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HR. QUINCY LEE:
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HR. QUINCY LEE:
ARCHBISHOP FUREY:
HcALLISTER FREEWAY OPENING CERHONIES
February 7, 1978
~embers of the City Council and members of The Greater San
Antonio Chamber of Commerce, I'm pleased to welcome you to '
the opening of the HcAII ister Freeway. Not only pleased,
I'm real excited about it!
This is the day you and I and all of San Antonio have been
awaiting for many years. Some of them troubled with frus­tration,
but all of them served with conviction that God
would meet them. To open this brief program, I am honored
to introduce the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdi~ese of
San Antonio, he will give the invocation. His Excel-lency
Francis J. Furey.
Let us pray. In the book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read
these stirring vlOrds inspired by the holy spirit. And I
quote, "Pass through the gates, prepare the way for the
people, build up the highway, lower the stones, raise up
the standard OVer the nation." Heavenly Father, although
this message was del ivered many centuries ago, we feel that
it is being fulfilled in our presence, here today. As
we're assembled to dedicate the Walter W. HeAl I ister Free­way,
we thank you for inspiring so many to build up this
highway. To clear the stones, to raise up a new standard
over our beautiful city. We ask you noVl, to bless all those
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ARCHBISHOP FUREY:
HR. QUINCY LEE:
who had a part in this construction. And espcially, we ask
you to bless those who use it, in the day and years ahead.
~~ke their journey along this highway, pleasant, and safe.
And preserve this freeway free of all accidents and mis­haps.
We ask for these things in your dear honor and glory.
Amen.
Thank you, your excellency. I want to thank the band and
Jay High School, under the direction of Dan Schreiber, who
provided the music today. Also, we would like to thank the
Pearl Brewery peopie, for making this facil ity available to
us today. It would simply not be possible to name all the
people who deserve our special thanks for this successful
completion of this project that we're opening today. There's
simply too many. This freeway -- the convenience and the
safety it will provide, that it will provide our citizens
and visitors alike, with the firm and visible testamony of
our gratitude for many years to come. I would I ike to
recognize the dignitaries we have with us, this afternoon,
in addition to several here on the platform who we will be
hearing from in a moment. Please hold your applause, until
I have recogcl i zed everyone. State Senators: John Traeger,
Frank lombardino, and Glenn Kothmann. State Representatives
lutlelle Sutton, County Corrmissioner Tom Stolhandske, Hayor
Pro-Tem John Steen, and City Council Members, Joe Alderette,
Helen Dutmer, Phil Pyndus, and City Manager Tom Huebner.
There maybe others, but -- that have come in since vle've
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
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HR. QU I NCY LEE:
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MR. QU I NCY LEE:
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
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MR. McALLI STER:
began the program. I want to recogn i ze a I so Mr. F. M.
Davis, District Engineer, at the time that the project was
conceived. A special word of thanks also to the Greater
San Anton io Chamb e~s ' of Comme rce, "Freeway Task Force",
headed by Frank Bennack.
And the North Loop Association. And the Citizens Committee
for the Comp letion of the North Expressway, headed by Monroe
Bibb.
Without these organizations, those individuals, we would
not have had this, vie wouldn't be here today. Last, but
far from least, I would like to have you join me in express­ing
our thanks to the last surviving membe r of the Chamber
of HighVlay Commission, Vlhich along Vlith the City of San
Antonio made the original proposa l to the Texas Highway
COill1lission in 1956. A man who has made this freeway a per­sonal
crusade for the past 22 years. Mr. Jim Frances.
No one, I'm sure, needs to be reminded of the unique and
and tireless contributions of our Mayor Emeritus, Walter W.
McAllister. The freel"ay deservedly bears his name, and every­time
we have an occasion to use this fine highway, we'll be
reminded of the debt of gratitude that we owe him.
Well, Ladies and Gen tl emen , to t'!ll you the truth, I am
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MR. McALLI STER:
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MR. McALLI STER:
covered with so much emotion, that 1 don't know what I'm
going to say. 1 do want to say this to you; though, we
citizens of San Antonio are going to have the most dramatic
entrance into our city from the Airport of any of the 25
major cities in the United States.
We are likewise going to have the Airport closer to the
central section of the city than any of the other major
cities in the United States. I ... ah ••• 1 well recall some.
of the difficultie~ we had to face in finally achieving
this. Emphasis has been made on the added cost. Ladies
and Gentlemen, let me say to you that, of course, it costs
more money to build something today than it did ten years
ago. But, 1 also want to say, that we are fortunate
receipients of a much better expressway, than Has original-ly
designed. This expressway, is certainly far superior
to what was originally planned. And when you drive some
nice sun~shiny day,(it will happen againJ and take a look at,
for instance, the way the walls have been finished, at the
01 1(\\0 '.> (.) (.>...$ ~ n.
