editor Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Does anyone know how this street got its quirky name? I assume the "Buffalo" part is from the bayou. But "Speedway?" What's up with that? Anyone have the history? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Does anyone know how this street got its quirky name? I assume the "Buffalo" part is from the bayou. But "Speedway?" What's up with that? Anyone have the history?I've always wondered that myself. Especially considering the lack of a speedy way.Is anyone familiar with whether or not there is another Speedway in the Houston area (or anywhere else, for that matter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnu Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Does anyone know how this street got its quirky name? I assume the "Buffalo" part is from the bayou. But "Speedway?" What's up with that? Anyone have the history?from a 1997 chron article:http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=1997_1398054 Buffalo Speedway first appeared on city maps in the early 1920s, extending south from Bissonnet through an abbreviated version of West University Place. At that time of burgeoning modern transportation, Houston's landscape was dotted with small airports and - you guessed it - speedways for race cars.One speedway, according to historian and retired land researcher Ann Quin Wilson, passed near the site of today's Lamar High School. In those days, Allen Parkway, all the way from downtown to the tip end of Kirby, was called Buffalo Drive and ran near this speedway. Wilson suspects the street called Buffalo Speedway, which would have run on the other side of the track, got its name from a combination of the racetrack and Buffalo Drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Austin has a street named Speedway that runs north/south and is west of Red River St--I think it's the street in front of Jester and the Gregory Gymnasium. Maybe 'speedway' was the old term for 'expressway', meaning non-stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Here's another thought: Is 'Speedway' part of the name or its designation? Some Old Spanish Trail street signs identify it as "OLD SPANISH Tr' (caps intentional, like FANNIN St., or RICHMOND Ave.) Are there signs that say BUFFALO Spwy.? In Austin, the name of the street is (I think) SPEEDWAY with no designation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Corny but true...Back in the late 60s when I was in college, I was driving around a group of friends from Florida. As we passed the Buffalo Speedway exit of the Southwest Freeway, one of them said, "Buffalo Speedway, what time do they race?" I just looked at her stunned and said, "What?""The buffalo," she said.As a native Houstonian, the name of the street had never registered with me. My grandmother lived in West University, and we drove down Buffalo Speedway all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Here's another thought: Is 'Speedway' part of the name or its designation? Some Old Spanish Trail street signs identify it as "OLD SPANISH Tr' (caps intentional, like FANNIN St., or RICHMOND Ave.) Are there signs that say BUFFALO Spwy.? In Austin, the name of the street is (I think) SPEEDWAY with no designation.There is a proper abbreviation for Speedway, although I can't remember the precise mix of letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 I don't think I can post it right now, but there is a 1913 map that shows specific buildings that has been posted on the board before. On the map there is a large dotted-line oval on Westheimer near what is today the intersection of Buffalo Speedway. I wondered before what that was. Perhaps it was the speedway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipper Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 I lived at the corner of Buffalo Speedway and Holcombe/Bellaire for a few years. When my folks would come in to visit they always commented on how terribly bumpy it is headed south toward 610. Eventually my dad nick-named it "Buffalo Speedbump" That road is so bumpy that an actual structural part of the suspension on my car (solid steel) sheared off driving that road every day. flipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDubRedRaider Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 There is a proper abbreviation for Speedway, although I can't remember the precise mix of letters.If I remember correctly, it's Spdwy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 We always called it "Buffalo Speedtrap" because of the frequent presence of West U radar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 OK, here is the map I was talking about. See the oval south of Alabama and west of Reynolds (Kirby)? Is that the Buffalo Speedway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnu Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 OK, here is the map I was talking about. See the oval south of Alabama and west of Reynolds (Kirby)? Is that the Buffalo Speedway?that would fit the bill...right across the street from lamar hs.One speedway, according to historian and retired land researcher Ann Quin Wilson, passed near the site of today's Lamar High School. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 oddly enough, the USPS doesn't list speedway on its list of suffixes:http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/usps_abbr...ons.html#suffixskyway, but no speedwaywhen searching the USPS address lookup, it lists the road as "buffalo speedway," with no abbreviationsame for HCAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texas911 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I heard that the reason its so bumpy on Buffalo Speedway south of Holcombe is because that's where the Army Corp of engineers dumped all the extra fill from Buffalo Bayou, when they dredged it. Very unstable. Also explains why there are lots of homes with foundation problems in homes around the Bayou. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billbremer Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 The Perry-Casta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croberts Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Austin has a street named Speedway that runs north/south and is west of Red River St--I think it's the street in front of Jester and the Gregory Gymnasium. Maybe 'speedway' was the old term for 'expressway', meaning non-stop.I think there is a connection between these two. I do not know the history of buffalo speedway, but I know that the speedway in austin was part of Jac Gubbels park and boulevard system, which included 15th, and I think 12th, lamar boulevard and shoal creek park. Park and boulevard systems were designed to promote leisure transportation and recreation, and were a standard feature in urban planning from about 1890 till the 1930s. Speedway was an earlier term than freeway, and contemporary with parkway, which originally meant a linear park with a recreational road. The implication of speedway was that