis in this new neighborhood that served as a fishing and swimming hole, a baptismal site, and even a skating rink during an unusually cold spell. One summer day in the 1930’s
a swashbuckling pirate skirmish occurred on this lake as my father and his siblings lost their mother’s silver chest overboard on their makeshift raft. The chest and silverware were
never recovered.
The lake was drained in 1939 at the request of the college due to a mosquito infestation in the area. Neighborhood legend has it that Mrs. Ruth Clark, wife of the Southside Development
Company President Floyd B. Clark, sat on the dam with a butcher knife on the day the dam was to be breached. Sadly, she was unsuccessful in preventing the workers from draining the
lake that day.
My grandfather helped create this first neighborhood and park. My great-grandfather spent the last seven years of his life tending to the lakeshores, trees, and shrubs located there.
My father and his four siblings spent their childhood days in this park. My sisters and I spent hours in this park as well. Our family home has overlooked this park for over 102 years.
Countless neighborhood children and college students have lounged, studied, played, and fallen in love within the boundaries of Brison Park. In the year 1947, the City of College
Station took ownership of this land, thereby establishing the first city park for our young city.
I believe that Brison Park is crucial to the history of College Station and certainly worthy of your consideration for the Lone Star Legacy Park award. Thank you for your service to
the great state of Texas.
Sincerely,
Brad Lancaster