Brazos Past: Growing up in Frogtown
By Terri Jo Ryan - Tribune-Herald staff writer
Frogtown is no more. It only exists in the memories of those who grew up near it in old East Waco in the first half of the 20th-century. One of those witnesses to history is Cullen Harris, 72, a former Waco City Council member and Precinct 7 justice of the peace. He said the area of Waco known as Frogtown was located off Elm Street and was only about four streets wide and five blocks long, a neighborhood of unpaved roads that lacked a drainage system. So whenever a heavy rain came through, “it would be like a lake out there, and you could really hear those frogs croaking,” he said. He and boyhood chum Alex Williams, 74, a Waco Independent School District school board member and retired educator, reminisced about Frogtown and Elm Street with approximately 200 other people at a recent Waco History Project event. The “virtual voyage” down old Elm Street made stops at more than a few businesses or institutions, including: Kesner’s dry goods store; Marcus Variety store; Gardener’s Liquors, which was a furniture store during Prohibition; lodgings like The Utopia, Alamo Courts and Grande Courts; and the Alfred Theater and Walker Auditorium. Some 32 businesses were located on and near Clifton Street, where he grew up, Harris said, including Jasper’s Barbecue, Wiseman’s Cafe, the Hasty Tasty Dining Room, Friday’s Cafe, Mary Harrell’s Cafe, Meek’s Grocery, Charlie Tusa’s, Humble Service Station and Jackson’s Barbershop (where the proprietor wielded “some scary old hand clippers”). To share your memories and photos of Frogtown and East Waco, contact reporter Terri Jo Ryan at 757-5746 or tjryan@wacotrib.com.
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