My Father, Howard D. Brown and Carl Martin Brown, my Grandfather owned all the land that was to become Casa Linda Plaza and Casa Linda Estates from before WW2. They had to put in water, electricity and sewer before roads or the shopping center could be started. Barton Mc Lendon was a local attorney and he agreed to lease the theater if they built it and Bart agreed to have his son Gordon over see the management. When the war broke out Dad enlisted in the Army and materials were in short supply so everything was put on hold till the war ended.
Once Dad came home from the war, the Plaza and houses began in earnest and they were on their way. I remember the theater as being a great place to go on Saturday mornings or Friday or Saturday night with my friends as I became a teen. As my family died out, the center was sold by my father in total and Dad retired in 1978. In 1981 Dad died with the Plaza and all the homes he build in Casa Linda area and Garland still being there and to this day the Brown Family legacy lives on in what my Dad and Grandfather dreamed and accomplished.
McLendon lease on the theater was up in the late 1990'
s and the theater is now a food store.
My Father, Howard D. Brown and Carl Martin Brown, my Grandfather owned all the land that was to become Casa Linda Plaza and Casa Linda Estates from before WW2. They had to put in water, electricity and sewer before roads or the shopping center could be started. Barton Mc Lendon was a local attorney and he agreed to lease the theater if they built it and Bart agreed to have his son Gordon over see the management. When the war broke out Dad enlisted in the Army and materials were in short supply so everything was put on hold till the war ended.
Once Dad came home from the war, the Plaza and houses began in earnest and they were on their way. I remember the theater as being a great place to go on Saturday mornings or Friday or Saturday night with my friends as I became a teen. As my family died out, the center was sold by my father in total and Dad retired in 1978. In 1981 Dad died with the Plaza and all the homes he build in Casa Linda area and Garland still being there and to this day the Brown Family legacy lives on in what my Dad and Grandfather dreamed and accomplished.
McLendon lease on the theater was up in the late 1990' s and the theater is now a food store.