Canyon entrepreneur and creator of Feldman’s Wrong Way Diner, Danny Byrd, was just talking to the owner of the Old Lumber Yard (formerly Taylor’s Lumber) on the east side of I-27, where he enters Canyon, when he said that he might like to sell the 45 hectare area.
Byrd took him away. Then he said, “What should I do with it now?”
Byrd, previously owner of Bourbon Street Café in Amarillo, bought the land from Wilford Taylor around this time last year. Byrd said he had been toying with the idea of having an outdoor/indoor event center for a while: “I used to have live music on Bourbon Street and wanted to see that come back.”
Two of the original buildings have been put to good use: the Quonset Barn and the old Stucco building behind it. “We’re going to connect the two and have a banquet room that can seat about 275 people,” Byrd said. The Quonset Hut now houses a large Texas Star, and covers an area of 10,000 square feet. It can serve as a banquet area and includes a restaurant and bar with an area for live music in bad weather.
There will also be a 26,000-square-foot outdoor patio with an outdoor stage. The first concert on the enormous outdoor stage will take place on Saturday, May 18 with the Josh Abbott Band. Gates open at 6:00 PM and the show starts at 7:00 PM. The country band is originally from Lubbock and is known for hits such as ‘My Dad and His Truck’ and ‘Country Nights’.
The site crew did it in phases. “After we open the restaurant, we will use the large patio on the hill for a large concert hall that can accommodate 10,000 to 15,000 people. The large stage, fenced off, will provide some good concerts here in Canyon, and will be kicked off on May 18th by the Josh Abbott Band. With the space we have, we could use the front 16 hectares as a place where we could organize conferences. Byrd said. “The back 30 acres could be an RV park or a pavilion. We want to create a space for the city of Canyon. They have been great to work with. It will benefit Canyon as a location and also generate tax revenue.”
Since the land was outside the town of Canyon, it had to be annexed so they could have electricity and water. The city of Canyon happily approved, and the process continued.
There will be some landscaped areas in front of the patio that will be dog friendly, maybe even a dog park.
There is also an option for a driving range, “where you can come and eat, have a beer and hit a few golf balls,” he said. A lawn has VIP areas and space to roam. Byrd said there were some old train cars they wanted to use. One was protected from the sun and said “Super Chief.”
The innovative entrepreneur also has plans for a so-called ‘beer (wine) wall’, where a customer has a bracelet with a sensor to tap the beer he wants. They chose whatever adult beverage they wanted, from an ounce to more. The cost of beer or wine is calculated per ounce and will be tabulated and also monitored by the mechanism to limit the amount of alcohol a person can consume due to the obligations.
Byrd wants to pay tribute to the Taylor family (Jack and Buddy) who owned the T&S supermarket in Canyon and other areas for many years. They were a big part of the Canyon’s success and community.
There are several signs on the property he wants to use. He likes to call it the “timber yard.” In the 1940s, after the Depression and World War II, people rose from poverty as the Taylors built up a vast area with homes available for those who wanted to work. The vast area, like a camp or a company town, was full of houses and had a huge building that was taken out by the highway as it came through. Wilford has an old photo of the area that shows the entire small town.
“We cleaned up and worked on the 3,900-square-foot red stucco building. It’s fantastic. It’s all nice wood from the ’40s,” he said. ‘The windows extend to the top and were covered and now let in light. It will be a great party room with folding screens and all beams remain visible. It was full of walk-in coolers, and once they were taken out, we realized how cool it was.”
There are plans to use the red building as a rental area for events, parties and conferences by people from the area.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Canyon Old Lumber Yard comes to life as new events center
