From left to right, Dr. Eugene Allen, Walter Farrington, Alex Beall and Page Morris Sr. are photographed in an old newspaper clipping highlight Morris Sr.'s election as second president of the Tyler Tennis and Swim Club, photographed in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Tyler ISD will use the property in their plans to expand and construct a new high school for Robert E. Lee students. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

CHELSEA PURGAHN, cpurgahn@tylerpaper.com

Pete Morris and Marsha Harris stood outside the chain-link fence surrounding the grounds of Tyler Tennis and Swim. They were waiting for one of the workers on the other side of the fence to help them retrieve the white letters from the establishment’s wooden sign, but what they were mostly there for was to see the place one last time before it was demolished.

Tyler ISD finalized the purchase of approximately eight acres of land at Tyler Tennis and Swim back in December 2014 that could be added to the Robert E. Lee campus for future renovations or construction of new school facilities.

The school board approved buying the tract for $2.5 million. Cliff Drysdale Management Inc. already had made a deal with Tyler Tennis and Swim Club to remodel, rebuild and renovate the club when Tyler ISD came on the scene interested in purchasing the property. Earlier this summer, Cliff Drysdale opened the new location called Tyler Athletic & Swim Club on Oak Creek Boulevard off of Old Jacksonville Highway, freeing up the old site for TISD’s use. 

The district will keep eight of the courts for Lee’s tennis team to practice on while it begins to shift the campus south ahead of construction on the new facility.

The demolition also will allow the district to begin work on cutting Red Raider Drive through to Shiloh Road for its construction teams. The road will be open to the public closer to completion of construction.

Morris spoke emotionally about the deal, saying it was “like losing a family member” to see the club go. In a way, it is for him, as his father Page Morris Sr. was one of the co-founders and the second president of Tyler Tennis and Swim.

Morris recalled spending a lot of his childhood on the land, pointing out the now large pines he planted when he was a kid and joking about all the labor his father had him and his friends put into cleaning the swimming pool.

Morris played tennis at Lee in the early ’70s. He and his friends spent countless afternoons practicing for tournaments or just hitting the ball around for fun on the courts.

Keeping with his dad’s habits of being a good record keeper, Morris has newspaper clippings, family photos and documents about the club from decades long ago.

In one of the newspaper clippings, Bob Faulkner poses for a portrait with a few tennis students when Faulkner was the chairman of court construction. In another, Morris’ father is pictured during the East Texas Open Tennis Tournament.

 He laughed as he looked over the prices on an old menu: Cheeseburgers only cost 50 cents when the menu was printed, and the club served flip chips, a kind of nacho plate.

“The purpose for founding the club was to help promote tennis as a major sport in Tyler and East Texas and to provide a place for the middle class to come who couldn’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars a month,” Morris said as he watched the clubhouse being torn down while Harris picked up a few stray tennis balls.

At the end of the work day, a worker came to help Morris and Harris retrieve the white letters, which Morris will surely add to his keepsakes about this place that has made such an impact on his life and others in the Tyler community.

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