The Where I Live series aims to showcase our diverse city and region by spotlighting its many vibrant neighborhoods. Each week a local resident invites us over and lets us in on what makes their neighborhood special. Have we been to your neighborhood yet? Get in touch to share your story.
Thunderbird Hills is a quiet established community nestled just inside Interstate 410 on the near Northwest Side of San Antonio. The neighborhood was built up from the late ‘60s to early ‘80s, and the homes have a charm that you just don’t find in newly built developments today.
Each home is unique, with mine being no exception. It was built in 1970 as a single-story, single-family, stone-clad ranch style, nestled at the end of a small cul-de-sac. The attached garage was partially burned down sometime in the ‘90s and during the rebuild was modified to add a second story, with the ground floor converted into living space. Apparently, the upstairs was used as a salon at that time.
When I purchased the home, I had no need for a salon or for its four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Working with the city to secure the necessary permits, I immediately began work converting this single-family home with a salon where the two-story garage was located into a duplex.
The former salon would be converted into a studio apartment up top and single car garage plus laundry and stairwell down below. Meanwhile, the original main house was left largely untouched from the original floor plan. The resulting studio apartment was the perfect size for me and my animals, Ranger the three-legged dog and Hemingway the four-legged cat. The original main house, the other unit in the now duplex, left me with rental income to offset my mortgage — a godsend for a young professional just starting out.
My next-door neighbor is Darel Powell, from whom I’ve heard much about the storied past of my home (including the story about the garage fire). He is the son of Lawrence Powell, the namesake for one of the two elementary schools in Thunderbird Hills. Lawrence and his wife, Barbara, are the original owners of the home.
This is common in Thunderbird Hills, with many of the homes still with the original owners many decades after being built. While the neighborhood has a significant “legacy” population, we see alongside that young families coming in as homes become available, creating a nice balance between longer- and shorter-tenured homeowners.
Soon after moving to Thunderbird Hills, I became involved with the local voluntary neighborhood association, a group founded to advocate for the needs of the community. The neighborhood association has been central in securing major investment in the community over the decades, including the creation of our first local park (and a second park in progress!), ensuring continued maintenance for existing infrastructure, including streets and sidewalks, and more simply to amplify the needs of the residents in our community to our elected officials.
A year after I bought my home in Thunderbird Hills, the neighborhood association members asked me to serve as president, and I agreed. For the four years that followed, I continued to serve in this capacity. During my time in office, the organization made major strides in our ongoing advocacy, including securing 10 acres of land on the southern side of the neighborhood for use as a second park within the neighborhood and advocating for major road safety improvements at the intersection of Ingram and Oak Hill. In December of last year I stepped down from this role and now happily serve as the immediate past president, mentoring the next generation of leadership and continuing to support the organization in the background.
The Jane Dubel Park (formerly Thunderbird Hills Park) is named after one of the Thunderbird Hills Neighborhood Association’s founding mothers. Dubel was instrumental in establishing the neighborhood park, which boasts an expansive playground, a pavilion, walking trails and loads of beautiful mature trees. In the afternoons after school lets out, the park is regularly teeming with kids getting out all the pent-up energy from the school day. There are also often joggers doing laps on the footpath surrounding the park. In fact, the park is the turnaround for one of my own running routes.
If you’re looking for a different kind of fun, the Longtab Brewing Company may do the trick. While you might not guess from the name, in addition to a great selection of locally brewed beers, Longtab also has an expansive food menu, and they make a delicious cappuccino.
The owner and head brewer of this local favorite are both retired Green Berets and the décor throughout highlights this heritage. The atmosphere is very laid back and has two main rooms. The front room features a bar and some table seating alongside the large stainless brew kettles where the beer is made. Meanwhile, the back room has a large sectional and some solo seating surrounding a table, with some table seating also available in this room.
Thunderbird Hills has been an amazing place to call home over the past five years, and the community I’m surrounded by is an amazing bunch. I’ve loved discovering the gems hidden around the neighborhood and building relationships with my neighbors over the years — and look forward to many more to come.
