This 40-foot bluff became a distinctive border between uptown and downtown as Corpus Christi experienced rapid growth after 1900. With the encouragement of Mayor Roy Miller, New York engineer Alexander Potter began designing improvements to the Bluff and parallel Broadway streets in 1913. Miller's vision and Potter's plans reflected the City Beautiful Movement then popular nationwide. The next year voters approved a $15,000 bond issue and construction began between Lawrence and Peoples Streets. The bluff was graded and filled to a uniform division between upper and lower Broadway streets. Massive concrete retaining walls were highlighted with elegant balustrades and grand stairways. The united daughters of the confederacy sculpture at Peoples Street was designed by Pompeo Coppini in 1914. A $150,000 bond issue in 1916 extended improvements north to Mann Street, and property owners financed the south extension. John G. Kenedy donated land at the south end in 1920, where World War I memorials were placed in 1931. A pedestrian tunnel was finished in 1929, connecting peoples and Schatzel Streets below with upper broadway. Assistant city engineer Conrad Blucher supervised each phase of the improvement project.
This page last updated: 7/15/2008
| StoppingPoints.com Editorial on Broadway Bluff Improvement: | Pompeo Luigi Coppini (May 19, 1870September 26, 1957) was a sculptor, born in Moglia, Mantua, Italy, the son of Giovanni and Leandra (Raffa) Coppini. He grew up in Florence where he studied at Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno under Augusto Rivalta.
Many of his works are in Austin, Texas, displayed on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol and on the campus of The University of Texas. Coppini's statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross (Sully), Texas Governor and third president of Texas A&M University is considered one of the most revered works on the A&M campus in College Station and students often place coins at the statue's feet for good luck on exams. Coppini's marble statue of Senator James Paul Clarke stands in the U.S. Capitol. Coppini also designed bronze two bronze sculptures at Baylor University in Waco, Texas — former Baylor University President Rufus C. Burleson, located on the Burleson Quadrangle on the Baylor campus (1903), and Baylor University namesake and founder Judge R.E.B. Baylor (1939). One of Coppini's best works, according to the artist, is his bronze sculpture of John Reagan, former U.S. Senator from Palestine, Texas, located in that city's Reagan Park (1911), featuring the personification of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy seated at the base of the monument.
Notable Scultpures by Pompeo Coppini:
- Confederate Soldiers monument (1903) on the Texas State Capitol grounds, on monument designed by Frank Teich
- Rufus C. Burleson bronze statue (1903) at the Burleson Quadrangle on the Baylor University campus in Waco, Texas.
- Terry's Texas Rangers monument (1907) on the Texas State Capitol grounds
- Hood's Texas Brigade (1910) on the Texas State Capitol grounds, Austin
- John H. Reagan bronze statues (1911) in Reagan Park in Palestine, Texas
- John Hunt Morgan Memorial (1911) in Lexington, Kentucky
- Firing Line bronze statue (1912) DeLeon Plaza Victoria, Texas
- Lawrence Sullivan Ross (1918) on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas
- Charles H. Noyes bronze sculpture (1919) Ballinger, Texas
- Bronze doors of the Scottish Rite Cathedral (dedicated 1924) in San Antonio, Texas[1]
- San Antonio Express-News (1929) building entrance with carvings, San Antonio, Texas
- Littlefield Fountain (1933) on the University of Texas campus
- Cenotaph to the Alamo (1936-40) San Antonio, Texas
- Judge R.E.B. Baylor bronze statue (1939) on the Baylor University campus in Waco, Texas.
- Dr. J. Frank Norris statue at the Top O' Hill Terrace, Arlington, Texas
- George Washington statue (1955) on the University of Texas campus
- Daughters of the Confederacy statue at Broadway Bluff, in Corpus Christi
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Broadway Bluff Improvement Historical Marker Location Map, Corpus Christi, Texas
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Related Themes: Texas C.S.A., Texas Confederate States of America, Confederacy
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