Transcript of interview with Mary Habbart by Jane Finfrock, February 28, 1979

UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart i An Interview with Mary E. Habbart An Oral History Conducted by Jane Finfrock Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart iv Abstract On February 28, 1979, Jane Finfrock interviewed Mary Habbart (born 1897 in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania) about her life in Southern Nevada. Habbart first talks about her move to Las Vegas in 1920 and her husband’s subsequent employment. She also talks about the first casinos, the development of the university campus, visits of U.S. presidents, and the Mormon Fort. She also discusses the Helldorado Parade, flash floods, snowing in Las Vegas, her role in developing Sunset Park, her family, and her education. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 1 Okay. Why don’t you go ahead and tell us your name and when you first came here? And when I was born? Yes. Go ahead. I was—Mary E. Habbart. I’ve shifted my name—my name was before I ever got married. Yes, that’s fine, either one. I was born in Pennsylvania was married in (unintelligible) and lived in Pennsylvania till I was sixteen years old, when I came to Phoenix, Arizona. And I went to business school there and work at Donna Fria’s on Washington Street before there was a paved street in Phoenix, Arizona—later moved to Hayden, Arizona, was married there—or lived in Hayden and was married in Phoenix. I lived in Arizona in Miami, in Phoenix, Superior, and Flagstaff. It snowed on Fourth of July in Flagstaff—moved to Las Vegas. Was that the reason, really, for moving? Well, my husband was born this way—(Laughs) (Laughs) Good Lord lets me live through the first of September, I won’t be here. So, we came here on August the 23rd, 1920. He took over the store at Arden for the—wasn’t plaster they made, it was gypsum company. And we were in the store there for about eight years and built a house in Las Vegas and moved to Las Vegas, had a store of our own on Main Street, and when they started the dam, he took over the big store at the dam. Was the gypsum (unintelligible)—? No, that was the gypsum that Six Companies had. Oh. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 2 That built the dam. And they only lived—we moved to Boulder City, then, when he took over the store, the big store out there, where—now this was when they used (unintelligible)—they got a law passed in the legislature, he used (unintelligible) so they had to spend it at the company store. Oh, really? That’ll head some of them, ‘cause I don’t think there’s too many people, remember, know what he left around. So, Pittman and McCarran were the two senators, and Boulder City really elected McCarran because McCarran only won by 400 votes, and he went four-to-one in Boulder City. Then, Pittman, the other son that passed away—I’m going back on history a little bit. Okay. In Washington, D.C., in Senator Pittman’s office, my husband then was a U.S. Marshal for Nevada. What was his name? Harry Gravell. And Pittman made the statement right there while I was sitting there on pins and needles, ‘cause I wanted to go on up to Pennsylvania to see my family and everything—he finally called a cab or one of those limousines and sent me to the railroad. (Laughs) (Laughs) But he made the statement that the war that let five years later, with the Japs, that that was going to happen. He made that statement five years before it happened. I never forgot that. Did they believe him at the time? Well, he was the one that was over foreign affairs, you know, those senators, they’re (unintelligible) whatever board they’re on or whatever you want to call it. So he was on the board for foreign affairs. But he died before that happened. But I never forgot that he made that UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 3 statement right in the office that day. Somehow or another, you know things like that, certain things that later happen like that, you don’t forget. And Bunker was appointed in his place to finish our his term, but he was never reelected—of course now, it’s Nevada—appointed to finish Pittman’s term, but not reelected. About that time is when, of course, the gambling had started in 1928, but more places had been built, but the reason why there’s four unincorporated towns in the county is because, when the Sahara built, the city would not give them sanitation or water. So, these four towns were appointed at that time—Paradise, Winchester, East Las Vegas, and Sunrise Manor—that is what the county is today, those four towns. And all the Strip was built, not in Las Vegas, because they would not give them sanitation, and the county did. And that, of course, took in these four towns. What were the first casinos and things built that you can remember? The first ones that was built? Yes. What burned down—don’t have it on for a minute. [Audio cuts out] And afterwards, Howard Hughes bought that piece of ground, and that’s the reason that there has never been another hotel on this. Where is that? The first one was the—there’s nothing on that piece of property, but I think they built some houses in there, but then later, they were sold and moved off—in fact, there’s one up the road there. And the next one that was built was—not the Tropicana—I could go along that Strip and name them as they were built. What was the people’s reaction to the casinos being built and things—were they for it, or? