HomeMy WebLinkAboutEastgate Panel 8Group 8:
Helen Perry
Nina Quitta
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The City of College Station, Texas
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HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
City of College Station, Texas 77840
ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET
I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College
Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and
contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of
original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed.
Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all
claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense
thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of,
any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the
parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties
hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with
Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of
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employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability
of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property,
arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by
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indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in
whole or in part from the negligence of city.
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In progress
John- I want to get your name, say it very clearly, and then
where you were. This interview is with Mrs. Perry, in room 102
in the College Station Conference Center, 1300 George Bush
Drive, in College Station. Today is the 27th of September,
1995. Would you mind giving us your name and where you live
now?
Helen- I'm Helen Thomas Perry, Mrs. John Perry, I live at 516
Kyle. My parents, Dr. and Mrs. F.L. Thomas, lived at 1309
Walton Drive. That was one of the first communities built in
College Station. My parent's home was built in '39 and I
moved into that from the campus, when I was fifteen. And in
1950 my husband and I built our house right next to my parents'
home, on Kyle next door.
John- Where were you born? On the campus?
Helen- My parents lived on the campus and I was born in St.
Joseph's Hospital, and papa rode the trolley the night I was
born in 1925.
John- When were you married?
Helen- I was married in 1946 to an Army engineer lieutenant,
and we traveled quite a lot before he got out of the service, my
first child was born in the Panama Canal zone, and my mother
and dad flew down. I was the youngest of five children. This is
a picture of their home I did, which was chosen and a winner for
the Historical Homes Calendar. The home has an historical
marker on the front. By the way, the original of this drawing
hangs right down the hall.
John- The Frank Lincoln Thomas home?
Helen- Yea, I'm glad you remembered that. So as a senior in
high school, I lived in that home, I went to college, I was the
youngest of five. I lived on campus on what was called Quality
Road, Throckmorton now. And when they moved all the houses
off campus, mother and daddy started looking. They found this
lot covered with trees in College Hills. Actually its two lots, their
home was built in the middle of two lots and they fell in love with
it, and they planned to build. Ole Martinson was a wonderful
contractor. He was a Swedish contractor, one of the finest in
the area. From my dad's office on campus there was nothing
built in between and he could see the sun shining on the roof, it
was just beautiful. I think it was the only house in the area that
had a copper roof. As a senior in high school a friend's father
was taking me home one afternoon. We had just moved, and
he said, "Why did you want to move out in the boon docks, this
is so far. What do they have to do, pipe day light into you all ?"
And now I look at the town and all the different subdivisions. By
the way I went to high school in this one (picture), grade school
and high school, except for my senior year both were on
campus. High school was in an abandoned A &M dormitory.
John- Let me say something, your mother was on a committee
for Recreation and Parks?
Helen- Yes, they named Thomas Park for her.
John- She's a wonderful lady. And we'll hear more about that.
Helen- She had a lot of talents.
John- Well Nina would you introduce yourself for the camera
and for the tape recorder. Very clearly and slowly and spell
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your last name, because it's a little bit different and where you
live now.
Nina- I'm Nina Quitta. I've been married to Alfon Quitta and
moved to College Station in '46. And our address is 909
Ashburn, College Station. I spell my name Quitta, it's Q- U -I -T-
T-A. North Gate and I worked there for a few years and we
have 3 daughters and they all went to school here. This
building was built in the 50's.
John- We used to have ice cream festivals there, do you
remember that? This '46 was earlier than that.
Nina- It was earlier than that...because they were in 10,11,12
grades. Three daughters, they all played basketball here. And
my oldest daughter is a teacher who used to work here, and
lives in Bryan.
John- Tell us about the area where you lived, who were some
of...
Nina- Well when we first moved here in '46 we lived on the
Dabrovolny Place, well they had a little cattle farm. A little
house where we live now. On Kyle Street, the Robinsons,
Frank and Alene Robinson, lived next door. Who then lived
next door, it was Charlie Armstrong family. But he then lived
there. On Ashburn we had the Ondrasek, lived their, Robert
and Emmie and Anna Morris Whitely, George...next door to our
garage, it was just Penny and her husband and when we
moved there they lived there and when they moved away, it was
more like they rent that house and like every 2 or 3 or 4 years it
was somebody.
