Soon I’ll fire up the “Think, Texas” road trip machine and point it toward South Texas.
Already, I have asked some experts about which historical, cultural and gustatory sites to visit while I’m there, but please send your tips to mbarnes@statesman.com.
Specifically, I’ll return to a lifelong focal point on the Gulf coast, Corpus Christi. Then I’ll make day trips to the surrounding area.
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Me and Corpus Christi
I’ve always considered the “Sparkling City by the Sea” one of my inherited hometowns. My paternal grandparents, William and Alice Snelling Barnes, emigrated to Texas from the United Kingdom on Sept. 8, 1931, settling first in San Antonio, then in Corpus Christi.
My father, Vener Oliver John Barnes, grew up in Corpus and attended Corpus Christi High School as well as Del Mar Junior College — now Del Mar College — before moving to Austin to study at the University of Texas. His sister, the recently deceased Valerie Barnes Gibbs, also grew up there.
Shop clerks, my family worked at Lichtenstein’s Department Store. A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a digital image from UT’s Ransom Center that I’m convinced includes a look at my grandmother from the 1930s. She stands next to a Lichtenstein’s sign that reads “Every house needs a Westinghouse.”
Much of what I remember about childhood visits there have to do with the beach, fishing trips and the weathered wooden duplex where my grandparents lived. It’s still standing — a Corpus history buff helped me track it down — so that will be a required stop. Also, the Seaside Memorial Park where they are buried.
I’ll return to some of the places I have explored during the intervening years, such as the Texas State Aquarium, Art Museum of South Texas and the gorgeous waterfront that includes popular public art such as the Selena Memorial Statue and Kent Ullberg’s “Wind in the Sails.” I should add the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History to the list.
Some “Think, Texas” readers will remember that I was struck by the 2015 book, “Where Texas Meets the Sea,” by Alan Lessoff. The author’s primary question: Why did a city like Corpus Christi, with all its natural advantages, lag behind other growing Texas cities? The book is still among the best urban histories on a Texas subject.
I don’t plan, however, to revisit his thesis. I want to experience everything with fresh eyes. Personal nostalgia and cultural analysis will inevitably play roles in my “Think, Texas” reports, but I want to get to know Corpus Christi anew.
Asking the experts about South Texas
For my first Corpus cultural expert, I looked no farther than the American-Statesman newsroom. One of our bright stars is Natalia Contreras, who grew up in Corpus Christi and worked for the Caller-Times among other publications.
“I’d suggest spending some time on the Westside,” Contreras says. “Visit the Galvan Ballroom, a musical landmark of the city, and have breakfast tacos or enchiladas at Hi-Ho on Morgan Avenue, which is a Selena Quintanilla shrine.”
Contreras also recommended Solomon Coles High School on the Northside, named for a Yale University educator who started the first school for Black students in the city.
She also told me about efforts to bring back the Ritz Theatre.
“It’s a beautiful historic theater in downtown Corpus Christi that’s usually open for tours during festivals,” Contreras says. “I do hope they bring it back.”
In the area, she likes to visit the Big Tree in Rockport, a famous old live oak, and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, home to endangered whooping cranes.
“I also love spending time in Goliad,” she says, “an important place in the making of Texas, as you know.”
I met my second expert, Andrew Glass, at the 2022 Austin Archives Bazaar. He was wearing a T-shirt for the Surf Museum, which is one of my intended Corpus Christi stops. We chatted. Glass advocated for some uncanny spots, such as the almost empty Sunrise Mall, which I knew nothing about.
Glass urged me to take, for instance, the “full Selena Tour.” That includes the statue on the seawall, her gravesite at Seaside Memorial Park, her childhood neighborhood in Molina, the Day’s Inn where she was shot — a bit too ghoulish for me — and the Selena Museum on Leopard Street.
“While up Leopard, there’s a graveyard behind Miller High School that I highly recommend,” Glass says. “Lots of famous South Texans are buried there. Ones who have whole counties named after them.
