Those Places Thursday: Corpus Christi's Harbor Bridge

There's something about driving into Corpus Christi, Texas, over the Harbor Bridge that always says "you're home!" to me.  As usual, I didn't think much of taking pictures of the bridge while I lived there from April 1979 through October 1984 (other than one nighttime attempt from the crest of the bridge, coming into town in my car), but it seems I have taken a picture on every other visit - like this one from July 2000:

Above:  View of the Harbor Bridge from the USS Lexington, July 12, 2000 / Amanda Pape /

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Below:  Harbor Bridge Aerial View, circa 1987 [I think 1984] / Jay Phagan / CC BY 2.0

The photo above is about as close as I will get to the view I experience coming over the bridge and entering Corpus Christi.  That's because I think the photo above was actually taken about 1984 rather than the 1987 estimated by the photographer.  The present-day Omni Hotel (the first large building along Shoreline Drive, on the left, nearest the marina) still looks to be under construction; it opened on Valentines Day, 1985, as the Hershey Hotel.  The Holiday Inn just behind it also opened in 1985, and appears to have a construction crane on it in this photograph.  However, there is no sign yet of the twice-as-tall One Shoreline Plaza between them, which was begun in 1983 but not finished until 1988.

The Harbor Bridge has an interesting history.  Besides the Texas Department of Transportation archives photos below, a number of 1950s construction photos are available in the William H. Parker Photograph Collection at the Mary and Jeff Bell Library at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi.

Above:  Construction of High Bridge approach, April 1957 / 

Texas Department of Transportation archives via TexasFreeways.com

Below: Fishing in Corpus Christi ship channel, October 1958 / 

Texas Department of Transportation archives via TexasEscapes.com

The Harbor Bridge replaced the 1926 bascule bridge (a drawbridge), visible in the two photographs below.  Its 97-foot width was a tight squeeze for cargo ships entering the port, and as traffic at both the port and on the road increased, so did delays.  My kinsman, city Mayor A. Albert Lichtenstein, was a big supporter of a toll tunnel under the channel, but the City Council, on March 24, 1954, voted to go for a high bridge instead -- mainly because the state highway department would pay for it.

Construction of the "High Bridge," as it was originally called, began in June 1956.  According to Murphy Givens' article, "Building Harbor Bridge was decade’s big event" on page 11A of the January 21, 2015, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 

Construction of the Harbor Bridge was started on each side of the ship channel with the cantilever trusses meeting in the middle. When the two spans met they were off by a few inches, which had been expected. One side was jacked up until the two spans fell into line. The new bridge dwarfed the bascule bridge under it. Harbor Bridge opened to traffic on Oct. 23, 1959.

Above:  Corpus Christi High Bridge over ship channel, February 1959 [construction] / 

Texas Department of Transportation archives via TexasEscapes.com

Below:  Construction of Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge, 1960 [should be 1959] / 

Texas Department of Transportation archives via TexasEscapes.com

When I lived in Corpus Christi, the only lights on the bridge were typical streetlights installed to illuminate the pavement for drivers.  According to the article, "One year later, Harbor Bridge lights continue to draw onlookers, delight" by Rhiannon Meyers in the December 26, 2012, Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

The first bridge lights were put up in 1986 by the Central Business District Association, a predecessor to the Downtown Management District. The lights were turned off in February 1998 after numerous circuit failures and corrosion damaged a quarter of the lights.

A public-private partnership between the Texas Department of Transportation, the city of Corpus Christi, the Port of Corpus Christi Authority and American Bank helped relight the bridge...in December 2011....in a synchronized array of colors and patterns.

Since then, the bridge has been featured as the focal point for a Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra concert, that featured a musically coordinated light show, and during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display.

The $2-plus million, 11,000-LED lighting system can be programmed to create color changes and patterns in 950+ fixtures to commemorate various events.  It's a popular backdrop for portraits.

