Page 10 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021 - Online Magazine

Courtesy of Amarillo Public Library

School was built on Bell Street. That meant students • Hodgetown, our AA minor league baseball stadium,
and their parents no longer came downtown to brought 400,000 people to Center City in its first
school. season in 2019. After closing for the pandemic year,
319,000 people attended games in 2021.
• Finally – and this happened throughout the country
– shopping patterns changed. People started • New places to live include apartments in the
shopping close to where they lived instead of close to FirstBank Southwest Tower, the Lofts on 10th, The
where they worked. First came Wolflin Village, then Parkview Apartments, Vineyard Manor, The Fillmore
Sunset Center, then Western Plaza, then Westgate Lofts and The Firestone apartments.
Mall and finally, the Shops on Soncy. Downtown had
banks, courts and offices, but retail shops sat empty. • The Barfield Hotel, a luxury hotel, opened at 600 S.
Polk St. with more than 100 rooms, a Speakeasy, an
In the 1990s, a group of citizens formed Center City of Italian restaurant, a rooftop patio, a lobby bar and full
Amarillo as a nonprofit organization to revitalize our amenities.
historic downtown.
• The Downtown Dining District boasts 30 restaurants
Today the work of Center City is evident as downtown from Scratch Made Bakery and Sunday Kitchen on
Amarillo has a new life: West Sixth Avenue to the fine dining Amarillo Club
and OHMS on Tyler Street. Las Brisas Steakhouse
• The Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts has opened on Buchanan Street adjacent to the new
opened to rave reviews in 2005. The Center is Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center. Center
the home to the Amarillo Opera, the Amarillo City has added to our city’s quality of life with fun
Symphony and the Lone Star Ballet as well as touring events including:
productions. The Center and the Amarillo Civic
Center Complex form the foundation of the Amarillo ◦ The Amarillo Community Market, downtown
Cultural District of the Texas Commission on the each Saturday in the summer, with more than 50
Arts. vendors

10 Amarillo Senior Link