“The oldest bar in Corpus is also up that way: Lou’s Saloon. It’s a real throwback. Not very kid friendly and I don’t think they enforce any sort of smoking ordinance. Lastly, the residential architecture of Leopard can be really interesting. There are huge estates that have fallen on hard times.”
Then there’s the Sunrise Mall, which is ghostly in its own way. Only a few stores remain on the fringes of this two-story 1970s development.
“Sunrise Mall wasn’t around for long, but did make a splash in the ’80s by being featured in ‘The Legend of Billie Jean,’” Glass says. “It’s been a while since I watched that film, but it’s a lot of fun and may assist you in figuring out interesting parts of Corpus to visit. Last time I tried to visit Sunrise, it was fully closed up.”
Like Contreras, Glass endorses Solomon Coles High School and the Ritz, which was “at one point what the Paramount is to Austin.”
“I still have folks there, so I visit a few times a year,” he says. “One of my favorite things to monitor is the huge half-built Harbor Bridge replacement. It’s another municipal debacle and classic Corpus.
“If you travel via car, make sure you enter Corpus via U.S. 181. For one, it’s a much more pleasant drive than Interstate 37 and the refineries, but more importantly you’ll get to experience the huge half-built bridge poking out to nowhere.”
Glass clearly is unaware of my terror of tall bridges.
I got to know educator Bryan Stone on Twitter. A professor of history at Del Mar College, he’s an expert on Texas Jewish history.
“I assume you’ll get downtown to the bay front and the marina, but a walk out onto the T-heads is fun,” he says. “Depending on the time of day, you can catch the shrimp boats coming back in. The Selena statue is right there, too.
“Also downtown you can find the ‘Queen of the Sea’ fountain, the relief figure by Pompeo Coppini, whom I know you’ve written about before. It’s not his best-known work, but unlike a lot of his more famous ones, we do still know where it is.”
I don’t know how I missed “Queen of the Sea” on previous visits, but I don’t skip Coppini sculptures, which almost always come with some sort of dramatic background.
Stone thinks Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is one of the prettiest campuses in the state.
“It’s situated on an island and beautifully landscaped,” Stone says. “They’ve done a lot of new, modern building in the last few years. The performing arts center is amazing. The central plaza in front of the library honors Dr. Hector Garcia, who founded the GI Forum in Corpus Christi.”
Stone always tells his history students to visit Artesian Park downtown, where Gen. Zachary Taylor’s army was headquartered at the beginning of the Mexican War.
“A couple of my colleagues, Mark Robbins and Christine Reiser-Robbins, did some great archeological research there, involving their students in the dig,” Stone says. “The Old Bayview Cemetery was begun when some of Taylor’s troops needed burying, and it was the city’s cemetery for much of its early history. It’s a gem of a historic cemetery, although there’s no signage or information other than the headstones themselves.
“A somewhat eccentric suggestion is the original location of Temple Beth-El on Craig Street at 11th, the city’s first synagogue, built in 1937. It was sold in the early ’80s and is still in use as a church. I’ve never been inside, but it’s lovely and unique to look at from the outside. It was in use by the Jewish community until 1982.”
My last expert is Elaine Garza. The head of Giant Noise, a Texas-based public relations firm, Garza grew up in Corpus and shared some dining advice.
“Frozen in time: The Yardarm Restaurant,” she says. “On the water and it has been a fan favorite for locals forever. The owner has always split his time between Corpus and I think Greece and he is a total character. Still greets people. Also try the Water Street Oyster Bar — not off the beaten path but so fun and yummy.”
In addition, Garza praises Town and Country: “It’s in a strip mall and a total greasy spoon — you can order a breakfast taco and a hard taco at the same time. Old men still meet there for breakfast every morning.”
She didn’t stop at old eateries. She spoke highly of Vietnam Restaurant: “New but family owned and really delicious, on the water.”
Garza: “I’m assuming you know and have been to King’s Inn.” I have heard of this storied seafood landmark in Riviera south of Kingsville, but never been.
Michael Barnes writes about the people, places, culture and history of Austin and Texas. He can be reached at mbarnes@statesman.com.
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