Aerial Views of The Hill in 1953

I've magnified The Hill section of town as it appears in the 1953 aerial photo.  This first photo will give you a general orientation of how things looked in 1953.

The next photo focuses on the area around Wood St. north of Lakeview.  You see that 6th St. is the northern-most residential street.  Seventh St. is a few years away.  You'll also notice the houses on the north end of Wood St. next to the football field.  I wasn't aware of these houses until I talked with Randy Kozlovsky a few months ago.  (I'd forgotten them.)  His family live in the house next to the north end zone (I think).

I know Jim and Maxene Gary lived in one of the houses on the east side of Wood St. south of the football field.

The next photo moves a bit further north.  I've included it for just one reason.  It shows where I speculate the Terry plantation ("Sugar Land") was located.  The old road called "North Prairie Farm Road" looks like it could be the main path from the plantation house to the Terry sugar mill, which was located on the other side of Oyster Creek where the Imperial refinery stood.  You'll also notice the intersection of paths and roads at my proposed location.  We have no guarantees that those paths were around 80-years earlier, but it isn't a big stretch to think they were, especially when you consider historic documents say the home sat where the prairie gave way to a stand of oak trees. 

  

  

Lastly, we have a chain of evidence that indicates the plantation was sited somewhere in what is present-day Covington Woods.

Here's an irrelevant, but interesting tidbit these '53 aerials show.  I've mentioned to several friends my age that there was a race track in Stafford, roughly where the Southwest Freeway intersects with Highway 90A.  They don't remember it.  Well, it appears in the next photo.
   

 

I barely remember it as a very dilapidated wooden structure with pealing white paint and (I think) black trim.  It may have hosted motorcycle racing and dog racing, possibly other things, too.  It was certainly going to the dogs when I saw it.