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John- Did you have any kind of parties or festival type, locals?
Nina- For the community?
John- Yeah, or neighborhood parties?
Helen- Not really, the Lelands and Munsons soon built on
Walton Drive after my parents did, the land behind us was
owned by farmers named Dominik, Dominik Street is now
named for them. That was all virgin territory. They were
wonderful people, there were three brothers, Joe, Albert, and
Victor. Joe married and lived further back on the bypass, but
Albert and Victor lived right behind us, with Albert's wife, Louise.
My children had the best of two worlds. The Dominik's sort of
"adopted" my children. They enjoyed the farm life behind us
and then they had the city life on our side of the fence. We
found Victor when he died. All of their farm land was sold to Mr.
Culpepper. We have pictures of log cabins on their farm over
one hundred years old. And College Station never should have
destroyed those buildings. It was very fascinating to learn their
way of life. And as I said, they more or less adopted my three
children, John, Judy, and Joan. Louise died recently. Albert
died when he was living on Walton Drive, Victor died on the
farm, my husband and I found him. Joe's daughter was
Christine, and last I knew she lived on the end of Dominik Lane.
John- Period of time second World War. What kind of a day
would you say you had, could you describe one of your early
days on Walton Drive.
Helen- There were no real neighborhood parties. What kind?
John- Get togethers?
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Helen- No not that I ever recall in College Hills.
John- What did ya'll do for entertainment?
Helen- Well backyard dinners, for the people who knew each
other well. My dad planted the pine trees in his front yard and
mine. Behind his home there were 3 trees and there was
something about this area where it was hard to grow grass.
Albert Dominik said, "Oh yes that was part of the farm, the land
grant farm, and they had hog killing and boiled syrup that fire
burned there all the time ". Dad learned an awful lot from the
Dominik's about this area. And the Dominik's log cabin which
was located on Texas Avenue. We had a horse for a while that
we kept on Dominik Land. Dad had a garden on my lot. We
had a playhouse, mother called it "Tinkerbell ", and it was a
playhouse for all the grandchildren. Mother got it from the
Duncan's on the A &M campus and moved it over.
John- Is that who Duncan Hall is named from?
Helen- Yes.
John- Will you tell us any stories that are of interest to you?
Helen- Of course they are all interesting.
John- Well they are all special. Where did your folks come
from?
Helen- I have a strange combination. Papa is a Yankee from
Massachusetts and mother is a southerner from Alabama, and
how they got together, I never knew but it worked. And then
they moved from Auburn, Alabama where he was teaching to
College Station.
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John- When did he die? What year?
Helen- In 1987, he was very quiet, shy. She was the outgoing
one and he was the quiet one. Their home was called "The
Story Book House ". The library was floor to ceiling children's
books. And all the neighbor children (you asked me what they
did), they came here to read in the library. Mother was called
on WTAW Radio broadcasts "The Story Book Lady" and that's
"The Story Book House ".
John- I think the reason when I was chairmen of the Parks and
Recreation Committee and she was on that committee because
of her love of poetry and books and reading. We tried very hard
to get a caboose, a railroad caboose, because at that time they
were going away from using them on the trains and we tried
very hard to find one that we could put on that upper part of that
Thomas Park, and use it as the Thomas Library.
Helen- When they died we were interested in turning their
house into a children's library and we were told we couldn't do
it. We wanted to give this, we just needed to have a librarian.
The woman could live upstairs, and all downstairs would be little
reading rooms, little kitchen, and the library. And they said no.
I kind of wish we could have been able to do it because, mother
would have loved this, so would papa. We really went to the
city and asked them to take the home. That was a family wish.
I had to get rid of all those books, very difficult. I offered them
to the College Station Library and the Bryan Library and they
said they had to be rebound and they didn't have the money.
John- Did ya'll go to movies at all?
6
Helen- Yes. Oh, by the way College Hills had a motel. The
Blue Top Courts. That was the only motel out here, except for
Aggieland Inn. Everything else was in Bryan. The Blue Top
Courts and the !/annoy Restaurant were something special.
