Joe Skiles Park

Joe Henry Skiles. Shaw Photography. Yucca. Denton: North Texas State

Teachers College, 1932.

Joe Henry Skiles (1912-1981)

On October 30, 1981, Southridge Park in the Southridge Addition of the City of Denton, was rededicated as Joe Skiles Park in honor of the man who had originally developed Southridge and many other neighborhoods in Denton.

Joe Henry Skiles was born July 6, 1912. He was a graduate of Denton High School and North Texas State Teachers College (University of North Texas) before earning his law degree at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1934, he would lose a bid for County Judge. The following year he was appointed to be Director of District 1 for the National Youth Administration in Texas by Lyndon B. Johnson who was the Director for Texas. He would later form the law firm of Jackson and Skiles with Brent C. Jackson in 1936.

Skiles would twice be elected to the State Legislature, first in 1938 to fill the unexpired term of Bullock Hyder, and again in 1940. He resigned his second term in 1941 to take a position as Manager of Student Activities at Texas A&M.

In 1937, Joe Skiles married Kathleen (Kay) Clayton. Kay was a graduate of North Texas State Teachers College (NTSTC) where she majored in Elementary Education and would eventually teach First Grade for over a decade. She was also as active in her community endeavors as her husband. She was a former president of the Ariel Club and Chair of its book review program and produced reviews that were published in the Denton Record-Chronicle. She was a member of the Modern Era Department of the club and sponsored the creation of the Clear Horizons Department which was a study group that covered topics from books to travel and how-to programs. In 1956, she was one of the Zone Chairs for the Annual Mother’s March on Polio (March of Dimes) which was a major fundraising project for the Polio Foundation.

During World War II, Joe served in the Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army Air Force. During a stint in Lincoln, Nebraska, Joe and Kay Skiles welcomed the birth of Joe Jr.

Post-war, Skiles was appointed by Governor Coke Stevenson as adviser to the Veteran’s Housing Committee in 1946. That same year he was named as an assistant to Attorney General Price Daniel. In 1947, he left that position to join the North Texas State College Business Office staff, but returned to the Attorney General’s office the following year.

In 1949, Joe and Kay Skiles donated land in the Highland Park area of the city to NTSTC which became part of the college’s golf course. The site is currently home to Apogee Stadium and Eagle Point Intramural Recreation Field. The Highland Park area served as a military training ground during both World Wars, a large portion of which was purchased by NTSTC at the outset of the Second World War. It was also a popular picnic site.

Joe Skiles is best known as one of Denton’s most prolific developers. In 1956, then, as now, parking around the downtown area was a problem. Skiles, along with Thomas E. Noel developed Denton’s first privately owned parking lot on the 200 block spanning East Oak and East McKinney Streets between Oakland and North Austin Streets. The Amlico Service Station attached to the Claude Bennett Garage, which is now the site of Ambro’s Tacos Y Más, served as the lot’s headquarters where one could pay a monthly rate for a spot. The lot was big enough for 100 cars and it was anticipated that employees of, or those that frequented, the downtown business district would opt for a guaranteed spot thus freeing up lots around the square.

Skiles also purchased lots on West Congress between North Elm and Bolivar Streets in 1958 to build a Safeway grocery store. Safeway leased the building from Skiles when it moved from its original location across from City Hall West in 1959. The building would later house Cupboard Natural Foods and Café and is now home to Denton Independent School District’s New Technology Building.

Perhaps his most recognizable contribution to the City of Denton are two of the city’s best known residential areas, one commonly referred to as Idiot’s Hill and the Southridge Addition. The Idiot’s Hill area is comprised of several additions and subdivisions developed in part by Skiles beginning in the 1950s: Brentwood, Brownwood, Crestwood Heights, Avondale, Nottingham Woods and Windsor Park. He also developed the Holiday Park and Norchester additions that straddle Sherman Drive just north of Idiot’s Hill.

The preliminary plat for Southridge was approved in 1964 and the area was originally intended to be a self-sufficient neighborhood with multiple parks, an elementary school and commercial area. Skiles acquired a total of 425 acres for the development, including the site of Erwin’s Nursery, and it was the first Denton development designed to have all utility lines underground. The lots, easements and streets were placed in such a way as to maintain as many of the hundreds of existing oak, elm and redbud trees as well as fruit trees from the former nursery as possible. In 1973, the remaining undeveloped portion of Southridge was sold to Den-Mac Development Corp. which also began development of the Township II neighborhood.

Outside of his development business Skiles continued to practice law, eventually forming Skiles & Skiles with his son in 1970, based out of Southridge Center. In 1959, he was awarded the first annual Otis Fowler Award by the Chamber of Commerce for “conspicuous and outstanding accomplishment in a chosen field which has resulted in undoubted good to the community.” He also served as a director of First State Bank in 1961, was a member of the Library Board and an advocate for urban renewal in Southeast Denton.

Joe Skiles passed away in 1981 followed by his wife Kay in 1988. On the occasions of their deaths, memorial resolutions were passed by the Texas Legislature in their honor (Joe, 67^th Legislature, House Concurrent Resolution 180, 1981 ; Kay, 71^st Legislature, Senate Resolution 450, 1989).