Above:  Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge Lights - 1988 / Jay Phagan / CC BY 2.0

Below:  Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge Lights - 2016 / Amanda Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

On August 8, 2016, ground was broken for a new Harbor Bridge.  The primary reason is safety, as the new bridge's approaches will be straighter, but it will also allow for taller ships (such as cruise ships) to use the port.  The current Harbor Bridge has a 138-foot clearance, the new bridge will have a minimum 205-foot clearance.  The project is expected to cost a billion dollars and take four years.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Merry Christmas (1965)!

Christmas morning, 1965, in the Pape house at 8015 Sharpview, Houston, Texas.  My back is to the camera in the lower right corner.  Across from me in a matching robe is my sister Karen.  My sister Mary is the little one bending over on the left.  Dad is sitting watching us, and my brother Brian (I think) is barely visible at his feet and behind me.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Sheraton Marina Inn, Corpus Christi

Originally I wasn't going to post about the hotel that was originally the Sheraton Marina Inn - until I learned more about its history.

The Sheraton Marina was designed by Richard Colley - the same architect who designed the Memorial Coliseum and the 1952 City Hall.  The 180-room hotel was built in 1966 and opened on June 19 of that year.

Above:  Corpus Christi Bayfront, ABT 1982, with the Sheraton Marina Inn at left / Amanda Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Below:  Radisson Hotel 1991 [cropped] / Jay Phagan / CC BY 2.0

The hotel was refurbished in 1985, and remained part of the Sheraton chain through at least January 1990.  By 1991, it had become part of the Radisson chain, and by October 2004, it was part of the Best Western chain.  The look of the hotel has not changed much over the years - it was blue back when I saw it nearly every day between April 1979 and October 1984.  Back from at least 1974 to at least 1987, you could play tennis on the roof of the parking garage - but that apparently is no longer the case.

Above:  The Best Western Corpus Christi, 18 June 2016, with the Friendship Monument in front.

Below:  Early Sun on the Marina, view from the [Best Western] hotel balcony [circa 29 March 2008] / Karen / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I don't ever remember being in this hotel, which had a restaurant and bar on its top floor with an obviously wonderful view.  My husband tells me there were telescopes there - and he tells me some interesting stories about them!  I chose the photo above from those with Creative Commons licenses in Flickr.com because it was taken from this hotel, and looks like it was taken with a telephoto lens.

The boat in the bottom left corner of that photo is in the approximate former location of my husband's sailboat slip - back when slips lined this side of the Lawrence Street T-Head, which is no longer the case.  From a higher floor - like the eleventh, where the bar was located - you could easily see down into the boat with a telescope.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Tombstone Tuesday: Clara, Rhea, and Walter Pape

This past summer, my second cousins Kim, Debby, Val, Claudia, Beverly and I worked together to get gravestones made for their grandmother and our great aunt(s) and great uncle.  They were all buried in the Pape family plot at St. Henry Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, but for a variety of reasons, never had markers placed.  My cousins wanted to do one for their grandmother, Maria "Rhea" Gertrude Cecilia Pape (1892-1977), as well as our great aunt Clara Martha Pape (1889-1975), who was close to Rhea.  I decided to purchase the marker for our great uncle Walter Francis Pape (1900-1975), who, like Clara, did not have any children. In the end, we all went in together for the stones, which were designed by Gast Monuments to coordinate with that of their parents, John Pape (1851-1945) and Gertrude Kramer Pape (1859-1919).

The stones were installed by the end of October, and the following month, on a beautiful day, my friend Amy Windler got the following photos for me.  The first shows the stones in reference to John's and Gertrude's upright marker, with Clara to the left, Walter just in front, and Rhea to the far right.  We are going to inquire about moving Walter's stone to be located between John and Rhea.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: St. Agnes Girl Ornament

A Christmas tree ornament my parents gave to me when I was in college (along with a similar one for that school), representing my high school.  SAA stands for St. Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas - the school colors were black and gold.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Rodd Field / Bill Witt Park, Corpus Christi

Each time I visit Corpus Christi, I stop at Bill Witt Park.  It is the former Rodd Field Naval Auxiliary Air Station (during World War II) and former NASA Texas Manned Space Flight Network Tracking Station.  It was acquired by the City of Corpus Christi in 1979 (while I was working for its Park and Recreation Department) as part of the federal government's Surplus Property for Parks program (now the Federal Land to Parks program).

