Character of Midland
Books Available at www.petroleummuseum.org/shop.
  • Character Blog
  • About the Book
  • About Jimmy

What's a Deauville? And who's Henry Koontz and why does he have a boulevard in Midland, Texas, named after him?

6/8/2011

4 Comments

 
Picture
Where is Deauville anyway? And was Henry Koontz a Midlander? If you have an ounce of curiosity in you, you may have conjured up such questions while driving on Midland's west side, where two moderately traveled roads sport  these largely unidentifiable names.

But both Deauville Rd. -- which cuts through the heart of the Scharbauer Sports Complex -- and Henry Koontz Blvd., which connects the Loop 250 eastbound service road with the Home Depot parking lot, west of Midland Dr. -- have stories behind why they were given those names.

According to the Midland city manager's office, Henry Koontz Boulevard was named in honor of Henry C.  Koontz, Jr., in May, 1995, by his son, a San Antonio real estate developer with an interest ownership in Midland property being platted and developed on the northwest part of Loop 250. The property, on the south side of the  Loop, adjacent to the frontage road, had two streets that the city required to be named before the final plat could be approved.  
 
"The son decided to honor his father, who was a second-generation rancher in South Texas who ran the HK ranch in Inez, close to Victoria. He and his father were instrumental in bringing, establishing,  and upgrading the Brahman breed to Texas. Henry Koontz, Jr., was killed by a drunk driver in a traffic accident in 1986."

The city spokesperson received the information from Mary Sue Koontz, Henry's first wife.

The story on Deauville is a bit more complicated.

According to Clarence Scharbauer III, whose family owns the land through which Deauville now runs, "Tom Gordon, who owns Gordon's Jewelers, came out here and he wanted to put a mall in, and the best deal that he got was the Sam's Club.

"He said to us, 'We're gonna put a Sam's in Midland, and then he sees the rest of the deal, and we told him what he owed for the rest of the land in the contract. It was part of the original deal and we honored it. Because we believed he was going to build, we said, 'Tom, we'll name the street Deauville.' But all of a sudden Tom goes belly up."

As it turns out, Deauville is the name of Tom Gordon's corporation.

"It's the strangest name of any of the streets out there, but that's what it'll be from now on," Scharbauer said.

4 Comments

    About the Blog

    Welcome, and thanks for your interest in what will be a rewarding trip through our shared past. This "History of Character" blog is only the beginning. A book by the same name -- "A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas" -- will be published September 2014. Through this blog you'll be able to track the progress of the project and learn along with the book's author, Jimmy Patterson. If you have stories to share that you think deserve mention in the history of our city, drop an email to historyofcharacter@gmail.com.

    Archives

    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    January 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All
    A History Of Character
    Character
    Compassion
    Courage
    Discrimination
    History
    History Of Character
    Integrity
    Jno. Butler
    Joe Chavez
    John Butler
    John P. Butler
    Midland
    Mike Bradford
    Ntral
    Odessa
    People
    Sid Trevino
    Thoughts
    Vision
    Wadley

    RSS Feed