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 4 I think, at first, they were. But I think afterwards, they—I know a lot of the people out here don’t like it. But it’s the people that has followed the gambling here, of course they’re for it, and it doesn’t bring the best class of people. Incidentally, that university where you’re going—McDonald, the man who owned part of that, with this woman that donated that ground, boarded with me, and she was there a lot of times for dinner with him. They made some kind of a deal—I never knew exactly what it was—McDonald traded—she traded him some ground up north for another piece there next to where—she was given a piece for the university, and then gave both pieces for that university to be built. What was her name? I’ve seen her here in the paper about a month or two ago that she passed away, but McDonald’s been dead for years. The name of the people is one thing I am not good at remembering. Give them a number and I’ll know. But there was a trade made for ground there to get enough ground together to build that university, and of course Maude Frazier was the one—well, she was lieutenant governor here at one time, and she and I were the best of friends. See, the first building there is named after her, Maude Frazier. Is that Frazier Hall? Frazier building—and then there’s a school in town, too. There’s a whole Seventh Street high school—there’s where my kids all graduated. How many buildings were there at first on the campus? One. Just one building? And every year since, there’s been so much more. When I first moved out here, there wasn’t a building there; that was a little after I moved out there. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 5 Oh, the university was? So, I moved out here and built this twenty-seven years ago, so there was nothing there then. It was (unintelligible) keeping borders in Las Vegas that this deal was made for this ground. So, that’s how far back it goes. But then the first building there was named after her because she had been the one in charge of schools. And then the next one that was really very much interested was Harvey Dondero; he is still assistant superintendent. And Harvey went to war, and when he came back, he married Thalia Dondero at my house. Oh, really? Yes, she had a room there. She was boarding with me, and it was like home to Harvey because, while he was overseas, I had power of attorney to take care of anything for him. And he just come knocking on the door and walked in—of course, that’s more or less been the way around my house. And she was sitting there, and that’s where, three months later, they were married there. I saw a lot of schoolteachers set their cap for him and didn’t catch him. And she had been married before—Thalia had married before. She had a little girl who I had started to school, (unintelligible) and then she married Harvey and they had, I think it’s four more—had three boys and a girl. Do you remember about how many kids went to school there at the university when it first opened? A handful. (Laughs) Probably. You had said that you had seen some of the presidents here—(unintelligible) interesting to talk about that, you had seen the presidents when they came. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 6 Yes, I certainly did. See, Harry was U.S. Marshal, and of course, he was under his protection while he was in the State of Nevada. You know, there’s only one U.S. Marshal for every state in the Union—one. So that was his job when the presidents came? Yes. And of course, he had other men hired, but they was one car ahead of him, and his one protection, and one to go with him, were in a car just behind him going out to Boulder, and they had built the Sands, oh, just (unintelligible) anything to brag on that overlooked the dam. When Jimmy was with him, and President Roosevelt and his wife—now, when he stood him, they pulled him up and snapped those things down on his knees, and then he could stand. Oh, really? That’s the way they did it. Oh. I couldn’t help (unintelligible) I was right there. And he made it, you know, dedicated, made his speech, and then they call came back to town, and they took them up to Charleston before their train left at about five o’clock. He had some cars, about a dozen cars, went up to Charleston. Was there people gathered all around the streets to watch? Not so much. Not so much? There wasn’t that many people here then. (Laughs) Wake up, girl. (Laughs) Well, I guess not. But I suppose people did go to see— UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 7 There was 6,000 men working at the dam, but they were from every state in the Union. Well, it was Hoover City down there by the cemetery where they had thrown up, they’d pick up a piece of cardboard or a piece of board and nail them together and one thing another, there was more people living down there than there was in the city of Las Vegas. I built the first house on North Seventh Street. Oh, really? What was the address of your house? 