Bama Pies

Anybody have knowledge of when Bama Pies located on Pennsylvania Avenue near Fair Park ceased operations?

There is a lot of history on the original founders and their seven children who moved all over the United States apparently and began extensions of the original Dallas business. Remember one in Tulsa, Oklahoma on old Route 66 and if I recall there was one in Shreveport, Louisiana in the area of the Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The vacant building that formerly housed Bama Pies was on my Beat and in 1968 was in somewhat good shape, but as time went on it deteriorated and was broken into numerous times, mostly by the homeless seeking shelter.

I seem to recall a big controversy over the City of Dallas authorizing a half million dollar grant to restore the building and grounds and the work was never done and there was a big dispute over recovering the funds.

Just curious of when Bama Pies ceased operations in Dallas.

Did see Bama Pecan Pies available at a small country store near Tatum, Texas a year ago, I have no idea if the original family still owns the operations or the product name was obtained by another provider. They had Moon Pies too-----a Moon Pie and a RC Cola, my favorite as a child, a Dr Pepper with Tom's Peanuts inside my cousins.

I thought this source would give the detail you asked about, but it doesn't. Nor does the application for historical status, a strange thing to me.

[dallascityhall.com]

Learned a lot about Bama Pies, though. I once lived in near East Tulsa (1970s) a block or so from the Bama Pie Plant on East 11th Ave, where the company headquarters still is located. At certain times there was a sickly sweet odor in that part of town from the plant. It wasn't deeply unpleasant, but was certainly not pleasant, either. I didn't know until I tried to find the answer to your question that the company still operates, though the only remnant of the old product line is the "hand pies" sold in fast food places -- MacDonald's handles 70% of their annual sales! And in the 1980s the company almost went under because of that -- MacDonald's was ready to dump them because of poor quality. Wow, if MacDonald's thinks something is poor quality, just wow! The other major product appears to be pizza dough, not pies at all. A lot of their business today is in China, also, where there is a subsidiary. I can relate to the poor quality complaint, though. I remember the Bama Pies sold in grocery stores as being a mostly corn starch filling between two crusts.

Though the building you asked about was the first factory the company built (1936), and was later abandoned in favor of the Tulsa plant, when it ceased operations does not appear in the company history or in the historical landmark application.

added in edit: The internet sources all indicate that the company is still owned by the same family, and has had only 3 CEOs in all its history, the most recent being the granddaughter of the original founder and his wife (who originally made the pies in her home kitchen, according to company history).

Dave McNeely



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2021 09:26AM by old man from dallas.

Dave:

I see the building and property which consists of four large lots contained within the boundaries of Pennsylvania Avenue, J.B. Jackson Jr. Boulevard (formerly Third Avenue), Trunk Avenue and the north alley of Birmingham Avenue have been cleaned up and apparently in use as a Classic Car Museum.

I remember the Bama Pie Plant in Tulsa, seems like it was on Old Route 66 or close to it.

We were searching for a famous chilli restaurant we thought was in the area, but failed to find it and ran out of time to continue the search. This was in the mid seventies, was in Tulsa for the funeral of a former co-worker, a native of Tulsa.

Speaking of Tulsa, how weird it is to see signs directing routing to the "Port of Tulsa". I have always wanted to see the Port of Tulsa, just never had the chance and now with the Virus Disaster, travel is somewhat impossible.

here are some links with information about the company

[www.bama.com]

[dallascityhall.com]

[www.bama.com]

DallasCop2566 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Speaking of Tulsa, how weird it is to see signs
> directing routing to the "Port of Tulsa". I have
> always wanted to see the Port of Tulsa, just never
> had the chance and now with the Virus Disaster,
> travel is somewhat impossible.[/b]

Roy

I visit Tulsa frequently. The Arkansas River as it flows through Tulsa is perhaps as wide as between the levees of the Trinity in Dallas but so shallow I don't think power boats are even allowed and I don't recall ever seeing a kayak or canoe. The Port is located in Catoosa perhaps better known for the Blue Whale on old Route 66. The port is on the Verdigris River above its mouth on the Arkansas. The rivers have been extensively rechanneled as part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System and many new high clearance bridges built. I am more interested in the old ones that have been removed or bypassed. I seldom see much barge traffic on the new channel. Further east at Spiro Mounds / Fort Coffee the lock and dam on the Arkansas are underwhelming having spent all years in Panama and I waited around several hours never seeing any traffic.

To me the more impressive project is the Oklahoma City Water Park on the fictitious Oklahoma River which makes Dallas's failed Standing Wave even more ridiculous.











Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2021 06:07AM by M C Toyer.