Broadway Street is a Lubbock icon for nightlife.
Chimy’s, 2417 Broadway
Bars, shops, and churches line the street from left to right as far as the eye can see. But was it always this way?
Texas Tech alumnus and associate professor Bill Dean said many houses that were home to residents on Broadway have been renovated into law firms, bars, and stores.
Chimy’s, The Lubbock Women’s Club, Broadway Salon, and The Fig and Flower Co. were all houses before the businesses were established.
Dean said as the fraternity system began to develop in the mid-50s, fraternities also filtered into the vacant houses on Broadway and called those homes their lodges.
Because Lubbock was a dry county until 2009, Dean said there were no bars that sat on Broadway and restaurants covered the street instead; many of them being burger joints such as Turner’s.
“There was not nearly as many students living off campus back in the 40s and 50s as there are now,” Dean said. “Most students lived on campus and the food in the dorms was horrible, so they ate out a lot.”
Gardski’s Loft sits vacant at 2009 Broadway
Alumnus Don Dotson said Gardski’s Loft, located in a now vacant two-story house, was hands down the best place on Broadway during his time as a student in the 80s.
“I just remember going there with friends and getting the best burger and fried cheese in town,” Dotson said. “It was a pretty popular spot.”
Without the bars, there were still many attractions on Broadway that kept the street busy.
Dean said The Matador, on the corner of Broadway and University, was once Halsey’s Drug Store which had been a very popular hangout for Tech students.
“It was one of those old fashioned places where you came in and sat down on barstools and had old soda fountains and booths,” Dean said. “Hop Halsey was kind of a showman and the Drug Store Cowboys was a country-western band who would play music over there.”
Dean said in the late 40s to early 50s, the first Christian, Baptist and Methodist church was built in Lubbock – all on Broadway and all at the same time – so it kept the street eventful on Sundays.
Lindsey Theater is now demolished and the LNB stands in its place
Three movie theaters also called Broadway home back then.
The location where the Lubbock National Bank building now stands downtown on Broadway was once the popular palace-like movie theater, Lindsey Theater.
Dean said the place was always packed on the weekends, because that is when all the farmers and other people came to Broadway to go see movies.
The buildings of many department stores that were popular in the downtown area of Broadway, such as Hemphill-Wells and Kress Department Store, stand empty but help preserve Broadway’s history.
According to Sarah Beck, an employee at The Coffee Shop on Broadway, the little hidden treasure sits underneath the Pioneer Condos along with The West Table Kitchen and Bar. The condominiums were once called Hotel Lubbock or The Pioneer Hotel.
“I don’t know much about it, but it’s supposed to be haunted,” Beck said. “When older people come in here, they like to talk about it and give me a history lesson. It’s pretty cool.”
Although Broadway has changed and diminished since the 50s and even the 80s, some things remain unchanged.
Several buildings on the south corner of Broadway and 19th are fairly new, but Dean said the architecture style tends to stay constant throughout the street.
The red bricks that pave the street are another feature used to identify Broadway, despite the love-hate relationship residents have with them.
Dean said about 10 years ago, the city did try to put new bricks down to keep the flavor of what the road used to be like. He said it may be rough going down there, but it saves the city a lot of money.
Agreeing with Dean’s views, alumnae Mary Walker said she does not think people realize the amount of money it would cost to maintenance the bricks, but that is the least of her worries.
“Sure it saves money but the bricks are a unique characteristic to Broadway and makes it unlike any other street,” Walker said. “The bricks are something that allow old people like me to reminisce on my time at Tech. I hope that is the one thing that never changes about Broadway.”
About Haley Turner