321—I told you, numbers I don’t forget. (Laughs) My high school number was 466. Anyway, he came in early in the morning, went to the dam, and he came back to town, went up the Charleston, came back, and left here about seven o’clock on Union Pacific Railroad. See, they travelled by train then. Uh-huh. But that’s—he was a very—that is, outside of his legs and they used these—well, I’ve seen them on other people since that, where they switch them back and they click together, and then it holds them up to his waist or anything, or moving his arms, he was as normal as anybody. But it just had affected his legs. And she was very commonly dressed, a little white dress, (unintelligible). He had on a dark suit. Is this the one that you were telling me about with the shoes? Is that the story? That’s (unintelligible)— (Unintelligible) that’s a good story. Mrs. Rude about sure needed a new pair of shoes because she had to put cardboard in the bottom to cover up the holes. Boy, I’ll never forget that. I can see them (unintelligible). You were standing right there by her when—? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 8 I was sitting right across from her. And you know, when you sit down, your feet are (unintelligible)— Mm-hmm. And she kind of put her feet up, and all the time he was making that speech, I had to look at those holes in her shoes. (Laughs) (Laughs) She was quite a lady. So, now where are we going? Well, did you see any of the other presidents—it says in my thing here—did you see President Hoover when he was here? Hoover wasn’t there. That’s what it says—it says, “Roosevelt or Hoover,” were both here. Well, that was after that. They called that Hoover City—he must have been—(Laughs)—but I don’t remember him coming to Las Vegas. Oh. He never came about the dam; see, the dam had already been dedicated, so that really wasn’t anything for him to get (unintelligible). No, I’m satisfied he was not here. But they named that city after, or that—because of the state country was in. Why is that? Well, what you’re probably going to see one of these days, we’re going to have that kinda—you know, take it this way. You have so much money coming in that you have, but if overspend that all the time, sooner or later you’re going to be in a hole, aren’t you? Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 9 Well, that’s just a little explanation of what this country is in today. First, it was millions; now, it’s trillions. And that’s just what people are doing. And there comes a day when everything just goes out to (unintelligible). That’s all. These houses, they’re building like they’re building, and these big prices they’re paying for them—the government’s going to have to pay for (unintelligible) that their borrowing, that the government will have to make that. Now, you’ve got some tough times ahead of you. It’s going to catch up with us somewhere, huh, sooner or later? I’d say, I feel very sorry for the younger generation, just like that article I read the other day—this teacher, she’s making $600 a month, and she had charged up to $38,000—there was no way in God’s green world she would ever be able to— Pay all that? She was buying a house, too. And all these things at the bank give you, and everybody wanted to charge, charge, charge. Honey, stay away from it. If you don’t have the money, don’t do it. You’re right. There is time yet that you’ll have go in debt, but it started—I realize that. But remember this (unintelligible), there is a limit. So, do you think there has been a big change here right in Las Vegas? I know there has. All it is now, we are getting all this type of people that are gamblers, and they don’t have the best background. How many of them come in here and try to get in (unintelligible) gambling camp—how many of them, though, that are in the gambling shouldn’t be there, but they do have records? But if you pay off enough of them, you’re going to get it—no two ways about it. It’s made our government corrupt; (unintelligible) didn’t use to be like this in Las Vegas. There is one of our county commissioners, Broadbent, I don’t mind saying his UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 10 name—now, he’s knocked down and up, he’s on his second term. He’s served about six years now. He’s going to build a big hotel down there facing the lake. Now, where did he get that kind of money? That takes money. Now, that’s just one example. But he’s power-hungry. Now he’s got lists in there—that’s another Mormon. I don’t know whether you’re a Mormon or not. No, I’m not. Well, they’re going to take it over. They’ve got a complete chain of command now. They’ve got a Mormon governor, you’ve got, Broadbent’s a Mormon, and he’s got, on the board now, even on the license for the hotels, Bunker, another Mormon. They’ve got a direct line of power. Now, then, they’re trying to take the lieutenant governor’s job because he is a democrat Mormon and the others are—in other words, they’re not Mormons, they’re— Are you talking about (unintelligible)? Hmm? Are you talking about (Unintelligible) Leavitt? Yes. He’s a democrat man in the republican seat, and they’re out to get him. I got his number down there, I gotta call him—I’m mad at him, but I’m