Above:  Me at Bill Witt Park, July 10, 2000.                        Below:  Same park sign on June 18, 2016.

In those days (late 1970s), governmental entities could obtain the federal surplus property for free, but the land "must be used for public park and recreational use in perpetuity," with the recipient bearing the costs for any such development.  After completing a thorough formal application process that took nearly a year, the city was awarded 126.97 acres in August 1979, and an additional 9.25 acres containing a hangar in November 1979.  Proposed developments for the original acreage included a softball complex, fitness trail, a recreation center using existing buildings on the site, picnic areas, playgrounds, multi-purpose sports fields, and open space.   The hangar was envisioned as a gymnasium with facilities for tennis, basketball, handball, and racquetball.

I took the photo below at the acceptance ceremony held on August 22, 1979.  Corpus Christi Mayor Luther Jones, on the right, accepts the deed from Edwin Shellenberger, assistant regional director for recreation programs for the South Central Regional Office of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service (HCRS).  Mr. Shellenberger is wearing a Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation t-shirt in the photo, because his luggage was lost on the flight from his office in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The woman to the right of Mayor Jones is Mary Lou Huffman, who was chair of the Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Advisory Board at the time.  Note that the lower two thirds of this sign was incorporated into the Bill Witt Park sign pictured above.

Above:  Rodd Field Tracking Station acceptance ceremony, August 22, 1979.

Below:    NAAS Rodd Field 1943 / SDASM Archives / No known copyright restrictions

The picture above is of the Rodd Field Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) in 1943, in its heyday.  There are photos and stories about this period at the Brown Shoes Project website on early Naval aviation, and Paul Freeman has a wonderful website with photos from the station throughout its entire history.  The original 861 acres were acquired in 1940 for Naval Cadet flight training and as an auxiliary landing field for the nearby Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.  Rodd Field eventually had four paved runways ranging from 4,800 to 5,138 feet long, taxiways, a ramp area, three steel and metal 200-square-foot hangars (two originally, with one including a control tower, with a third added by December 1942), and a street grid with a total of 75 buildings.

The two oldest hangars were relocated from Rodd Field to Chase Field in nearby Beeville in 1954.  By 1958, Rodd NAAS had been closed, and the property was first declared surplus in 1958.  The General Services Administration (GSA) sold portions of it in 1960. Most of the 75-building street grid, at the top of the photo above, became an industrial park, and the site of the two removed hangars, at the bottom two in the photo above, became a rebar fabrication company.

GSA transferred the 136 acres of the northern portion of the base (the part that later became Bill Witt Park) to NASA in 1964.  They opened the Texas Manned Space Flight Network Tracking Station there in March 1967. The hangar housed the station's administrative offices, computers, and communications equipment.  The 30-foot dish antenna was about a half-mile north on the property, near two buildings that, as of June 18, 2016, still stood.

During the Apollo Program, Rodd Field served as a remote station for tracking and telemetry as well as voice communications, and as a lunar vehicle uplink facility to Mission Control Center Houston. The tracking station was closed by 1974, and the property was transferred back to GSA - who, along with HCRS, gave it to the City of Corpus Christi in 1979.

Above:  from a U.S. government brochure about the tracking station / No known copyright restrictions

Below:  The NASA tracking station dish antenna is clearly visible in the upper left corner, and the last NAAF hanger in the lower right corner, in this enlargement from the single frame aerial photo Entity ID:AR1VBVF00020013, taken October 9, 1967, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via EarthExplorer / Public Domain

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Compare the photo above, taken in October 1967, with the photo below, taken in April 2010, of the same area of Rodd Field.  The circular pad for the tracking station antenna in the upper left corner has the antenna on it in the 1967 photo, only the pad remains in 2010 (and only half of it today; a youth football or soccer field has been built over the other half).  The hangar is visible in 1967, only the outline of its location remains in the 2010 photo (and that is pretty much gone in today's aerial photos).  Most remarkably, with the exception of city park lands, much of the old Rodd Field is now covered with subdivisions, like that intruding from the left in the photo below.

