HEB entered into a deal with the city to buy two city blocks the details of which I have no personal knowledge of. They bought out all the homes, demolished them and built the location of HEB #2, there were two notable holdouts but HEB did not care they built around them.
One was a home/workshop and the other a former car dealership. The home/workshop was sold by the family after the passing of its owner. Now the last holdout of what was once Arledge Motor Company sold its property to HEB.
Would love to know the purchase price but in Texas that information is confidential. I do not know how many parking spaces that will add but a piece of Del Rio history was lost. Wish I had known so I could have photographed the old building for posterity sake.
It seems like all the landmarks of my youth are disappearing. Arrañaga's Grocery is now a Medical Clinic the sad part is that even the personnel that work there had no idea it had once been a grocery store until I enlightened them.
Gas prices at HEB on Friday $2.549 for regular gasoline. Saturday they dropped one penny to $2.549.
Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.
The changing world...
ReplyDeleteProgress...I suppose?
DeleteProgress or not, it's what we get.
DeleteSo true...
DeleteSince I only know about the "new" HEB on HWY 90/Veterans, I just looked on the map to see where #1 is. It's so small! And yet it's so close to the big one. How do they stay in business?
ReplyDelete(Although some days I prefer compact stores to walking 5 miles up & down the aisles of the behemoths just to get bread or dog food so I guess that's why they do keep the old location up & running?)
If they already tore down the building, you could take a screenshot of google street view, it's still there. It shows an old art deco building (like a lot of garages/dealers were styled back in the day) & a pickup towing a little bambi Airstream turning into the HEB lot. The Airstream's deco style exactly mimics shape of the old building's extension! What are the odds the google camera car would catch that?
uploaded pic at tinypic:
http://tinypic.com/r/2gxp4qf/9
HEB #1 better known to locals as "little HEB" has a lot of foot traffic and is very busy. Mother tells me that they were going to shut it down once HEB #2 was completed but people rallied around it and drew up a petition to keep it open and it worked.
DeleteSan Felipe Creek divides the city from the more prosperous Del Rio neighborhoods and San Felipe a mostly Mexican-American working class neighborhood. Many of the people that shop at little HEB walk to the store from their homes in San Felipe. That is why even though there is not a lot of parking it is not an issue. Like many in the late 60's we were a one-car family so if dad was at work I would walk to Arrañaga's Grocery for whatever mother needed and if it was not available walked three blocks to HEB.
I often shop there as I dislike the long lines at the newer location.
PS) I just noticed in the screenshot I uploaded at tinypic that the Bambi is perfectly reflected in the window of the old building. An art director or graphic designer couldn't have set up that shot better & yet a moving camera car just happened to catch it!
ReplyDeleteLeilani you are so good at researching stuff!
DeleteLoved the screenshot of that tiny Bambi Airstream and its reflection on the window.
Thank you for the link.
It is sad that soon things from are past will be just that our past and no longer exist at all. Same here all the lovely old buildings and business have been torn down and now these big ugly things have taken their place. We have a Walmart Neighborhood grocery store not far from me and about 2 miles down the same road is a Super Center Walmart. I'm happy for the smaller store
ReplyDeleteIt is sad but inevitable. Del Rio is no longer the sleepy border town we moved to in the late 60's. A sign of the times :-(
DeleteIt seems every location, store, etc., I've ever known has been changed beyond recognition! Even city skylines are difficult to tell one from another any more.
DeleteI suppose I notice change more since this is a small town. Last time I was in Houston I was absolutely floored to see all that has taken place just within my neighborhood.
Delete