SAN ANTONIO – Beginning in the 1920s, Denver Heights was known as a predominantly African American neighborhood full of doctors, lawyers, teachers, lawmakers and other professionals.
Frank Dunn, who grew up in Denver Heights, remembered another profession that inspired him as a child: Pullman Porters.
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“I watched how neat they dressed with their uniforms,” Dunn recalled. “I thought that was the greatest thing ever.”
Pullman Porters worked on Pullman trains, which, at the time, were segregated.
They collected tickets and brought passengers food and drink.
“When they would get off the train at Sunset Station or St. Paul Square, they would need a place to stay. They would board in boarding houses in Denver Heights,” University of Texas at San Antonio professor, local civil rights and East Side native Mario Salas, who once lived in Denver Heights, said.
Black-owned businesses packed the Denver Heights neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s for two main reasons: the neighborhood’s proximity to downtown San Antonio and because African Americans were barred from living in other neighborhoods outside San Antonio’s city center.
“There were deed restrictions on some properties,” Salas said. “The former mayor of San Antonio had a deed restriction in Terrell Hills and Alamo Heights, and I memorized it by heart.”
That particular restriction, found in Bexar County records dated December 7, 1949, reads:
“No lot, track, or re-subdivision thereof, shall ever be sold, leased, demised or conveyed by deed, lease gift or otherwise to Mexicans, Negroes, or persons of Latin American or African descent, nor shall any lot, tract or re-subdivision thereof ever be used or occupied by Mexicans, Negroes, or persons of either Latin American or African descent except as household servants.”
Years later, when U.S. Highway 281 and Interstate 37 were built, the roads cut off part of Denver Heights that was closest to downtown and especially bustling with business.
“When they put (U.S. Highway) 281 in — where the Alamodome is — that took a chop off of what was all-Black at one time,” Dunn said.
When Dunn tells people where he’s from, he doesn’t tell them “San Antonio.”
He tells them “Denver Heights, Texas.”
“Because Denver Heights was very significant with the people I grew up with,” Dunn said. “I don’t know if I need to put anything in front of that.”
Dunn said growing up around neighbors who ran their own businesses or were doctors and teachers gave the neighborhood kids something to aspire to.
“When we left here, we always thought we were equal or maybe even better than some people,” Dunn said. “And I don’t know if that was always good, but we could fit in to blend into wherever we needed to be and be successful."
Dunn said he also remembers tales of Denver Heights neighbors who came before him, such as Charles Bellinger. Bellinger’s profession, though, wasn’t as straightforward.
“He (Bellinger) was a gambler,” Dunn said.
And a successful one at that.
Bellinger used his money and influence at City Hall to fight for what the East Side needed.
According to Dunn, Bellinger also helped his neighbors find employment and paid poll taxes for people so they could afford the right to vote.
“He was a community guy who took care of a lot of people,” Dunn said. “A lot of people got a job because of Mr. Bellinger, and he was a good businessman. But Mr. Bellinger hired Black folks.”
Dunn, a business owner himself with a background in insurance, is venturing into a new industry these days: documentary filmmaking.
He is working on a documentary about the history of Denver Heights, Texas.
“If we don’t tell our story, who’s going to tell it?” Dunn said.