Casa Linda Animal Clinic, Est. 1948
by Paula Bosse
If only Garland Rd. & Jupiter still looked like this…
by Paula Bosse
Sometimes you can find interesting historical photos in the most unexpected places — like my mother’s veterinarian’s office. The photo above shows the cool mid-century design of the Casa Linda Animal Clinic, at 11434 Garland Road, just past the intersection with Jupiter.
Two young veterinarians — Robert Weinberger and Roland Mallett — opened the animal clinic/hospital/boarding kennel in June, 1948, out in the boonies. I’m not actually sure that that stretch of Garland Road was even technically in Dallas in 1948. The 1948 city directory shows Garland Road ending at the 11200 block (with no cross-streets after Peavy). (Click to see a larger image.)
1948 Dallas directory
When Weinberger and Mallett (whose name is often seen spelled as “Mallet”) opened their veterinary practice, theirs was the very last business (or residence) between the Dallas and Garland boundary. (To see how empty things were around there, check out a couple of pages from the 1952 Mapsco, here; the first one shows a developed area around White Rock Lake, Forest Hills, and Casa Linda, and the second one shows a much less developed area once you’ve passed Jupiter Road — and anything east of Shiloh is either a bleak no-man’s land or … Garland.) (I’ve never heard of Hudson Airport, seen on the second map — north of Northwest Highway, between Jupiter and Garland Road — so that’s cool to see.)
But back to the Casa Linda Animal Clinic (and it’s not really in Casa Linda, but I’m not sure what that area is). Being so far out in the sticks in 1948 probably explains how a couple of fairly recent Texas A&M veterinary school grads (and former WWII servicemen) who were still in their 20s were able to buy land for their first practice. The money they saved on real estate was apparently put into building a well-appointed clinic (according to Dr. Weinberger’s obituary, the clinic itself was “designed in collaboration with Texas A&M as sort of a showpiece of a modern, small-animal veterinary clinic”). Below, photos of Mallett, on the left, and Weinberger, from their vet school days at A&M — both were Class of ’44.
June 1948
The building today (seen here on Google Street View) looks nothing like it did in the photo at the top. It has been almost 70 years, but the building has either been drastically remodeled or is a new building. (Perhaps exterior work was done on it all the way back in 1951 when a car ran through the front wall.)
The clinic has gone through several partners and owners over the past 69 years, but it’s nice that it’s kept the same name all this time. I would assume that it has become something of a neighborhood fixture and has probably treated the pets of several generations of Casa Linda, Casa View, and Lochwood residents. …Maybe even some from Garland.
And now I know more about my mother’s veterinary clinic than she does!
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Sources & Notes
Top photo is on the wall of the Casa Linda Animal Clinic. I wish more businesses would post old photos like this. If the (very nice) staff saw me taking this photo of a photo this morning, they probably wondered what I was doing. I’m afraid I didn’t ask permission to reproduce it, so it seems only right that I direct you to their website if you live in the area and are looking for a veterinarian.
Photo of Roland C. Mallett (1920-2010) is from the 1943 Texas A&M yearbook; photo of Robert Weinberger (1922-2009) is from the 1942 yearbook. Both graduated in 1944.
Read more at the Dallas Morning News archives:
- “Dallas Veterinarians Open Casa Linda Animal Hospital” (DMN, June 20, 1948) — with photo of newly constructed building
- “And the Wall Came Tumbling Down” (DMN, July 28, 1951) — photo shows Dr. Mallett looking at a car that had crashed into the animal hospital (no people — or animals — were injured)
Current boundary map of Garland can be found here.
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
The Hudson Airport appears to be in the location of what would later be known as the Garland Airport.
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I never even knew about a Garland Airport. There were SO MANY small little airfields around Dallas back then!
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Wow, Paula, you must be sorta “new” to Dallas, or east Dallas at least. 🙂
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Ha! I was born in Dallas, grew up in the Lower Greenville area, and went to schools in Lakewood, but, I have to admit, I grew up knowing next to nothing about anything east of White Rock Lake (and even less about Garland)! Now that my mother lives over there, I’m slowly getting to know it.
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Here’s a photo taken at the Garland Airport.
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Dr. Weinberger was our vet from 1952 until 1968 (when we left Dallas), and our neighbor in Lake Highlands from 1958. Wonderful man, good family.
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He sounds like a friendly, gregarious man. This is from his obituary in the Dallas Morning News:
While Dr. Weinberger loved animals, he was a people person who was most at home dealing with pet owners, said his son, Bain Weinberger of Austin.
“He liked meeting people and getting to know them,” his son said.
“I can remember standing in line, like in a cafeteria, and before we got to the salads, he would know the people in front of us and in back of us, where they went to school, what they did for a living and anybody that they knew in common. Just total strangers, just anybody who was nearby, he would strike up a conversation.”
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It’s quite possible the Dallas city limits in 1948 ended at the 11200 block of Garland Road, but there was a ser sta gro at the intersection of Easton Road and Garland Road, and probably the occasional house or store from there to Northwest Highway. I think, but am not certain, that Garland Road was the terminus of Easton in those years.
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Cool info about the vet, but the thing that caught my attention was the digression regarding the airport. I used to play soccer on Hobby field where the airport used to be. This was back in the 80s before Sam’s or Fry’s was built. That corner seems to catch a lot of wind, which during the late fall and early spring soccer season meant it could get quite cold. My dad always said the wind was why they built an airport there. Now, I don’t think that makes sense, but I was like 10, so I may not be remembering it correctly. We always referred to it as Hobby airport, so I’m happy I stumbled across this post with the correct name.
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Very interesting! Thanks!
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Wow! I just stumbled on this article. It just so happens that Dr. Robert Weinberger was my uncle!
He was a great man with a great sense of humor. He was so kind as I grew up he took care of the many animals I brought his way. I still miss him very much!
Thanks for the great tribute to the Casa Linda Animal Clinic.
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Thanks for reading, Carol — I’m glad you liked it!
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The airport became a general aviation sirport then closed and became a radio controlled airplane field. Now it is a very nice soccer complex and a rundown strip mall on the corner of northwedt and jupiter road and northwest highway.
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