1,144
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
'''Tater Town''' was a term used when referring to a small neighborhood located just east of 9th Avenue, south of Langley Avenue, north and northeast of Underwood Avenue and west of the airport field. It included the Campus Heights area of Douglas Avenue north to Airlane Drive, Tippin Avenue, Emily Street, Beaumont Drive, La Vista Drive, and others. The name was given when it was one of the northernmost areas in the city limits, before Scenic Heights, Eastgate, and several other communities had been developed. Evidently, it was once potato fields, and later an area where fruit and vegetable stands were set up so locals could both trade and make purchases without paying produce taxes.
Soon after entering from 9th Avenue onto Douglas Avenue, one could for many years see Guy Finney's Garage on the left, and a sign on the right which read "Welcome To Tater Town" and underneath it written "V.V. Blackmon, Mayor". There was also once a Pentecostal church , the Bethany Church Of God pastored by Brother Wells, on the NE corner of Tippin and Douglas Avenues. Grady Malone also operated an automotive paint and body service in that area, and Walter Zweis owned a small engine repair shop on Emily Street.
At approximately the same time as the 1980's widening of Tippin Avenue and it's extension to behind the college, both Tippin and Douglas Avenues started to change from a residential to commercial district.
