Personal History
A Resident recalls Pemberton Heights
(Note: The following article was taken from e-mail
correspondence between Carol Corley Nelson and Kathryn Miller
Anderson. Kathryn now lives in the infamous Mr. Smith’s
house and he was her mean backyard neighbor when she was growing
up in the 60’s and 70’s.)
All I remember about the Mr. Smith that
lived in the house at 1513 Preston in the 1940’s and 50’s was
that he was mean!
He was always catching my sister, brother, and me going through
the fence and his driveway to see our friends on Westover. Other
than trespassing or accidentally kicking a ball in his yard, I
don't think we did anything wrong. I’m sorry we don’t have a
single happy memory of him.
I don’t remember much at all about Mrs. Smith - just how scared
we were of him. The people to the west of him (1515 Preston,
where the Greenwoods now live) were very sweet to us. (This Mr.
Smith is not to be confused with the very nice Dr. Smith who
lived at 1509 Preston for decades... he is 97 and lives in
Westminster Manor)
There were a couple of vacant lots across from Mr. Smith on
Preston (1514 - where Jill Griffin and Mack Nunn live now), and
we played there quite a bit. Also, there were no houses from
1510 Gaston (where I lived), west to Jefferson for several
years. I kept my donkey where Ova Davis built (now 1514), but
finally had to move her (Chrysanthemum) down by the railroad
tracks when the neighbors complained about the braying in the
early morning.
There was a farm house where the condominiums are at the end of
Preston on Jefferson. Those folks had chickens, turkeys, and all
sorts of stuff. We loved checking on all of that. It is fun to
think about the “olden days.”
...I remember the kids in the neighborhood, but most of them
didn’t stay in Austin. I have never left Austin. I lived at 1510
Gaston until I married, and since then have spent 5 years in
Tarrytown, 36 years on Wooldridge Drive, and 1 year on Harris
Blvd.
We moved to Austin in December of 1941 - just three days before
Pearl Harbor. I was five years old, and my sister, Julia, was a
baby. My father purchased the house on Gaston shortly
thereafter. The foundation was laid when we purchased the house.
Daddy felt that home building would cease for some time - which
it did. That is why we bought rapidly. Mr. Brush, of Walling,
Bradfield, and Brush was a good friend of ours. His firm was
developing the neighborhood, and their sales office was on
Ethridge. In fact, it was just torn down about a year ago. For
several years there were no houses west of ours on the North
side of Gaston and the McCurdy’s on the South side of Gaston.
The Overtons, the Sutherlands, and the McCurdys were already
living across the street when we moved in. Those houses had been
there a few years....
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