Titus County, Texas History

Dellwood Park's Man-Made Lake

Dellwood Park once contained a man-made lake where people enjoyed swimming and rowing boats, and ducks and geese swam. The lake was spring-fed and ran toward the west from approximately today's main park entrance road. It occupied the area from the road through the area now occupied by the Little League baseball fields.

We believe, but are not sure, that Photo TR-0030 shows this area just before or just as construction on the lake was begun.

When the lake was built, there was very little if any heavy equipment used as is done today. Photo TR-0020 shows men and horse-drawn graders digging the lake bed. It appears that the earth was dug down some and the dirt that was removed was piled around the area that was to become the lake to form an earthen dam on all four sides to contain it.

Photo TR-0003 shows the lake filled with water. This photo of the lake must have been taken shortly after it was constructed since the earthwork appears to be fresh (there is no grass on it and the edges are sharp) and there are no boats or ducks and geese which later occupied the lake. The building shown at the far end in this photo contained separate men's and women's dressing rooms.

We've seen other photos of it showing boats in the lake and ducks and geese swimming in it, but don't currently have any. Please contact us if you have other photos of Dellwood Park.

Dellwood Park's Man-Made Lake - View 2 - (Photo TR-0004)

This is another view of Dellwood Park's man-made lake. This photo was taken from the south looking north somewhat in line with the current Little League baseball field. The depression visible in the foreground is probably the creek that flows through the park.

An interesting piece of local history relating to the Dellwood Park lake is that water from this lake was used to test Mt. Pleasant's first fire truck that was equipped with a water pump. On June 13, 1926 the Mt. Pleasant City Council purchased a Seagraves Triple Combination (Suburbanite Type) Pumper for the fire department that was capable of pumping 400 gallons per minute. After the truck arrived, it was tested on Monday, August 20, 1926. According to newspaper reports of the day, the fire department laid 1,600 feet of hose from the W.H. Florey home near the crest of the hill on South Florey Street and the truck was placed on the dam of the lake. It pumped sufficient water up the hill to shoot water far over the top of the large two-story house using a straight bore playpipe nozzle.

Dellwood Park - View 1 - (Photo TR-0025)

This view of Dellwood Park was taken from the general southeast corner of the park looking generally northwest. It was probably in the area of Town Creek, the creek that runs through Dellwood Park, and approximately in the area of the bridge where Florey Street crosses the creek.

You can see the Dellwood Hotel on the hill at the top left of the photo. The city swimming pool now sits in the same spot. Too small to determine exactly which buildings in this photo, buildings are visible among the trees in mid-center of the photo. Best guess is that today's Florey Street would run to the right of these buildings, approximately where the small tree sits toward the foreground of the photo.