McA:t::tbu·1 Park, you can see something of really and truly as
a tremendous credit. I'm sure most of you have driven high-
Hays in other states, and .•• ah ••• if you have done so, you
have come to the conclusion, that did, many, many years
ago, that we in Texas are fortunate indeed in having un-questionably
one of the best highway systems in the entire
United States.
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MR. McALLI STrn:
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In 1964, ... ah .•• we were in Washington •.• and ••• Herb Petry,
then the Chairman of the Highway Department and Mr. Dingwa il,
who .Ias Chief Engineer, at the time, and a chap from, \'Iho
was Assistant Attorney General from the Attorney General's
Department, I think his name was McClellan, but I don't re-
,
member exactly, and myself. And we have made an appointment
with Secretary Volpe and the Secretary of Commerce, who had
~~
charge of .the Federal connections ... so farAth;s exp~essway
is concerned. And ·.Ie were in his office, and Senator Tower
was there also, and everything just went along fine. Volpe
agreed to hearing everything and every request that was
made. And we walked out of that room, I don't know ••• we've
a 11 had premon i t ions, at ti mes ... I had one, and I cou 1 dn' t
explain it. I called Petry over and the others, and I said,
"look ,"hat happens, if the federa I government reneges 1"
Petry looks at me, as if I was crazy and I almost felt crazy
to ask such a question. And then Herb Petry said, "one way_
if the City of San Antonio will live up to its committment,
the Highway Depa rtment will bu i I d that express.lay, if we
have to do it by ourselves. "
That's one reason I had so much confidence with the govern-ment
being awakened. And then of course, as you may recall,
one of our Senator's, Yarborough, introduced the bill in
Congress, that made federal participation with ... wlth State
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HR. HcALLI STER: Highway Der~rtment impossible, if the route took any part
of a park land and it was a good thing, that ... ah ... 1 had that
committment from the Highway Department. So that gave uS
the opportunity to get out from under the federal govern-ment
and to have it built. And I want to say to you, Ladies
and Gentleo,en, that we have the ... we have an expressway
that's going to be a tremehdous boon to us in San Antonio.
It's going to do a number of different things, for instance,
the enginee.r of the Highway Department made the statement,
that it would save ~s, 35,000 gallons of gasoline per day.
That it will save a tremendous amount of time for all of the
people, who will travel forward and backwards. And ·wi-1+pro­bably
will reduce the accidents in San Antonio by at least
300. Because it takes the pressure off of McCullough, San
Pedro and Broadway. And "Ie're going to really enjoy this
thoroughly. And I want to say to you, all of you, I .•.. ah
•... appreciate tremendously the support we have gotten.
Let me say this to you, talking about a little bit of old
history, the first expressway system vias the North one,
which was built on Woodlawn Avenue to Fredericksburg Road on
the west side of your city, and on down toward •••• ah •.•. the
Somerset Road. And when that was proposed, a group of us had
been advocating it, Paul Steffler .... was the Commissioner.
And I liked Paul, he said to me, "well", he says, "I can't
be for that thing." said, "why, Paul?" He said, "because
really don't know at all about real estate, I can't bother
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MR. McALLI STER:
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MR. QU I NCY LEE:
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about buying that and appraising property and so on. So we
thought about It a little bit, and I went b~ck to him, and
said, "Paul, I .. .. 1 have secured the services ",Ithout com­pensation
of a group of about seven or eight competent people
who have agreed to be the appraisers In the project. And
1 have also made arrangements with realtors, \1ho will make
the sales also on a very ah .... vary beneficial basis. And ...
ah ... he sald ..•. ah .... "lf you do that, anything that's got
you. OK on It, I'm willing to OK the payment for It. And
that's how we .... and that's what we did. We had a group of
seven or eight businessmen and realtors, who appraised all
the properties on Fredericksburg Road and Woodlal",", all the
way south. And when that was finished, and also the same
property from Elmira Street east to Broadway. And that was
the start of our expressway system. And 1 want say right
nO\1, my thanks to Pau 1 Steffl er, because of his "Ii sdom and
willingness to .... well, .... trust the people. Again I want
to say, this Is a great day for all of us In San Antonio.
