Texas, Lubbock County, Lubbock
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Ten years of concentrated efforts by city officials led to the establishment of a U.S. Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Lubbock in the summer of 1941. Built ten miles west of the city, where barracks, runways and other military facilities replaced cotton fields and grassland, the base officially opened in January 1942. Renamed Lubbock Army Flying School the next month as the first class of cadets arrived, the base provided training to more than 7,000 World War II pilots by the time of its deactivation in 1945.
During the post-war years reserve units used the facilities here, and barracks were converted into housing for returning veterans and their families. By 1949 the base was reactivated and renamed in honor of First Lt. Augustus F. Reese, Jr., a Shallowater, Texas, native killed in action during World War II.
Designated a permanent installation by 1950, Reese Air Force Base was transferred to Air Training Command in 1958. Thousands of pilots were trained here in the following decades, but by the 1990s the base was slated for permanent closure, leaving a 56-year legacy of excellence. More than 25,000 men and women earned their wings at Reese, including more than 600 international students from 40 allied countries.
(Air & Space • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Ten years of concentrated efforts by city officials led to the establishment of a U.S. Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Lubbock in the summer of 1941. Built ten miles west of the city, where barracks, runways and other military facilities replaced cotton fields and grassland, the base officially opened in January 1942. Renamed Lubbock Army Flying School the next month as the first class of cadets arrived, the base provided training to more than 7,000 World War II pilots by the time of its deactivation in 1945.During the post-war years reserve units used the facilities here, and barracks were converted into housing for returning veterans and their families. By 1949 the base was reactivated and renamed in honor of First Lt. Augustus F. Reese, Jr., a Shallowater, Texas, native killed in action during World War II.
Designated a permanent installation by 1950, Reese Air Force Base was transferred to Air Training Command in 1958. Thousands of pilots were trained here in the following decades, but by the 1990s the base was slated for permanent closure, leaving a 56-year legacy of excellence. More than 25,000 men and women earned their wings at Reese, including more than 600 international students from 40 allied countries.
(Air & Space • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
On 30 September 1997, Reese Air Force Base and the 64th Flying Training Wing were inactivated, culminating a tradition of “55 years of excellence” in serving our nation. Since 1942, 25,349 of the world's greatest pilots graduated from here, and the training and support they received from Base personnel and the men and women of the South Plains was unmatched. Reese Air Force Base may be closed, but our legacy will live forever!
Founded by Isaac L. Ellwood (1833-1910), inventor who made a fortune in barbed wire, and bought (1889) from veteran cattlemen D.H. and J.W. Snyder an 8 x 25-mile range (128,000 acres) in Hale, Hockley, Lamb and Lubbock counties. This range was used for Spade-branded calves from Renderbrook Spring, his southmost ranch, in Mitchell County. He continued buying South Plains land until Spade Range was 54 miles long. Headquarters (originally in Lamb County) was moved to South Camp (3/10 mi. N of here) after farm-land sales in 1920s.
This “lighthouse” which has never seen the sea, serves as a testament to Coral Gables’ early boom years, a time when everyday practical things could be turned into works of art. Built c. 1923, its design is credited to Denman Fink, artistic designer for Coral Gables. A steel tank was erected first, and then enclosed with a wood frame and reinforced concrete structure designed to resemble a lighthouse, thus concealing the less attractive water tank behind an aesthetically pleasing and architecturally playful face. Purchased by Consumers Water Company in 1926, the Alhambra Water Tower was part of the City’s domestic water supply system until 1931, when it was disconnected from the system and abandoned after the utility company started buying water from the City of Miami. In response to citizen outcry to save the tower from destruction in 1958, the City purchased it for a token sum, thus preserving this unique landmark. In 1993 the tower was extensively restored based upon 1924 photographs. The Alhambra Water Tower was listed in the Coral Gables Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The Coral Gables Golf and Country Club and the Granada Golf Course, once the Merrick family’s vegetable field, were part of the original 1921 city plan by George Merrick and landscape architect, Frank Button. The golf course, designed by the nationally known team of Langford & Moreau, opened on January 15, 1923. Three months later, the clubhouse, designed by Hampton & Reimert, became Coral Gables’ first public building. The six original coral rock arches seen behind this marker reflect the Coral Gables Mediterranean style that helped set the tone for the City’s architecture. The Coral Gables Golf and Country Club quickly became the epicenter of the new community and played an important role in its development. Salesmen, including Merrick himself, entertained prospective buyers there and showed them home sites from its distinctive tower. Crowds flocked to the Club’s palm patio and danced to the nationally broadcast music of renowned bandleaders Jan Garber and Paul Whiteman. The Country Club of Coral Gables, as it is known today, received its charter on October 9, 1935. A devastating fire destroyed much of the building on July 11, 1983.
