Tater Town

Tater Town was a nickname given to a neighborhood located just east of 9th Avenue, south of Langley Avenue, north of Underwood Avenue and west of the airport field. It included Douglas Avenue, Airlane Drive, Tippin Avenue, Emily Street, Beaumont Road and others. The name was given when it was one of the northernmost neighborhoods in the city limits, before Scenic Heights, Eastgate, and other neighborhoods had been developed. Entering from 9th Avenue onto Douglas Avenue, one could at one time see Guy Finney's Garage on the left, and a sign on the right which read "Welcome To Tater Town" and underneath it "V.V. Blackmon, Mayor". There was also once a Pentecostal church on the NE corner of Tippin and Douglas Avenues. At approximately the same time as the 1980's widening of Tippin Avenue and it's extension to behind the college, both Tippin and Douglas Avenues started to change from a residential to commercial district. Both the commercialism and Christmas Eve, 1984 bombing of an abortion clinic located near the SE corner of Tippin and Douglas Avenues seemed to forever change the tranquility of residential life in the western end of Tater Town. Some noteworthy Pensacolians who spent a good part of their lives residing in Tater Town include race car driver David "Duke" Norred, and blues guitarist Steve Guffey, both deceased.