you could do up to 35 mph (the top speed of early autos, so like parkways, they included a design speed. The notion was that the road would not have intersections at every block so that the early auto could achieve its speed potential. However the term was replaced by freeway in the 1930s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurian Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Kind of funny that you can't even drive at the top speed of early cars on parts of Buffalo Speedway.On all of the sign's I've seen, Speedway is abreviated to SPDWY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danax Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 Speedway was an earlier term than freeway, and contemporary with parkway, which originally meant a linear park with a recreational road. The implication of speedway was that you could do up to 35 mph (the top speed of early autos, so like parkways, they included a design speed. The notion was that the road would not have intersections at every block so that the early auto could achieve its speed potential. However the term was replaced by freeway in the 1930s.There's also a main road in Tucson, AZ named simply Speedway. Thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 This has been discussed here before, I think. If not here then I've definitely read about that track somewhere and, yes, it said that that's how Buffalo Speedway got its name. it was a stock car track. I think Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link date to before the war though. I'll look at Historic Aerials and some old maps later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 This has been discussed here before, I think. If not here then I've definitely read about that track somewhere and, yes, it said that that's how Buffalo Speedway got its name. it was a stock car track. I think Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link date to before the war though. I'll look at Historic Aerials and some old maps later.Stella Link was there in 1944, Buffalo Speedway wasn't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Buffalo Speedway appears to be either planned or at least a dirt road in 1914 (I don't see a key to know what the dashed paths mean). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) Here Buffalo Speedway runs from Westpark to Bellaire Blvd. in 1920 and already had the name. Edited October 3, 2011 by FIREhat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 So I guess my point is that maybe the name doesn't have anything to do with that racetrack. Perhaps there was another farther north? Or maybe it has nothing to do with a race track at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I wasn't clear in my earlier post that Buffalo Speedway didn't exist South of Bellaire Blvd.in 1944. It did run from Westpark to Bellaire. The topo map does show a race track on Westheimer near the path of Buffalo Speedway, so that may be where the track was.The big track on the Pershing Jr High site is about a mile in length. The smaller one is about 3/8 of a mile. I don't see any grandstands or other facilities, but early races were run on pretty rudimentary tracks. The 1953 aerials show the school in place and the houses that were built between 1944 and 1953 as Hosuton expanded in the post war boom. If you don't have Google Earth, it's a great tool for this sort of thing, and we are lucky that Houston seems to have more data available than many other cities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue92 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 So I guess my point is that maybe the name doesn't have anything to do with that racetrack. Perhaps there was another farther north? Or maybe it has nothing to do with a race track at all.The neighborhood I grew up in was built in the 50s and was built off Buffalo Speedway, Buffalo Speedway being the 1st street of the neighborhood. Our house being in the neighborhood behind Gateway swimming pool. I remember the street Buffalo Speedway (name wise) didn't start till it was south of Belliaire Blvd. to S.Main St. North of Belliaire it was called University St. that ran north to Bissonnet St. In those days Kirby Dr. ended on Holcombe, the only way my mom could get to The Village to shop was up Buffalo Speedway by the big Catholic Church up to University Blvd. and over to the shopping centers there. Sometime in the late 60s they renamed it Buffalo Speedway all the way threw. So I'm thinking this must have been the race track that the street got it's name from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 That's news to me then. I've looked at a whole lot of old maps of Houston and West U (I grew up in West U) and have never seen a University Street or any other name for Buffalo Speedway. All the maps show Buffalo Speedway having that name well before the timeframe you mention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 And here is this:Another street that people get confused or talk about is Buffalo Speedway. Early legend says that there was an automobile race track located somewhere south of where St. John’s School is today on the corner of Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway. The old stock car race tracks that were located at Arrowhead Park on OST, Playland Park on South Main, and Meyerland are no longer there. But actually there was never a track on Buffalo Speedway. Mr. Thomas Anderson, a great historian and a man who passed away here the other day, told me that the street earned its name when the concrete was first laid there. It was about a mile long strip, and every boy with a car came out there and decided to race down that street. Thus it picked up the name because it was a straight street - it was known as Buffalo SpeedwayFrom here (Page 3). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue92 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 And here is this:From here (Page 3).I think the pic of the track from 1944 just proved Mr. Anderson incorrect. You can clearly see it's there. If you look at the pic of the track I posted you will see it's from Google Earth. If you have Google Earth you can go see it for yourself. Cool maps you got there. Looks like that area of town I grew up in was called Stella in that 1st map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) http://houstorian.wo...d-houston-maps/...a HAIF member's site, tmariar.http://www.lib.utexa...aps/historical/...two great locations for maps, the topo. maps are lised by names, in some cases, such as Park Place (one map will have a listing for the next section, on each edge) when they are dividied up, in blocks. I refer to these two map lists all the time. I recently noticed a Buffalo st. name in one of the old maps, was very close to Downtown. Houstonians were fond of the name. It was my High School mascot, as well, school dates back to the late 1920's. Edited October 3, 2011 by NenaE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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