Above: The site of the NASA tracking station dish antenna is still visible in the upper left corner, and the outline of the last NAAF hanger in the lower right corner, in this enlargement from the NAIP GEOTIFF Entity ID:M_2709721_SE_14_1_20100424, taken April 24, 2010, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via EarthExplorer / Public Domain

Below:  from page 3 of the August 1982 "City Quill", the City of Corpus Christi employee newsletter

So what happened to Rodd Field?  First, after the acquisition, it was named Bill Witt Park, in honor of a former director of the City of Corpus Christi Park and Recreation Department, 1951-1974.  As indicated from the City employee newsletter, above, that I worked on (by this point I was with the Information Services office, and I took all of these photographs), by August 1982, the park had a "lighted, four-field softball complex complete with a concession stand / restroom / press box building in the center, bleachers, an automatic irrigation system and other amenities."

A second softball or baseball complex was completed sometime after 2003 and before 2010.  The park is also full of soccer and youth football fields, with a restroom/concession building and playground nearby.  The old runways and ramps serving as park roads and parking lots, and picnic tables appear in the trees near the old tracking station site.  The city acquired an additional 175 acres adjacent to the south edge of the park in 1987-1988, which became Oso Creek Park.  The 1.5-mile Bear Creek Trail, completed in 2015, runs along the eastern edge of Bill Witt Park and connects it to nearby neighborhoods, schools, and other parks, including it terminus at Oso Creek.

However, the recreation center and gymnasium proposed back in 1979 never came to be.  The hangar, already in bad shape then, continued to deteriorate.  A 1996 Army Corps of Engineers report described it as “an attractive nuisance to teenagers who frequent the public park” and recommended its demolition, and it was finally (and quietly) torn down between 2006 and 2008.

Two buildings near the tracking station area that were considered as possible recreation center sites still stand.  They, too, suffer from vandalism and decay.  They seem to be popular sites for flying quadcopters mounted with GoPro cameras and other remote-control aircraft (and vehicles).

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Talented Tuesday: Christmas Music

Musical members of the family sing Christmas carols at Nana's (Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape's) 80th birthday party in Chicago on December 19, 1982.  Standing from the left:  Karen Streff, Judy Pape Schaller, Geraldine Guokas Pape, Rosemary Streff Grandusky, and Beth Streff Malone.  Playing the piano is Tai Streff.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Christmas Card Twins

My cousin Ruth's twins Danny and Julie, I'm guessing about 1996.

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: Pearl Harbor Memorial, Sherrill Park, Corpus Christi, Texas

A Pearl Harbor Memorial marker was dedicated at Memorial Day observances in 2007 at Sherrill Park along the Corpus Christi Bayfront. The marker was donated by one Pearl Harbor survivor and local resident, Harry P. Ogg, and honors other members of the local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association who were on or within three miles of Oahu and survived the attack.

Here are the names etched on the marble memorial I photographed (above) on June 18, 2016:

Acuna, Miguel L. 
Alexander, Marvin T. 
Batterson, Robert E. 
Beardsley, Russell N. 
Beamon, Thomas E. 
Bean, Harold R. 
Beir, Edward N. 
Blackmon, Benjamin 
Bowman, Leon G. 
Boyer, Roger R. 
Brauer, Carl M. 
Brown, Eager W. Jr. 
Byram, Richard R. 
Champion, Elmo M. 
Chandler, Hiram F. 
Cochran, Earnest A. 
Connolly, Jack L. 
Cordy, Albert 
Cox, Aubrey 
Crow, Joseph J. 
Crow, William T. 

Dunn, Abner J. 
Durham, Clarence W. 
Eckel, William H. 
Edwards, Ford O. 
Ellison, Len H. 
Eslick, Garlen W. 
Featherling, Howard E. 
Garret, William P. 
Gill, Noel L. 
Grebbien, Louis J. 
Gunn, Hamilton W. 
Harrington, Earl R. 
Hasker, Raymond F. 
Hatcher, Carl L. 
Heath, Davis C. 
Hobbs, Billy 
Johnson, Albert E. 
Johnson, Alpan W. 
Johnson, Donald D. 
Kerns, James T. 
Koch, Leo B. 

