Quiz from Historic Lubbock County

1. Where is the Garden & Arts Center?

2. What year was the Garden & Arts Center built?

3. What is the story behind the St. Paul’s on the Plains Chapel?

4. What park is adjacent to the Garden & Arts Center?

5. Hodges Community Center is not in Hodges Park. Where is Hodges Park?

6. For whom is the Memorial Rose Garden named?

7. K.N. Clapp is “mayor in perpetuity” of what?

8. Where can children learn pedestrian and bicycle safety?

9. In 1962, where was a Western Schley pecan tree first planted?

10. Who was Stumpy Hamilton and where is his park?

Answers:

1. 4215 University Ave.

2. 1959

3. The current St. Paul’s on the Plains Episcopal Church is at 16th and Avenue X but its beginnings in Lubbock go back to 1910. St. Paul’s on the Plains was officially created as a Mission.

Prominent attorney Roscoe Wilson and his wife, Effie Brownfield Wilson, together with Bishop Temple, selected a lot on the southwest corner of 15th Street and Avenue O for St. Paul’s Church. Local communicants purchased the lot and a building was erected in 1913.

In 1927 the original church building was moved to 1609 Avenue Q and enlarged. In 1997 the church building was in danger of being demolished, so it became the property of the City of Lubbock and was moved to a city park.

It was restored through gifts to the Lubbock Heritage Society. Lubbock’s oldest existing church building, St. Paul’s Chapel is now located at 40th and University and is available for weddings, family reunions, and other social gatherings.

4. Clapp Park

5. 1123 N. University Ave.

6. Helen Devitt Jones

7. K. N. Clapp moved to Lubbock in 1924. When he died in 1969 at age 80, he was known by many titles – Mr. Cotton, Mr. Parks or Mr. Boy Scout. Clapp was a cotton buyer and opened the first Anderson Clayton & Co. office in Lubbock in 1924.

He was appointed to the city’s first park board when it was created in 1928 and served as chair for more than 27 years. There were no parks in Lubbock when the park board was formed and Clapp was influential in the development of the city’s park system.

K. N. Clapp Park and

Pool developed in the 1950s and is named in his honor. Clapp was instrumental in the formation of Prairie Dog Town at Mackenzie Park and serves as “mayor in perpetuity.”

Promoting Boy Scouts was also a passion of K. N. Clapp. He helped organize the South Plains Council of Boy Scouts in 1925.

8. Safety City is a unique kid-sized town where schoolage children learn hands-on the rules of pedestrian, bicycle and traffic safety. It’s at 42nd and Avenue U inside Clapp Park.

9. Carya illinoinensis

‘Western Schley’ was the first official tree planted in the newly formed Lubbock Arboretum on Jan. 19, 1962.

It was planted during an Arbor Day ceremony in front of the Garden & Arts Center. This tree choice was not without significant consideration - pecan trees have been listed as the Texas state tree for more than 100 years.

10. Born in 1908, Stumpy Hamilton and his family moved to West Texas in 1914 and settled near Southland.

Hamilton graduated from Hardin-Simmons in 1932 where he played on the Cowboys football team and was named to the Little AllAmerican team, selected from small colleges.

He was a teacher and coach at Slaton High school for 12 years and was the high school principal when he resigned in 1942. Hamilton then spent 2 years with the Texas Tech physical education department.

Stumpy was appointed as the first full-time superintendent of the City of Lubbock recreation department in 1944 and in 1973 as the director of Parks and Recreation.

During his tenure, the number of city parks increased from 4 to 69 and many programs were initiated. Stumpy passed away in 1988 and is buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.