Buffalo Speedway
Encyclopedia
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. It starts in the upper class River Oaks neighborhood on the west side of Houston at an with Westheimer Road
Westheimer Road
Westheimer Road is an arterial road in the western half of Houston, Texas, United States. It runs from Bagby Street west to the Westpark Tollway. Westheimer Road runs roughly parallel to and south of Buffalo Bayou throughout its course. The street was named after Michael Louis Westheimer, a...
. It ends at West Bellfort Street on the southwest side. Currently the extension to Holmes Road just finished constriction.
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
Allen Parkway is an arterial road west of Downtown Houston, Texas. It has a distance of approximately 2.3 miles , running from Interstate 45 west to Shepherd Drive, where it becomes Kirby Drive...
, the "Buffalo" name was open to use on another street. The "buffalo" part is surmised to be due to 1. popularity of the word buffalo around the time of the road's naming and 2. replacement of Buffalo Drive by the Allen Parkway. Old USGS maps suggest the existence of a race track where Buffalo Speedway would later be built. Historian and retired land researcher Ann Quin Wilson says that a speedway existed near the site of today's Lamar High School
Lamar High School (Houston)
Mirabeau B. Lamar Senior High School is a secondary school located at 3325 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, United States, with a zip code of 77098...
, 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.
Some road signs refer to it as Buffalo Spdwy with speedway taking the place of other designations like road or street.
Buffalo Speedway is the title of a Graphic Novel about pizza delivery drivers in Houston. Written and Illustrated by Yehudi Mercado. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003E3MWFQ