not that mad. Speaking of Mormons, that reminds of a question it talks about here—if you remember the Stewart Ranch, now known as the Mormon Fort, and it says—well, it has a few questions like if you remember—? The what? If you remember when they used it as a gravel testing laboratory for Boulder Dam. Oh, they did, yes. And— UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 11 But Stewarts haven’t—the ones who haven’t owned it for a long time, that piece of ground. The Old Fort, they say, yes, they fixed it up. But it’s just a small building, and it’s made out of—well, they used to make blocks out of clay and straw—adobe houses. And that’s what it was made of, was adobe. It wasn’t lumber or anything like that. But they’ve got it fixed up now. Which name did you remember it by, Stewart or the Mormon? Well, they called it the Mormon Fort. And— See, the Indians really claimed that ground. And why was that? Because they were here first. And then they just built this Fort right on their—? Yes. Now, you see the Indians, the way they were at that time, they don’t stay any one place. They follow where the seasons go that they can do the best, you know. In other words, where they can get food and game and everything, they followed that kind of a life. They didn’t stay there all the time. But there was water there, see. It was one of their places that they came by and stayed for a while. That was—in a way, I don’t think that it was a showdown, that the Stewarts could claim any part of it because it was Indians—Indians, now, are coming back and getting quite a lot of their property back. What did they do at the time when—what did the Indians do about them building the fort there? Did they cause a big—? Well, they had some trouble a few times, but they managed to—(unintelligible) as far as that goes, see, because they had water there, and in some places they could water their horses and there was grass. And the Indians didn’t just give in, exactly, to being—well, they run the White UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 12 people off a time or two. And that’s the reason the fort was put up—why do you think they put the fort up for us? (Unintelligible) Indians like that. Yeah. They could get in that, and adobe, you know, is a little hard to shoot through, I guess. Well, it turns hard like bricks, doesn’t it, the adobe they have now? Yes. There’s some adobe houses in Las Vegas. In fact, I had half an adobe made at one time myself, was going to build. But I sold adobe—but that’s what they make them out of. In fact, he made them right out on the yard—I’ve seen the made. I’ve seen them made in Mexico before. I know Mexico has lots of adobe buildings. There are a few here, and then there are a few houses made here of railroad ties. Oh, really? You know, where they just started along the railroad track and they picked them up, there are a few houses. Are they old houses, or is this something they just started doing? No, they’re old. I know that’s starting to get to be a thing. See, I built the house and moved into it in ’28 in Las Vegas, the first house on North Seventh Street. And you had that built? Yes, the same as I built this one, honey, I hired day laborers. And I was the boss man. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 13 Now, you can look right down Seventh Street—well, when you got down the end of Seventh Street, there was nothing there either. Of course, I was staying right straight down to Fremont Street, ‘cause there was nothing between you and Fremont. Now, it’s not a good looking house yet. Then, I had the duplex—well, we had four houses there and a duplex where I lived, and then I sold that and came out here. And what was your address out here? 321 North Seventh Street. See, the high school was South Seventh. They built that about the same time as I built the others. And then from there, you moved here? Yes, I don’t move much. And then your address out here is what? 6912. Pecos Road. South Pecos. The very end, huh, dead end? Dead end. Also, I thought that was interesting, what you had to say about Carole Lombard’s plane, about, if you remember—do you remember the day it happened? I remember the night it happened. What was the reaction? Well, she was coming back—she had been on a trip raising money for the war, and she came back—Clark Gable used to come to Las Vegas a lot. See, she was married to him then when this crashed out here. But he wasn’t with her. But he was—well, he was in and out of here for quite a UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 14 little while after that, but then after that, he never came back here. I guess it was not exactly—but that Howard Hughes was a good-looking man. I met him, too. You did? (Unintelligible) was introduced to him. Where was that? In the Old Frontier. When? Now, that was the second hotel built, Frontier. What was the date, or do you remember the year when you met Howard Hughes? Well, Howard was (unintelligible), it had to be between ’32 and ’36, somewhere along in there. Well, that’s pretty interesting. I’ve read a lot of stories about him. What did you think? (Unintelligible) and a polished gentleman—when I say a polished gentleman, I mean he stood up and, when he was introduced to you, he stood up and shook hands with you. But I mean, he was a very polished person and a good-looking man. Was he married then at the time? I don’t remember whether he was married—he was with three other men when I met him. And was it for some special occasion that you were in the Frontier? No, we were eating at the Frontier, and that was the second hotel built. So, and we were talking about that before. The next one was one where that gambler, he built the one right on the turn on the south side of the road. And from there on, it went just one after another. In about ten years, the Strip was there and pretty-well built. Of course, now they’re building them higher. They’re going a lot higher now. MGM and then that little one that they built there—what do they call it? