Buffalo Speedway is a street in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. 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 ...

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 ...

. The south terminus was previously located at West Bellfort Street on the southwest side. An extension farther south to Holmes Road was proposed in late 2014. The extension to Holmes Road finished construction in the first quarter of 2015. In 2016, a further extension southward to West Airport Boulevard was already underway. 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, 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''. ...

''. 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), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

maps suggest the existence of a race track where Buffalo Speedway would later be built.Sallee, Rad.
Looking at overpasses, one at a time
" ''

''. 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 Bissonnet Street. 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.

References

External links

{{Houston, Texas Roads in Houston

Graphic novel

See also

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