They faced Texas Avenue.
John- Where were they located specifically?
Helen- At East Gate. By the way, I had to say Bryan, Texas is
where I was born. I don't feel like I was born in Bryan, I feel like
I was born in College Station. But I put down Bryan at St.
Joseph's, that was the old St. Joseph.
John- But was it called St. Joseph Hospital back then?
Helen- Yes, well they closed down the one on the west side
when they opened the new one. I didn't know that the sisters of
St. Francis were there but it was called St. Joseph's.
John- Well did you ever go to any Aggie games?
Helen- Kyle Field was in our back yard so of course we went to
all of them.
John- Games that they played on campus? That you
participated in?
Helen- We had horse shows and the only mounted girl scout
troop in the U.S.
Nina- Luke and Charlie's was a grocery store where we did
shopping. I think the campus theater was open.
Helen- There were no clothing stores.
John- Did you have credit?
Helen- Well you could charge, yes.
Nina- Yes, I think so, yes.
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Helen- In fact you could charge everything.
Nina- There were some pharmacies, and there was a drug
store. I'd go eat in there sometimes, but I took my lunch with
me, and I used to work at Black's Pharmacy too, you know. I
saw her a while ago, I hadn't seen her in a long time. Mr. and
Mrs. Black were very nice people. I enjoyed working for them.
They had a grocery store?
John- In your homes, what kind of appliances did you have?
Helen- Not air conditioning.
Nina- We had a kerosene stove, I tried making angel food
cake and failed every time. We had a little attic fan, we had air
conditioners in the windows later.
Bob- I want to know how you did your laundry.
Helen- There were no provisions in the house for laundry. It
was done in a black pot over a wood fire in the back yard.
Helen- We had chickens. My daddy raised chickens.
John- Fresh eggs?
Helen- Yes, fresh eggs and fried chicken. Dad loved keeping
chickens.
John- You had a typical holiday dinner with chicken.
Helen- Probably with triple cream pie. Our maid Minnie
Jackson lived on the back of the lot in her own home. She
came to my wedding and I went to hers. I was her maid of
honor. When the maid moved out, Daddy turned it into an
apartment and rented it to college students. Many of the
houses that were built in the 30's had no provision for laundry
anywhere.
Helen- A big black pot was what they used.
Bill- Many people connected with the university used the
laundry on campus.
Helen- We didn't.
Bill- We didn't either. We always had our own laundry, but I
got to thinking that the homes I went into never had provisions
for laundry.
Helen- I hadn't thought about that, but that's true. The laundry
was washed and hung out to dry, and then the laundress came
in and ironed the next day. It was a two day thing.
Bill- We built it in '37 we did have laundry inside the house.
Helen- Came in and washed and ironed. This in your backyard
for a little while in a big black pot. They would stir it with a
broom handle. That was a hard way to get clothes clean. We
had rugs, I imagine the smaller ones were taken out and beaten
on the clothes lines, and we did have clothes lines. But the big
ones were just vacuumed. We had hard wood floors. And area
rugs.
John- Did you ever have stretch curtains?
Helen- No, but I sure saw my mother -in -law do it. She had a
stretcher.
John- Do you remember that copper roof?
Bill- I do and I've asked other people if they remembered it. I'd
about decided it was an invention of my mind.
John- What were your business hours?
Nina- They were 8 to 5, Friday early.
John- Saturday and Sunday?
9
Nina- Saturday, not Sunday.
John- Why didn't you work on Sunday?
Nina- I don't know, but I didn't.
John- Blue Law?
Bill- Even before the Blue Law, the world closed up at 6:00
AM.
Nina- It's the only day we had to rest, wash, and iron. You
were speaking of, you had to starch everything. Everybody
used starch. I'd get up early in the morning around 2 o'clock
and iron clothes and then go to work, I guess it was fun
because we knew we had to do it.
Helen- Mary Jane Munson Hirsch, Mary Leland, and I are the
people who are still here who lived in that area. There was a lot
of back and forth. Is Graham Horseley here today?
Bill- That's what he said. He was going to speak, he is
supposed to be here, in this group.
John- His father Wendell was a member of our church,
Methodist church. He was the first man- the first person, in the
church to welcome in a new...to the church, I'll never forget it.
