Much of the information on this page comes from the excellent book 'Baytown Vignettes', or 'The History of Baytown' available at Sterling Municipal Library and the Baytown Historical Museum located at 220 W. Defee and Wanda Orton. Pelly incorporated 96 years ago by Wanda Orton Wish the city of Pelly a happy
birthday next Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. Although Pelly is no longer a city unto
itself, it’s good to remember the birth date of its incorporation in 1920. Pelly - a.k.a. Utopia - rememberedWanda Orton | Posted: Sunday, March 6, 2016 12:00 am Having spent most of my childhood in old Baytown, with only a brief pre-school sabbatical in Goose Creek, I’ve been history-challenged about the original city of Pelly. Fortunately, over the years, friends like Robert Floyd, Lou Floyd Elam and Charlotte Ellis Pate, have come to my rescue, sharing recollections about growing up in Pelly. Another reliable source for Pelly history and personal memories is Buck A. Young’s award winning article, “Remembering Utopia,” published in 1982 in the East Texas Historical Journal. As Buck remembered it, Pelly was Utopia, and his remembrances are invaluable to local history buffs. If you are one of those buffs and would like to read the article, it’s just a computer click away. However, if you don’t have time to look it up, I’ll try to summarize some of the things Buck wrote about. Envision this: Two young brothers sitting atop fire hoses in the Pelly fire station at city hall, devouring ice cream and doughnuts until their stomach hurt. Against parents’ orders, the brothers wander over the railroad trestle near Robert E. Lee High School. Every Friday night they go to the picture show at the Alamo Theater, avoiding the rowdy kiddie matinees on Saturdays. Reading comic books at Leggett’s Drug Store, they have a habit of putting the reading material back on the magazine rack instead of making a purchase. Their family has to pick up their mail at the general delivery window at the Pelly post office until the city finally recognizes their home address. The brothers spend hours at the library inside City Hall, trying to read every book on the shelves. All that — and more — is the story of Buck Young and his brother, Dick Young, growing up in the mid-century city of Pelly, population 5,000. “Welcome to Pelly,” said the huge sign on Main Street by City Hall. “Our City Hall was much more than just a place where the city council met and you paid your water bill,” Buck wrote. “The upstairs auditorium was used by civic and church groups too, and downstairs a large room housed a branch of the Harris County Library.” On the King Street side of the building was access to the one- pumper fire station, and it remained there until a new station was built on Nazro. Next to the post office on Main was the Miracle Store where customers bought clothing and dry goods. Among other business places downtown were the Ice House, Bush’s Cafe, Katz’s Grocery, Ledner’s Second Hand Store, Sunbrite Bar, Modern Cleaners, Wainscott’s Five and Dime, Eat-A-Bite Cafe, Stephenson’s Grocery, Kaiser’s Hardware, Good Luck Store and the Red Cab station. “Everyone’s favorite hangout was Leggett’s Drug Store where Eddie and Sally Cleveland adopted every kid in town, and later, the kids’ kids,” Buck wrote. “Images of strawberry ice cream sodas, cherry phosphates, root beer floats, and hand-packed, store-made ice cream placed in square containers run through my mind when I remember that al1- American drug store. The world moved slowly and unchangingly in that pharmacy.” Buck frequented Creel’s Barber Shop next to the vacant lot where the Nu-Gulf Theater once stood. A shoeshine man named Tamp worked there, getting around on a low platform equipped with wheels. Tamp had lost both legs in a train accident. With his shoeshine revenue, he put a niece and nephew through college — an accomplishment Buck didn’t know about until he read Tamp’s obituary in The Sun. Next to the barber shop was Stephenson’s Grocery Store, the first business established in Pelly. (Editor’s note: A retired Air Force major, Buck authored the book, “The Making of a City,” a history of Baytown since consolidation of Pelly, Goose Creek and Baytown.) Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor of The Sun. She can be reached at [email protected], Attention: Wanda Orton.
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