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Peter Pan Dude Ranch At 6540 South Main St.


Mr. Chenevert

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Hello all,

I'm looking for information regarding a 1950s restaurant that was located in the Texas Medical Center. The restaurant is called Peter Pan Dude Ranch located at 6504 South Main St.

Does anyone have any photographs of the restaurant? Perhaps there is some postcards, or matchbooks of this place? Is anyone old enough to have ate here that can share some stories and memories? 

Thanks in advance. 

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  • 5 years later...

There's been some discussion about what appears to be a pony ride track with some small carousels on the corner of Main and University across from the old Rice Stadium.   It's there in 1940's aerials until the 1957 aerial on historic aerials.com.  After that, it became the site of the Tidelands.  Sanborn maps also show a filling station right at the corner c. 1950.

So, what was there?  Was this an earlier location of Kiddie Wonderland?  Or a smaller cmpetitor in the crowded pony ride market?

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  • 4 years later...
On 12/6/2013 at 10:19 AM, marmer said:

There's been some discussion about what appears to be a pony ride track with some small carousels on the corner of Main and University across from the old Rice Stadium.   It's there in 1940's aerials until the 1957 aerial on historic aerials.com.  After that, it became the site of the Tidelands.  Sanborn maps also show a filling station right at the corner c. 1950.

 

So, what was there?  Was this an earlier location of Kiddie Wonderland?  Or a smaller competitor in the crowded pony ride market?

 

In the 1950's - 60's, pony rides were very popular. The kiddie park or carnival mentioned frequently "before Holcombe" or "by the Prudential Bldg". was maybe Kiddyworld. I assumed in an earlier post that it was the one near Braes Bayou, called Kiddie Wonderland. Like you said, the one near Rice didn't last long. Maybe it had something to do with the university, due to the location. That's just a guess on my part. 

see link -

https://ricehistorycorner.com/2014/08/26/singing-cowboy-1955/

 

One thing is for sure, that area in the 1950's had a huge horse presence. There was a circus farm with stables, oval rings, and animal cages. I saw those on Sanborn maps. There were numerous other oval ring tracks, including one at the front of Playland Park, at one time (GoogleEarth). And don't forget the name of (now demolished) The Stables Restaurant that sat at Greenbriar and S. Main. Hmmm....And on the other side of Hermann Park sat the Almeda riding stables.

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  • The title was changed to Pony Ride And Carnival At University Blvd. And South Main St.
  • 4 months later...

Peter Pan Dude Ranch located on South Main near University.

Filling Station, 6511 Main Street, 1939

https://ricehistorycorner.com/2018/05/16/filling-station-6511-main-street-1939/

1950: George J. Linenkugel Sinclair Service Station, 6540 Main. (6511 was Bill Williams’ and later Medical Towers.). Other mentions were in 1945 and in 1938. By 1956 the Peter Pan Dude Ranch was using that address.

And, in 1948, there is a mention of a gentleman who rode a bicycle from St. Louis to Houston in 18 days, looking for work. He becomes a caretaker at Peter Pan Dude Ranch, so apparently the service station and the pony ranch coexisted for a time. And the addresses are annoyingly fluid.

In this 1952 image, you can see the pony track near the Rice stadium. It's in the shape of an incomplete oval off of South Main.

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The Southside Park Association mentions Peter Pan Dude Ranch in the success of the Southside 1950 Carnival:

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  • The title was changed to Peter Pan Dude Ranch At 6540 South Main St.
  • 2 weeks later...

That stadium at Rice is the old stadium that's now the Track and Field stadium. You can see the fairly unique straight 220 track going back under the trees at the top left of the facility.

I'm really wishing I had taken a bunch of pictures in the mid-70's over there.

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  • 6 months later...

Peter Pan Dude Ranch would be 6500 block of S. Main. The photo above is definitely PPDR. You can tell by the presence of the stadium and the neighborhood. GoogleEarth shows PPDR in the 1944 and 1953 aerial maps. The question is... was it always called PPDR?  

Did you notice the pony prancing around the ring with a person behind him? 

Great pic, thanks for sharing.

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