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 15 By the MGM? Yes. The Maxim, that one? I don’t know what they call it—he only had a small piece of ground there and built that, but it was quite a shakeup around here. Oh really? But I see where he’s selling it. Now, which one is that, is that one, you mean, right there on the road that Flamingo’s on, right off the Strip, the piece of ground? Yes. I think that’s the Maxim. I don’t remember that they call it. He owns the one there, Seventh and Fremont. That’s where he got his start. And then he built that, got a hold of that little piece of ground there that there’s a lot of argument about. You don’t remember his name? Names, I’m not good at. (Laughs) I say, give ‘em all numbers, and that’s all that’s necessary. But right on that, right across from that is where we had the first doing that we had the spring, the Helldorado. The what? The first Helldorado. I got the (unintelligible) for winning the first Helldorado Parade. What’s that? You’ll have to tell me about. I don’t know about that. Helldorado Parade? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 16 Uh-uh. Well, you’ll see it in May. Okay. Of course, it’s a lot bigger now and everything. And everybody wore their old dresses. I got one in there in the drawer. Is it like, you mean, some kind of, like, Western type of thing?—yeah—and you won the what did you say, you won the first what? I won the first one. For doing what? For whatever you were showing as a—I’ll show you a picture of that. I’ll find one. It’s a covered wagon, and I’m driving mules. Oh, and you were in it— That’s what she said something about today. Yes. “Get out your picture.” I heard that. So, I think (unintelligible). Well—oh, we can talk about the floods that we had talked about before, you know, what we think about the floods to come. Well, there’s been more than one. Right after they got the road built for the dam, there was a flood that took half of it out between here and Boulder City. People were drowned in their cars. I was coming home from back East, and I got to Railroad Pass, and it took me the rest of the day to get to Las Vegas, which is about, what, ten, twelve miles. I was all over that back country before I—and I knew the country. The road was all washed out? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 17 Wiped out. When was that, do you remember? The one you were saying that washed out the town and washed out the road from between here and Railroad? You mean, between Las Vegas and Boulder City? Yes. Well, that was right after they built it; that’s why the dam was built. That was about 1930, ’32, August—I can tell you that. I got as far as Kingman, and they wouldn’t let us out on the road anymore to come on. There was boulders that rolled down—this is in Arizona, see, before you got into Kingman. And (unintelligible) after you left Kingman, coming this way. But this road, between here and Kingman, was not there. You had to go to Blythe and come in through that way to get to Las Vegas. But there was boulders, and the road was big as the car. What kind of damage was done, I mean, was there? Well, the road’s all washed out. No people or anything? No. Well, there was two people drowned, I remember that. Were they in they cars? Well, the car was swept away with them in— [Audio cuts out] Okay, let’s try this again. Go ahead. The duck creek just goes right around down Warm Springs and around the, right around this property. And it’s had three floods since I’ve lived here in the twenty-seven years. On damage done to your property? Well, (unintelligible) the damage—these houses have all been built since. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 18 Oh. It didn’t touch me. No, I’m high here. But my other property down back, it was about three feet of water there overflowing the duck creek, as we call it. Duck creek is the one that’s going to do the damage one of these days. You think so? I know so. Listen, honey, when water has made its way from Red Rock up there, down across this desert, and there’s never been anything done to help to keep it in a certain—it’s coming. It takes—all it does is a heavy thunderstorm up there around Red Rock, and it comes down. But now, they have built so many houses around here and got to block so many places that, God bless ‘em. They’re going to learn the hard way. How soon do you think that’s going to be? I don’t know. The good Lord— You just think eventually? It’s