Helen- Oh, lovely people.
Bill- Along Walton drive, some of the other houses. When did
the Horseley's build, the Pruitts?
Helen- That, you'd have to get from them. I can't remember.
He did build his house. Did the Blacks build his house?
Bill- The Hohn's built that, the Blacks moved in later. In '39
and '40 were the first houses built. The fact is, it was. What
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businesses were in that area? Back earlier I think there was a
barber shop.
Helen- Haswell's had a beautiful gift shop there. And Shirley
Riser worked there.
Bill- She did?
Helen- Yes, beautiful gift shop. And Luke's grocery store and
U- Tote -Em grocery store. I can't remember what else, can
you?
Nina- You mentioned about the U- tote -Um already?
Bill- Yeah.
Nina- Oh, okay. Our store was on Walton Drive.
Bill- It's a separate building now.
Helen- Is it? Your right, your right. I still can't place it.
Nina- Right where you turn on Walton Drive, off of Texas
Avenue. It's Robinson Pet Clinic.
Bill- Oh a separate clinic between that and the Medical Clinic.
Nina- Yes sir. The Mooney's had a it was kind of an electrical,
no it wasn't an appliance store.
Helen- Pruitt beauty shop. His first beauty shop, his wife
opened it while he was in the army. He came back and they
opened the other fabric and beauty shop. They lived very close,
they lived on Foster.
Helen- I'm trying to think of what else there was besides the
beauty shop and the grocery store.
Bill- There was a barber shop in there I remember, I delivered
the paper in there. In Bryan, it was fifty cents a month and we
had to collect that fifty cents from everybody and I went in there
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and wanted to start early. I remember going into that barber
shop, on the last day of the month, trying to get my fifty cents,
and he wouldn't give it to me until the next day.
Helen- I think three of them. The Lindsay boys were paper
boys. Well there are three that delivered to us for years. And I
was so tickled because now both are my doctors. One's my
eye doctor and one's my physician.
John- Anything else you would like to tell? That we haven't
covered yet.
Helen- My husband thinks he's a native. He's heard so many
stories and been in my family for so long listening to all my
relatives. He figures he's a native. I transplanted him.
Bill- You met him at ASTP when he was here. He'd already
graduated from the University of Virginia?
Helen- No, he is from Virginia and attended V.P.I. where he
was going for an engineering degree when he was inducted into
the Army. He was sent here to go to engineering school. And
when he graduated here, he was chosen to go to OCS at Fort
Belvoir, Virginia. And he graduated from there, we married here
in 1946. Prior to this I was working with the Navy.
John- There never were any churches over in Eastgate, were
there?
Helen- No, there are now. It surprises me.
Bill- No.
Helen- There's one on Dominik Street in College Hills. There's
no name on it. I'm not sure what denomination it is. They keep
their grounds beautifully. By the way, can I say something? It
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isn't going to bother because it's too long ago, but everybody
says "Puryear ". That is not the way your pronounce that name.
Because we lived across the street from the Dean and he's
named "Pureer ". That's the way you pronounce the name. But,
the way it's written, everybody has, now for years, has called it
"Puryear ". He was a wonderful man. Sweet, generous,
crippled. He had white hair. I would sit in his home with him
many a time. He knew I had a button collection and he would
bring me buttons. We kids had a puppet show and although he
never went out of his house he came to our puppet show. He
was a terrific old man.
John- When did he decease?
Helen- I'm just guessing. You'll have to look that up with the
university. I think... Bill, do you know when he died?
Bill- Early.
Helen- It would be before we knew.
John- Oh, he never retired, then.
Bill- Oh I'm sure he did. I'm asking the question, it's been
answered earlier, as to how the Manglesdorfs lived at that
house across from yours. Puryear was a bachelor and they
lived there with him upstairs.
John- Speaking of churches, did you ever go to church here in
College Station?
Nina- I didn't.
