Snider Plaza Safeway: Hillcrest & Lovers — 1930s
by Paula Bosse
Safeway, Hillcrest & Lovers Lane
by Paula Bosse
The Snider Plaza shopping area opened in University Park in June, 1927, and an early grocery tenant was Killingsworth Self-Serving Food Store, which opened in 1930 or ’31. In 1934 the small Killingsworth chain of 12 Dallas stores was purchased by the Safeway/Piggly Wiggly company, and in March, 1935 the remodeled store was opened as a Safeway — it was newer, bigger, better, and more crammed-full of Stokely’s canned foods than any grocery store University Park had ever known. But in August, 1941 — before shoppers had gotten too complacent — it moved around the corner into another Snider Plaza location (3412 Westminster) — this one even newer! Even bigger! Even better! (And only half a mile from another Safeway which was just a hop, skip, and a jump away at 6207 Hillcrest.) (You can’t have too many Safeways.)
I haven’t seen many photos of the original architecture of Snider Plaza shops, so the photo above is pretty cool. (I really like that “Snider Plaza” was stamped on the curb.) I’m going only by the little map below, which appeared in ads when the bigger 1941 store opened, but I assume that the store seen in the photo above was at the corner of Hillcrest and Lovers Lane.
Aug. 1941, Safeway ad detail
And now I have a sudden craving for canned hominy….
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Sources & Notes
Photos found on eBay in 2020.
UPDATE: As mentioned in the comments below, Dallas historian Teresa Musgrove Judd ended up as the winning eBay bidder of these photographs and plans to donate them to the Dallas Public Library.
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Copyright © 2021 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Snider Plaza was a daily stop for me when our office was on Knox Street.But it was in 1971-74.Kuby’s made the best corned beef sandwich and salad they called meat salad.It think it was technically Wurst salad.Somtimes I’d even skip the sandwich and just get a giant size meat salad.Yummy!!Now I want some but I’m in south Texas:-(
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I own these photos; I purchased them on eBay. I will be donating them to the Dallas History Archives division of the Dallas Public Library.
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That’s so great, Teresa! I’m always a little concerned that out-of-the-ordinary ephemera that shows up on eBay will just come and go and never be seen again. It’s nice to know that this will have a permanent home in a local historical archive.
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From my earliest memories in the late 1960s, Sam’s Meat Market was located at the “Old Location” on the ad’s map. The Safeway entrance was on the East side, with the parking lot servicing both stores. Sam sold fillets to my family, edge-wrapped with bacon, either 6 or 8 oz., which my father would cook on a small charcoal briquette grill on the porch for Sat. night dinner, and esp. when we entertained guests. The current store was built over that parking lot, and the Meat Market was removed, but the “New Store” (on the Aug. 1941 Map) remained in operation until the current store was completed. While the current store (became Minyard’s and finally Tom Thumb) would be considered modest in size today, it was the largest supermarket I had ever seen or could fathom. I thought I had entered paradise on my first visit. I was placed in the child seat at the front of the shopping cart, with my legs dangling in front of my mother. When older, I was strictly forbidden from running in the store, esp. if I were pushing a cart. The 7-11 was across Snider Plaza, where a bank is located today. On special occasions, my mother would buy Cabell’s vanilla bean there, which was the best store-bought ice cream one could find, and was particularly tasty scooped into a half-cantaloupe. Sam’s Meat Market relocated to Snider Plaza between Milton and Rosedale, approx. where Food From Galilee is now. Mom requested a smaller fillet, for dietary reasons, so Sam offered her a special 4 oz. cut, and no bacon. I remember him as a short, congenial man, but I cannot recall his last name just now. He may have accepted personal checks. I distinctly remember Mom writing checks in the grocery check-out, and Safeway would allow her to add some maximum dollar figure (probably $20.00) for cash back. She was on a first-name basis with the clerks. Item amounts were punched into the old-style registers, either from a small price-tag attached to the item via a hand-held device during shelving or from a price list at the register (esp. in the case of produce, though the produce offering was minimal). Safeway dispensed S&H green stamps, if requested. Of course, the A&P (later Ralphs) was located at Rankin and Snider Plaza, catty-corner from Skillern’s Drug Store and M E Moses 5&10 (or 5 & 10 & 25 & 1.00), but my family rarely shopped at the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. Esso Gas (the pronunciation “S-O” for Standard Oil) or Enco (later Exxon) was on the North side of the store and accessed from Lovers Lane, but it could have been Humble Oil before that. The gist of this comment is that while grocery stores were smaller, they were augmented by other specialty stores nearby. BTW, the street name in the 1941 ad is wrong. It should be spelled like Westminster Abbey–without the extra “i”. Perhaps others will correct or supplement with their recollections.
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Thanks so much for sharing your great memories!
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[…] The stripped-down plans ended up doing away with the basement and everything but the ground floor for the theater and retail shops. And I’m so glad! I love the photo at the top, from 1929. What a beautiful, beautiful building! The architect of the building was Wyatt C. Hedrick of Fort Worth. The buildings of Snider Plaza were meant to be of uniform design. Like this. (If only they all still looked like that!) (Another photo I posted recently showing that uniform style is here.) […]
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