Thank you, Mayor Mac. Now representing the City Council and
the citizens of San Antonio, Mayor Lila Cockrell.
MAYOR LILA COCKRELL: Governor Briscoe, First Lady Janey, Mayor Mac, your excel­lency
Arch-Bishop Furey, ladies and gentlemen. Today Is a
very wonderful and exciting day for all of us. Particularlly
those of U5, who, like so many in this room, have had the'
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HAYOR LILA COCKRELL: opportunity to be a participant in this process that began
way back in 1956 and have seen these many efforts, trials
and tribulations and the opportunities that came in trying
to make this project a real ity. The City Council has seen
fit to designate this expressway or this parkway, the Mc-.
All ister Freel-lay. And we did it in rec.ognization of the fact
that, so far as the City Cbuncil was concerned, the one per-son
who had inserted the long term, the most recognizahle
leadership from the City's perspective was of course, Walter
McAllister. Who,a~ you all know, has served as Hayor of this
city from 1961 to 1971 and the getting it all together of
this particular f\feel~ay was .one of the major accompl ishments.
One among many, might say.
o('o\':?'"
Of his rccdi in the leadership
capacity as Hayor of our City. In a related action, the
City Council also designated the Northeast Preserve, '''hich
is a very large --- park area, of over 700 acres in the North-east
part of the City. The McAllister Preserve. And 1 men-tion
that, because it has a direct relationship to the dedi-cation
this morning of the freeway. As you may recall the
freeway was going to take small amount of acreage from Bracken-ridge
Park. And in an effort to •.•• ah .••• more than compensate
the community for any park acreage that was to be taken,
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\Y1SI,s,!,'n9\
Mayor McAllister, was a leader in assisti~9 that there be
included in a bond proposal the opportunity to buy a major
new park, of development area. And this I-laS started, and
was added to, and became known as the Northeast Preserve.
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MAYOR LILA COCKRELL: And this was in, ~~ny times replacement of the very
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MR. QU I NCY LEE:
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
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HR. QU I NCY LEE:
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
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MR. QU I NCY LEE:
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small amount of acreage that was needed to ~e taken for
the freel-lay. So the Council in previous actions, has
designated the Northeast Preserve, as the McAllister
Park and was very happy and honored to be able to de~
signate this north freeway as the McAllister Freeway.
Today we want to take our hats off to many people for their
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-rooF! in making this a real ity.
L\.\)' ,:." ~,\
But, eminent ame>U,...{lall
of these is our P~yor Mac---Walter McAllister.
Thank you, Mayor Cockrell. Additional introductions I
~:ould I ike to make, Jim Nowl in and Ron Bird, State Repre-sentatives
are here.
County Commissioner, Jeff Wentworth, also came out today.
"
And I would I ike to introduce Fred Burtner, our President of
the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
Probably the only continuing Chamber of Commerce project.
older than this one, is the Mission Parkway. We're going
to get that one ,finished also, one of these days.
Speaking for the Chamber, Chair~~n of the Board, P. L.
(Chet) Todd.
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HR. TODD: Thank you Quincy. Governor and Mrs. Briscoe, Mayor Cockrell
and Mayor Mac, and other honored guests and ladies and
gentlemen. This is one of those occasions when it is neces-sary
to compress into a f ew words --- many volumes of thanks.
And acknowledgement of many hours, months and years of your
•••• dedication. The contributions of this new freeway, will
~ake to the continued growth, and prosperity of this City,
will represent our appreciation for wurk these people have
done. And the great accompl ishment that is there. And I'm
especially pleased ·that Jim Francis could be .here with us
today, representing, as he does the efforts of many Chamber
of Commerce volunteers, whose time and devotion helped make
this freeway and ind eed our ent ire freeway systems, to su p-port
the facil ity that it is.
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MR. TODD: There have been many unnecessary road blocks placed in the
path of this project. Many delays and much additional costs.
But it is now complete. And the future is really what counts.
I'm tempted to quote something Charles D. Wilson once said.
It's futile to talk too much about the past, it's something
like trying to make birth control retroactive. We still have
much work to do in continuing to build San Antonio into an
eVen greater city. Rather than a culmination, let us rega rd
today's opening as a start. Thank you.
APPLAUSE:
d,~+'
MR. QUINCY LEE: Thank you, ~ed. As the other speakers have mentioned, this '
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
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highway is unique in many ways. In engineering, materials,
the beautiful and historic areas it passes 'through. Fine
impressions will give first time visitors to our city, All
the results of some extraordinary I,ork, of the Commissioners
and staff of the Texas Highway, Department of Highways and
Public Transportation. I am now honored to turn the program
over to the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Reagan Houston.