Helen- When I was growing up there were few typical churches
in College Station, so most of the campus kids and the people
from the area went to a church in the College YMCA which had
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a Presbyterian preacher, Norman Anderson. It was kind of all
faith. We all went to the YMCA. In about 1938, St. Thomas
was built. We belong to that. Four marriages, three funerals,
heaven knows how many christenings. I designed the stained
glass window for the church. Mother played a part in getting
that church built here. Did you all go to the...church? Your
mom took me into Bryan into choir practice I remember. Did
you all go to the YMCA Presbyterian church?
Bill- We went to the Presbyterian church in Bryan for years
and ten the YMCA later.
Nina- Casey's, an ice cream parlor in the YMCA, was a busy
place. Mr. Casey and Mr. Sparks, I worked for especially 8:00
or in the morning when all the students would come down the
stairs and just come in that door and get doughnuts, coffee, and
rolls
Helen- There was a broken tile floor and I went down there on
roller skates.
John- Were there any local recreations? At that time, I'm sure,
in the early days, the campus was a focal point, a place to go
search for groups. It still is, I guess.
Helen- Everybody went to the University social events. We
used to go to dances.
John- Where were they held?
Helen- Sbisa Hall and the Grove. Movies in the Assembly Hall.
John- Was Sbisa the same hall that it is now?
Helen- Yes.
Nina- Yes.
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Helen- There was the American legion( ?) but it's out on 21.
Mr. Lancaster took a bunch of us to watch a circus setup.
Bill- Early in the morning?
Helen- Early in the morning, just barely daybreak. He's the
only one to get up that early. He filled your car with kids. We
went out and watched them set up the tent - the elephants did
it.
Bill- Did the circus trains come in?
Helen- Yes. I don't even remember where it was. It was on
the west side of Bryan, I think. That was really exciting. They
don't have circuses here anymore.
Bill- Not likely. They're stationary now and you go to them.
John- They have these whirly things - shopping centers.
Helen- We had an airport out here. Do you know that?
Bill- Well, there's land. There's not much of an airport.
Helen- They put a demonstration on out there once. My sister
took me up.
Bill- There's land parallel to Wellborn Rd. Down to about
Highland St.
Helen- Behind Park Place. Where the old golf course used to
be.
Bill- Well, there were actually two places - one was off of
Hereford Street, the other Wellborn Road. Now, do you
remember the golf course?
Helen- Yes.
Bill- Who played out there?
Helen- The faculty.
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Bill- I remember the club house, but nobody seems to know
anything about it now. Are there any pictures of it?
Helen- No, there's surely none in my home.
Bill- I've mentioned that it's hard to believe it was a golf course.
The clubhouse is just off of what's now Hereford St., do you
know anybody that ever played out there?
Helen- I remember going out there with my sister. Virginia
Abbott might remember.
Bill- She won't cooperate. She's been contacted about coming
to this thing.
John- In the summertime, where did you go swimming, other
than that little pond out there? Was there any other place?
Helen- The University. Everybody went to the university.
John- They asked you?
Helen- Yes, inside, not outside I grew up in it.
Bill- In 1932.
John- That long?
Bill- This YMCA building, which is still there.
Helen- Were you allowed in there?
Bill- Yeah.
Helen- I wasn't.
Bill- Why?
Helen- My dad didn't approve. See, when we first came here,
the water was sulfur filled and it was black. Mother hated
putting her babies in that black water.
Bill- The bowling alley was built over the swimming pool. The
basement is still there.
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Helen- At Thomas Park, the kids really enjoyed that pool.
John- Remember the wading pool?
Helen- Yes, I do.
John- It was shallow and it had sprinklers.
Helen- Mother loved that. I hope we can put up some benches
and I wish there were a garden there. They keep it nice. They
keep trees there. Your trees are large. We have planted
memorial oaks in honor of my parents.
John- Thank you. I was trying to think of the fellow that
planted those azaleas. Bob... Anyway, he was the one that had
all the azaleas out here at the cemetery. I was chairman of the
Parks and Recreation. We had a truck roll down the street and
citizens took trees and plant them and we took other trees and
planted them around the parks. That was part of your mother's
plan, Helen.
Helen- They're beautiful. I'm working with Brazos Beautiful
now and I would like to concentrate our efforts.
John- We need to get your pictures copied, can someone
borrow those sometime?
Helen- Sure.
John- We need a system for copying photos.
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