Broadway Bluff Improvement

This 40-foot bluff became a distinctive border between uptown and downtown as Corpus Christi experienced rapid growth after 1900. With the encouragement of Mayor Roy Miller, New York engineer Alexander Potter began designing improvements to the Bluff and parallel Broadway streets in 1913. Miller's vision and Potter's plans reflected the "City Beautiful Movement" then popular nationwide. The next year voters approved a $15,000 bond issue and construction began between Lawrence and Peoples Streets. The bluff was graded and filled to a uniform division between upper and lower Broadway streets. Massive concrete retaining walls were highlighted with elegant balustrades and grand stairways. The united daughters of the confederacy sculpture at Peoples Street was designed by Pompeo Coppini in 1914. A $150,000 bond issue in 1916 extended improvements north to Mann Street, and property owners financed the south extension. John G. Kenedy donated land at the south end in 1920, where World War I memorials were placed in 1931. A pedestrian tunnel was finished in 1929, connecting peoples and Schatzel Streets below with upper broadway. Assistant city engineer Conrad Blucher supervised each phase of the improvement project.

Broadway Bluff Improvement is a historical marker in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, dedicated in 1986. It is one of 105 historical markers documented in Nueces County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 147 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 27.7967, -97.3962 near Corpus Christi. The nearest cataloged historic site is Lone Star Fair (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Corpus Christi Fire Department, Corpus Christi Lighthouse, Site of, and Saint Patrick's Church.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5355000515. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.