Buffalo Speedway is a street in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. It starts in the upper class
River Oaks
River Oaks is a residential community located in the center of Houston, Texas, United States. Located within the 610 Loop and between Downtown and Uptown, the community spans .Archive Established in the 1920s by brothers Will Hogg and Michael H ...
neighborhood on the west side of Houston at an intersection with
Westheimer Road
Westheimer Road () is an arterial east–west road in Houston, Texas, United States. It runs from Bagby Street in Downtown and terminates at the Westpark Tollway on the southern edge of George Bush Park, stretching about long. The street was n ...
. It ends at West Bellfort Street on the southwest side. Currently the extension to Holmes Road just finished construction.
According to some, the "speedway" part of the name comes from a section of the road that was long and straight where it was possible to attain high speeds. When Buffalo Drive's name became
Allen Parkway
Allen Parkway is an arterial road west of Downtown Houston, Texas. It has a distance of approximately 2.3 miles (3.7 km), running from Interstate 45 west to Shepherd Drive, where it becomes Kirby Drive. Originally known as Buffalo Parkway, ...
, the "Buffalo" name was open to use on another street.
[Salee, Rad.]
Why did the Buffalo cross the speedway?
''Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
''. Monday October 1, 2007. B2. Retrieved on November 1, 2009. Explanations of the "buffalo" part of the name include the popularity of the word ''buffalo'' around the time of the road's naming and the replacement of Buffalo Drive by the Allen Parkway.
Old
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
maps suggest the existence of a race track where Buffalo Speedway would later be built.
[Sallee, Rad.]
Looking at overpasses, one at a time
" ''Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
''. October 15, 2007. Retrieved on November 2, 2009. Historian and retired land researcher Ann Quin Wilson says that a speedway existed near the site of today's
Lamar High School, which would have been at the intersection of Buffalo Drive (now Allen Parkway) and where the Buffalo Speedway would later be built.
The race track indicated on the 1922 map attached was a horse racing track owned by Mitchell Louis Westheimer, a German immigrant and businessman who sold that portion of his farm for the construction of Lamar High School in 1937. Since the track was built for horses and predated most organized dirt-oval motor racing in the United States, it is unlikely that the "speedway" name descended from the track itself.
A more fanciful theory is that the name is a humorous reference to the fact that it crosses Bissonnett Rd. The need for a "bison net" at this location is explained by the name Buffalo Speedway.
Some road signs refer to it as ''Buffalo Spdwy'' or ''Buffalo Spwy'', with speedway taking the place of other designations like road or street.
Graphic novel
Buffalo Speedway is the title of a graphic novel about pizza delivery drivers in Houston. Written and Illustrated by Yehudi Mercado.
See also
*
*
References
External links
{{Houston, Texas
Roads in Houston