HR. REAGAN HOUSTON: Thank you Quincy, Governor, Janey, Mayor Emeritus and Hayor
Cockrell. I just want to say hallelujah! I think lId 1 ike
to undo my shoes, take my tie off, and relax, because this is
really a great day. Old teacher Dewitt Greer, told me
early in this game, that the genius of Texas Highways is a
strong partnership, created by law and usage between the
State and local governments that has ex isted for more than
60 years. This partnership provides a strong input from
all levels of our society to develop I.,hat is known as our
"State Sys tern". I n no ins tances in ou r history has the
partnership been more strongly demonstrated than right here
in San Antonio. It is hard to imagine that OVer a period
of almost 20 years, despite normal political and adminis­trative
changes in the makeup of these governmental entities,
there was maintained an absolute unanimity in the face of
always strong and often even powerful opposition to see this
magnificent facil ity to completion, Not one time during this
long period did the City Council of San Antonio, .the Com-
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HR. REAGAN HOUSTON: missioners Court of Bexar County, of the then State Highway
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Corr:n;ssion, waiver from the goal of providing the people
of this metropolitan area, with this now obviously r.eces-sary
transportation link. I think most of us know all of
our local elected and appointed officials who took part in
this long struggle. We have I"ith us today, fortunately a
number of people from the state level, which is my pleasure
to be able to introduce. First, I would introduce Charles
Simon, our . • .. our Commissioner from Dallas .••. unfortunately
due to the weather he was unable to be here. Next one
want to introduce is Com~issioner Dewitt Greer, Dewitt will
you stand?'
MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: It takes a little time to introduce Dewitt, because he's
been in highvlays so long. For 27 years he was State High-way
Engineer which was a record that has not been excelled
anywhere in the United States. And I think that speaks for
itself. He has had a part in almost everything that we see
under rubber today, as he says, and •••• ah •••• and even F. M.
Davis gives him credit for the original concept of this
north corridor, here in San Antonio. Dewitt retired, he
really became •... much more of a gentleman, he became a pro-fessor
at the University of Texas. I suppose he was told to
smoke a pipe and take it easy, but shortly thereafter he was
appointed chairman of this Commission.
('1'1'1. 1L-Some
\~f=l:-l:rP..m via s sa i d
to make a remark at th8t time that it was a little bit like
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: appointing Win st.on Churchill - King of England. But anyhO\~,
we o"'le a lot to De'"it Greer and I'm sure that as Mayor Mac
has told you about the trip to Washington and all the rest.
Dewitt is seated by J, C. Ding'"all. He succeeded De",itt as
Highw3Y Engineer, Ding also has a lot of vital time in this
thing because he was High",ay Engineer at the time when the
Mayor related when the question of federal participation be­came
shakey and it was he , who finally had to bite the
bullet, Determinate a f ede ral participation ending a:1d
APPLAUSE:
be willing to goin~ on a State basis. For that, that period,
we owe Ding an a",ful lot as \~e do all of them, Luther
DeBerry, is our present Engineer,
HR. REAGAN HOUSTON: He is our Chief Engineer of Highways and Public Transporta­tion,
and the successor to J, C, Ding",all. Luther, although
he was not in the top position during much of this fight, he
was in the top position with Vlhat might be even the most
critical time with our struggle. And that Vias when the Courts
finally said "Yes, we were in the shadow of financial dif­ficulties
and yet early enough to the point there where
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Luther said we could do it, and he did. And so we owe him
also a great, great, , .. deal. We also have from Austin,
Mark Goode, he's the Assistant Engineer Director.
HR. REAGAN HOUSTON: He's in charge of operations and, he has the job to make the
money and the letting to match up and he is the one that worked
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: out how we could handle this large State project and where
we could finally match up our money and at the same time and
have them ready and at a reasonable time to be complete.
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We also have today, somebody I don't need to introduce, and
that's Raymond Stotzer. Raymond ..••.•
MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: I think it is enough to say that Raymond represents the very
best of the District Engineers of the Highway and Publ ic
Transportation Department and the other people are the back­bone
of the whole organization and I want to say personally,
I could not survive without him. And I'm awfully. glad he's
here. We have John Stockton, who is Resident Engineer,
responsible supervising Assistant of high-,Iay construction.
John •.•.• there he is ....
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: He's the one who kept it cool. Then \'Ie have our contractors.
Hr. John Weber from the Austin Bridge Company.