In July 1899, Congregational minister Solomon Greasley Merrick (1859-1911) and his wife Althea (1859-1937) purchased sight unseen the surrounding 160 acres for $1,100. Several months later, Merrick and his son George (1886-1942) came from Massachusetts to prepare an existing wooden cottage for the arrival of the family. Locals including Bahamians helped plant vegetables and grapefruit trees. The vegetables and existing guava trees were their only source of income until the grapefruit groves began to bear. In 1906 Althea designed a rock house including the original cottage that is still visible at the rear. Named “Coral Gables,” its limestone rock came from what is now the Venetian Pool. When his father died, George took over the groves, added land and dreamed of a planned community. It became a reality in 1921 when he sold the first lots. During the Depression, Ethel Merrick, George’s sister, made it a boarding house called Merrick Manor. Members of the Merrick family resided here until 1966, when W.L. Philbrick bought the home and created Merrick Manor Foundation to save it. The City of Coral Gables acquired and restored it in 1976. Coral Gables Merrick House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1933, this Mediterranean Revival house is a contributing structure in the Coral Gables Plantation Historic District, one of the earliest developments in the city planned by George Merrick. Throughout the late 1960s and the 1970s, this house became a meeting place for those who campaigned for equal rights for women. Resident and pioneer feminist Roxcy O’Neal Bolton opened her home as headquarters to organize numerous rallies and marches and founded the Miami Dade Chapter of the National Organization for Women. In an effort to bring public attention to the special needs of women, organizational meetings were held in this house to establish Women in Distress, the first women’s rescue shelter in Florida, and the Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Community meetings were also held here to create the Citizen’s Crime Watch of Dade County, one of the first of its kind in the country. Under Roxcy Bolton’s leadership, the perseverance of all those who volunteered their time here created a forceful voice for justice for those who would otherwise not be heard.
Site of Packing House
On its winding path to Lake Michigan, the Kalamazoo River separates the land of Saugatuck and Douglas. While the north bank pioneer settlements of Saugatuck and Singapore got their start in the 1830's, it was not until the 1850's that the opposite shore sprang to life. In 1851, Jonathon Wade built a small sawmill on the river. Then in 1855, William Dutcher and his extended family arrived and purchased the sawmill and much of the surrounding land south to the present Center Street. In a few years, Dutcher was producing shingles, lath and lumber. This was the beginning of the enterprise, later known as the basket factory which would be the largest and most successful business of the town.
The School House opened its doors in 1867, replacing a one-room school nearby. Known then as the Douglas Union School and part of a new public school consolidation movement in Michigan, the school offered classes at all grades—pioneering in free high school education. The building served as a principal place for village activities and was designed to be the most impressive building in the village. Today it is the oldest remaining union school building in Michigan; it ceased to be a school in 1957.
Surveyed and platted in 1912 as “Hockley City” by cereal magnate C.W. Post. Although only a barren townsite, place won race for county seat in 1921. The first meeting of county officers was held at future courthouse site — in a Cadillac automobile.
The Texas Legislature created Hockley County in 1876 but the county did not formally organize until 1921; the small settlement of Hockley City (now Levelland) was named the county seat in that year. The arrival of the Santa Fe railroad in 1925 caused tremendous population growth in the county, from 137 in 1920 to 9,298 in 1930. The railroad also encouraged the expansion of agricultural activities in the county, which required additional laborers to work the land. The growing economy brought the migration of many people, including minorities, to the area in a time when segregation was widely practiced. Hockley County Commissioners Court set aside two acres of land in fall 1927 for the establishment of a segregated cemetery for the burial of indigent and minority residents; it was known as the Hockley County Cemetery or north side cemetery.
Built 1926 by realtor Wm. E. Flenniken, this was first brick structure in town. It housed land shoppers when Cochran County was opened to sales of small tracts.
Created August 21, 1876, from Bexar County. Named for a native of New Jersey, Robert Cochran, a private who died for Texas Independence in the siege of the Alamo.
Colonel Wilhelm Pfaender (1826-1905), born in Heilbronn, Wurttemberg, Germany, came to America as a result of the 1848 Revolution. In Germany he helped found the Turner Societies in his birth-city of
Heilbronn and in Ulm. In Cincinnati, Ohio, he co-founded the first American Turner Society, presided over its Settlement Society and, notably, over the German Land Association that pioneered the New Ulm settlement (1856). Besides organizing the New Ulm Turners, Pfaender actively served New Ulm as its first president, and later distinguished himself as a
state Senator and Treasurer and during the Civil War, as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. cavalry. The original Pfaender home was located in Milford Township before the family moved to the city.
It is hard to imagine now, but 200 years ago, the place we know as Wayland was densely forested and the people who lived here, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of the Pottawatomi, lived in settled villages, farming, hunting, and gathering the rich resources of the area.
Upon her death in April 1899, Julia Robinson Henika bequeathed two thousand dollars to the Wayland Ladies Library Association for construction of a library building. Her husband George H. Henika, and mother, Mary Forbes, later donated additional funds toward its construction. Grand Rapids architect Fred H. Eely designed the building, which the Wayland Globe newspaper predicted would be “A Very Pretty and Modern Affair.” The picturesque library opened in the spring of 1900. Although domestic in scale, the building gleans an impressive Richardsonian quality from the random ashlar fieldstone and Eely’s design. The stone used in construction was gathered from a local farm.
Survey of Milton began here in 1872 and post office was established in 1873. Founder, David Harshbarger, later lived on this lot. Named for Milton Reece, first postmaster and large landholder in vicinity. Town incorporated in 1876 with Captain J.R. Burke as first mayor. Captain John Harshbarger occupied a log house 60 feet to north and operated a grist mill to the southwest on Mud River.
