Modern Living

The turning point in Padre Island's transition into modern living came when years of controversy over land titles ended in 1944 with Judge F. W. Seabury of Brownsville presiding as Master in Chancellery. Within the next decade concrete causeways were built at both tips of the island. In 1950 Nueces County dedicated a causeway from Corpus Christi to North Padre Island but little permanent development took place there for another 20 years. With dedication of the original Queen Isabella Causeway in 1954, John F. Tompkins opened the first real development on Padre Island. Motorists poured across the toll bridge over the Brownsville ship channel en route to South Padre Island. Here services were supplied in two county-owned parks. Private homes, motels and restaurants were built along modern streets and landscaping to check soil erosion was stressed. Many beach front homes are luxurious but private ownership may exist only back of the vegetation line or 200 feet behind mean high tide. Texas law emphasizes that the beach itself belongs to the public.