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HR. REAGAN HOUSTON: Austin Bridge Company has a prime contract with the center
section. And I would like to also recognize Andy Anderson,
who is here today, who with Austin Bridge Company during
most of the construction and as of the first of the year
has changed his employment. I also like to recognize. Hr.
Jack Dahlstrom, who is Dahlstrom Construction Company and
is the prime sub-contractor.
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: And then I'd I ike to recognize our own John Lloyd here in
San Antonio, Lloyd Electric Company who has-the lighting,
signing and paving markers contract here in Bexar County.
And did a good job.
APPLAUSE:
MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: Now we're at the point where Mayor Cockrell likes to call the
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bottom 1 ine. I think it was some four years ago, the
Governor indicated to me that he had a job opening. And
wasn't so sure what that opening was that I was able to
adjust my 1 ife to what "as in store for me. Anyway I did,
but that's not part of the story. But we have to consider
the discussion mainly following my problems, not his. But
in the course of that he only said one thing to me. And he
compiled a question to me in regard to the job, guess.
And he knew I d i dn' t knm., anyth i ng about highways so there
wasn't much to talk about there. But he did say one thing
he said, "Reagan", he said, "if you '-Iere appointed, wouldn't
you complete the North Expressway?" Well, it happened to be
an easy question. So here we are.
MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: And in that connection I have no hesitation in saying in the
presence of all these top highway knowledgeable people both
up here and down there, that in Texas with the possible
exception of Governor Dan Moody, who almost 50 years ago
took Texas Highway Department out of politics, the man wi II
introduce next as the honored guest had done more than any
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: other elected official to further highway transportation
in Texas. HI·". first great accompl ishment as a young
legislator from Uvalde, Texas was to conceive and get
adopted into law, legislation which provided for cooperation
between the Highway Department and County governments with
a biannual appropriations from the legislature to create a
system of rural roads kna"n principally as Farm to Market
Roads. His foresight and determination in obtaining the
adoption of the "Colson-Briscoe" Act resulted in ~Jhat is
well acknowledged as the finest rural-recreation rural
system in existance anywhere today.
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MR. REAGAN HOUSTON: But this is not all. After an extended leave from politics
and legal life, he realized what had been his l ong desire to
serve this state as its Governor. Al~~st simultaneously
with his election it became increasely .apparent that rising
inflationary costs and the leveling of revenues were bring­ing
construction of new highway projects in Texas to a grind­ing
halt in early part of the next decade. 1981 or 1982.
Huch of the work was done by many people, both in and out of
state governMents to avert this disaster for the future cif
transportation in Texas. Time does not permit details of
the journey of House Bill 3, through the legislative process.
But I can assure you that it is certain, that had it not been
with a constant surveilance of effort of our Governor, there
wOlJld have been no House Bill 3. And we would be today, be
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,
GOVERtlOR BRISCOE:
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GOVERNOR BRISCOE:
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MR. QUINCY LEE:
SNIP!
I'.US Ie:
SNIP!
MR. QUINCY LEE:
with great pride that I join you today in this dedication
ceremony, again recognizing how much this highway system
has meant to the development of all areas of our state
the rural dreas, and the metropol itan areas of Texas.
And how important its going to be in the years ahead
in order to continue the growth, the development to con­tinue
to sound the economy'of the Texas of today and the
Texas of tomorrCM. Today it is in my opinion very fitting
and proper that San Antonio name this important and beauti­ful
project for Mayor Walter W. McAllister. A man who h3s
become a legend in his own time. A legend of dedicated
public service in the very best and the very highest
tradition of the Lone Star State .
Today, it is an inspiration in many ways, inspiration
because of the accomplishments of an extremely difficult
and long drawn out but badly needed project. But all
aside, an inspiration because of a man for whom it is
named. One of our truly great Texans of all times, Mayor
Walter W. McAllister. Thank you.
Thank you Govenor Briscoe. NOI. we are going to ask you
to make this official. We have some scisssors here, and
we're going to ask you to cut the ribbon!
King of the Road.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much. Let's go use the
freeway.
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• • •
MCALLISTER,WALTER W. INDEX
speech,Freeway opGning cer emonies
acces sibility,4
advantages ,6
aethestics ,4
expres sway his tory,6 ,?
fed2ral f unding,5 ,6
f~cA ll ister spoke only briefly at the openi ng ceremonies , February .
7,1978. Mayor Cockrell , Reagan Houston,chairman Texas hi ghway
Commission and Gover nor Dolph Briscoe al so spoke.