bound to happen, yes. And this has been a year that they have had so much moisture all over. We’ve had more rain in January here of this year than we’ve ever had. What did you think about the snow? How long ago had you seen snow here? Well, there’s been that much snow before—paper called me to find out what year. Well, I can tell you, it was Roosevelt’s birthday, but I’ll have to figure back on the years. What year was it? ’49. And there was that much snow? UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 19 There was—this time, there might have been an inch more. It was six inches before, and it was about seven-and-a-half this time. But it was in two days; the other was all one. But it happened right at about the same time—Roosevelt’s birthday. Oh, really? The 30th day of January. That’s interesting, in 1949, huh? Yes, the paper called me to find out. And I told them, “Now, don’t call me about Columbus. I don’t know anything about it.” (Laughs) But I did, I knew what day of the month it was and what day of year, but I couldn’t—I had to figure back to figure out the year. It was ’49, and that’s what they put in the paper. Which paper was that that called you? They had it all—all of them (unintelligible). Oh, really? It was the son that called me. Chris Crystal was a friend of mine. He called me, he says, “Mary, when was the last big snow?” I says, “Roosevelt’s birthday.” He says, “What year?” I says, “You know, I gotta do some thinking on that, I gotta tie some things together.” But I did right—there was somebody else agreed with them. (Unintelligible) it was ’49. I’ve been the chairman of the board for Paradise. It’s on the incorporated town right where we are. For how many years? About sixteen. I’ll take credit for that park; Sunset Park is my big doing. Oh, really? Yes. UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 20 And when was that park put in here? Let me see, it took me five years to do it. (Unintelligible) was on the board, Lamb was on the board, our mayor was on the board—the same one we have now—the old insurance man from Henderson, and the old man that had the ice cream store, but he’s dead. That’s when they were having a lot to do with Hughes, when he was in the desert and had the top floor at the Desert Inn. Desert Inn was the fourth hotel built. And you said Howard Hughes stayed in the top, is that what you said? Yes, he had the whole top floor. He was there for about four or five years. See, that’s where this so-called guy, you know, that come up with—he had left this money to him— The will? The will. The Mormons did everything—they killed him, yes. That’s what it was—no argument. That Sam Gay and Davis, I saw them before the commissioners many times—yup. They kept that, people taking care of him and feeding him dope (unintelligible) got away with it. It was all Mormons. And the doctors, call Mormon—(unintelligible) that dope. Oh, this is—this case is just starting, ‘cause one of the attorneys from Sawyer was down here talking to me about something else the other day, and they were just about ready to hit the—with all this, Of course, I said, anybody look at those two, know they were crooks—that’s Gay and Davis. And this was all about the same time the park was being built, right in through there? Right along through there, yes. The park, we built, not Eastern, but the next road up, and we were paying $80,000 a year building that road out of Paradise funds—just Paradise. Now, that’s one of the unincorporated towns, the biggest one. And I had been farming up there, and I had given up the dairy and had sold out, and I was just sitting here one night and I thought, “Well, now, that’s the place for a park.” They had the water, they had the power—naturally, I knew UNLV University Libraries Mary Habbart 21 because I’d been farming the place. And why not have a park? So, I brought it up before the commission, and then I took it up with Washington, D.C., and it (unintelligible) a battle—took my five years, all told. And the first $80,000 check that came, we paid a million-two for it. For the park? Yes, for 336 acres. And they wanted the money in two, and I was holding out for a million. And then one of the commissioners comes to me and tells me, “Better give up.” What it was, was two, three real estate men that said they had the property for sale—they did not have nothing because I called directly the people that owned the thing and talked to them. There was no real estate in between there at all. We worked directly with the Frontier (unintelligible) who owned the piece of ground in Washington, D.C. And when we got the $80,000 and the tax money for the county and then the Washington matching funds, see. So that’s why we paid a million-two—we couldn’t touch it for $10 million. That’s quite a bit of land. Yes, 336 acres. So, then, it took you five years to get all the paperwork done and then to building it, or five years total to have it built and everything? Well, now, you see, there was nothing built. It was just absolutely just the ground. But then we went ahead, we formed a women’s group that—we opened a little place up there to sell during the (unintelligible). And we (unintelligible) the things that we did, we made enough money for two