Plaza District

[Lindsay Architect]

Does anyone know the history of the plaza disctict? It's kind of all to itself if I'm thinking of the right area.

[purplemonkeythief]

Does anyone know the history of the plaza disctict? It's kind of all to itself if I'm thinking of the right area.

you mean like the stuff about Susan Hogan and all the crime or the original development in the 30s?

[soonermike81]

Does anyone know the history of the plaza disctict? It's kind of all to itself if I'm thinking of the right area.

I know I'm quite behind here on chiming in, but I am new to the board and just recently visited the Plaza District. I am amazed at the transformation from what it was 25 years ago. Here's my recollection of what it looked like in the mid-80s.

The anchor to the whole area was the strip on the NE corner of 16th and Indiana. At the end nearest Indiana was a pawn shop, and a bar directly behind it (facing Indiana). Next door to the pawn shop was an Asian grocery store (16th Street Market?). Back then, they were the primary competitors to Cao Nguyen (now Super Cao Nguyen), but went out of business at some point in the late 80s/early 90s. Next door to that was a pool hall, which attracted a lot of thugs/gang members. Also in that strip closer toward Gatewood was a comic book store that I can't remember the name.

On the NW corner of Indiana and 16th was a grocery store called Country Boy, or something along those lines. I guess that might the same as what some of you remember as Humpty Dumpty or TG&Y; I'm not certain which one it was formerly.

On the SW Corner was a motorcycle repair shop, I believe.

Directly across from the pool hall was a coin laundry place, which I could have sworn was still there as of recently. Maybe not though.

That's the bulk of what I can remember from my childhood. I remember coming back as an adult, and seeing the place was pretty run down with a few Hispanic type businesses. Just thought I would chime in b/c it brought back a lot of nostalgia. Pretty happy to see the area thriving!

[jungmuny]

The history of the plaza district is that it was the last stop on the city's trolley system for quite some time. Thus it evolved into a shopping center of sorts as neighborhoods grew northward but the trolley tracks didn't. The trolley system was based off of Classen. Here is some more info:http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/09...ys-part-1.html