Grand Prairie Historical Society Meeting

A fall meeting of the Grand Prairie Historical Society was held October 20, 2011 at the Schwab's Store building at Crockett's Bluff.  As one of the society's newer members, having only heard of its existence on a few months ago, I was pleased to be able to attend.  When Eddie and Thelma Schwab retired in the mid 1980s their store was closed.  Throughout my childhood from the mid 1930s until then it was the center of activities in the Bluff.

 

Darrell Gardner, a son-in-law and wife of their daughter Vickie, addresses the group regarding the general history of Crockett's Bluff, as well as the history of the store and the Schwab family that began in America with Eddie's father Sebastian whose blacksmith operated for years near the back entrance of the store.  (Someone noted on a picture made  in the 1930s of the store from the top of the Prange water tower that Sebastian could be seen -- to those with a keen sight -- moving through a gate when the picture was taken.)

DPW with Raymond Sweetin, Jr. of Stuttgart at the meeting.

Schwab's Store: The Center of Activity for Decades

[Note: this post is -- like many others on this site -- "under construction" -- expanding as new stories and pictures come to the surface.  Clearly, Schwab's Store was the center of all activities in Crockett's Bluff for half a century until it was finally closed in the late 1980s. ]

Vicki Schwab Gardner and her father Eddie at the center of activities near the entrance to the store (in the mid 1950s?)  The best image I've seen of the store as I remember it in my youth.  One of the most general of general stores of those times -- complete with a pool room in the back and an unforgettable pinball machine up front.

I've been told this shot was actually made by Eddie Schwab from atop the Prange water tower with a primary view of the Prange Farm store and an excellent view of the gardens behind the Schwab Store.  Late 1930s or '40s