Kurmadas, Leo J. 
Lawson, Charles J. 
Little, Clarence T. 
Loyd, Walter W. 
Mallard, C.W. 
Manning, Alfred D. 
Martin, Joseph S. 
Martin, Martin W. 
McClelland, James A. 
McKinney, Joseph C. 
McDaniel, T. J. 
McNatt, James W. 
Miller, Hamilton S. 
Montalvo, Henry 
Morgan, Whittle P. 
Ogg, Harry P. 
Oltman, Forest A. 
Parsons, John C. 
Perez, Jose A. 
Petersen, Wallace T. 
Rabalais, James P. 

Ragusin, Marcus C. 
Ramsey, Charles S. 
Rector, Jimmy O. 
Revoir, Charles L. 
Roberts, Cyrus Lee 
Robinson, Clifford R. 
Seiser, Edwin O. 
Sierman, James A. 
Shaw, Strather S. 
Smith, Jesse R. III 
Spencer, Gaston R. 
Strakos, Louis P. 
Tarnawski, Michael S. 
Timlin, Charles S. Jr. 
Vrana, Leo R. 
Walbert, Herman H. 
Wentrecek, Daniel E. 
Woodward, Eugene G. 
Younts, Cameron L. 

Above:  Pearl Harbor Memorial [8 October 2008] / Terry Ross / CC BY-SA 2.0

Below:  Pearl Harbor Memorial, Corpus Christi [29 March 2008] / Karen / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As of the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, at least four of these gentlemen were still alive, according to a December 1 article in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:  Marvin T. Alexander, Robert E. "Bob Batterson, Abner J. Dunn, and Walter W. Loyd.  At age 95, Mr. Batterson still serves as a volunteer on the USS Lexington museum in Corpus Christi.

Sherrill Park was named for Warren Joseph Sherrill, the first Corpus Christi resident to lose his life in World War II, on board the USS Arizona.


This post was done for The Honor Roll Project begun by Heather Wilkinson Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: A 1937 Christmas Card from Aunt Gret and Uncle Lee

Back on March 28, a couple third cousins, John and Mari, found me via my blog.  They are the children of Mary Ann Pape Bates (1932-2013), who is the daughter of Karl James Pape (1889-1958) and Catherine Gertrude Schwall (1892-1977).  Karl is my grandfather Paul Pape's first cousin - Karl is the son of Lorenz Pape (1862-1932), the brother of my great-grandfather John Pape (1851-1945).

Karl and his family lived in Wilmette, Illinois, for much of his adult life.  Also living in Wilmette was his first cousin Lee Pape (1893-1979), my grandfather Paul's older brother, and Lee's wife Gretchen Anna Reis Pape (1886-1947), an artist.  John sent me the following image, saying, "I just got a framed picture of a card sent out by Gretchen and Lee Pape, probably to my Grandparents, or mom."

That is definitely Gretchen's artwork.  Obviously, her signature is on it (G. A. Reis-Pape), but it's also her style for drawings.  I suspect the snow people represent themselves, as Lee was very tall and Gretchen was very short.  The 210 on the door is for their address, 210 17th St. in Wilmette, which they were living in by 1929 (if not earlier; they married sometime between 1924 and 1927), and Uncle Lee continued to live in until his death.  Under Gretchen's signature is the date, 1937.

Mari explained, "My mother [Mary Ann] kept that greeting card from her mother's [Catherine's] belongings. So John is my brother and I gave it to him to keep as he enjoys Wilmette. I found that going through mother's papers during her last hospital stay, placed it in a picture frame and had it next to her bed. I have kept it the past few years."

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Thankful Thursday: Happy 7th Blogiversary to Me!

A Gresham family 7th birthday cake, circa 1948 - 1959

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.