From An Estate To A Supermarket

One of the more interesting residences on E. Lancaster during the 1940s was the W.K. Gordon, Jr. estate at the northwest corner of E. Lancaster and Edgewood Terrace. Believe me, it deserved the name because it encompassed the entire area now occupied by the Pep Boys and Carnival buildings. William K. Gordon, Jr. was an oil man whose childhood stomping grounds was out around Strawn, Texas. When he bought the E. Lancaster property I can't say, but it existed until sometime after November 1952 when my parents and I moved to El Paso. By the time we returned in 1961, the estate had been sold and the property converted to commercial use.

What did the estate look like? Well, there are no photos that I'm aware of, but try to envision this description: The entire property was heavily wooded….and I mean from the edge of the sidewalk back and the foliage was thick enough to make it difficult to see the house, which was set back toward the back of the property. And the entire property, if I remember correctly, was protected by a wrought iron fence. There was also a full-size tennis court in an open area between the house and E. Lancaster. Can't remember what the house looked like, but it was impressive.

As you would expect, the Gordons employed servants…mainly a cook and a chauffeur. I know this because they had two children, a boy and a girl. I can't remember the girl's age or name, but the son was William K. Gordon, III, who was within a few months of my own age. Had an opportunity to visit their estate one time to play with Bill and Mrs. Gordon insisted on sending their chauffeured Limousine for me, even though I could've walked since it was only three or four blocks. That was an interesting experience in oxymora because the Limo looked like it was bigger…and might've actually been…than the house I lived in. Beyond that, I was a very small and delicate looking child. My mother said that she could hardly see me sitting in that back seat!

By the time we returned from El Paso, the estate had been sold to Safeway. Needing to expand their original E. Lancaster location and having no way to do it, they had bought the Gordon estate, bulldozed the entire wooded property level and built the second Safeway on E. Lancaster, which is the vacant building most recently occupied by Pep Boys. The rest of the property was used for parking. When Safeway found a need to expand (in the late 60s I believe), they didn't have to move very far. They simply put up a new building due west of the current one on the same property. That building is currently a Carnival.

But what about the original (actually second) Safeway building? It wound up being used as a TruValue Hardware location until they eventually moved over to a location just down the road in Monnigs East Shopping Center. Cloth World then took over the space. After they moved out, Pep Boys moved in. Now they're gone and who knows what comes next.

And where was the original Safeway store? On the corner of Chicago and E. Lancaster. That building has had more occupants than you can count, including at least two tire stores and two pawn shops, but is currently the home of Cash America Pawn Shop.

So, just in case I've lost you somewhere along the way, this summary may help you. There have actually been three Safeway store locations on E. Lancaster. Each succeeding free-standing store was larger than the preceeding one. First came the southwest corner of E. Lancaster/Chicago location. Don't know when that store was built, but considering it's design, it could've been the early 1940s or even earlier. Keep in mind that the Beacon Hill Addition/Turner Sub-division area (which is the legal description for the part of Chicago Street south of E. Lancaster) was developed in the early 1920s. From there, Safeway moved to what we know as the Pep Boys location for their second store, then twenty feet west for their third store that eventually became Carnival when Safeway abandoned Texas.