templehouston

As I recall, Sakowitz was the premier department store based in Houston. It was "higher end" than Foley Brothers. Joske's was San Antonio's comparable department store and they both competed with that store in Dallas, Neiman-Marcus. When Neiman's opened its first Houston store in the 1950s, Houstonians stayed away in droves. For those who don't know, the Neiman-Marcus building is still on Main Street. When they opened the Galleria store, they closed the Main Street location and Palais Royal took over that building. The building is now the CVS Pharmacy on Main. Sakowitz had a large clientele of wealthy Latin Americans who made Houston a destination for their shopping trips. I won't even go into the stories about Robert Sakowitz.

The list includes a number of houses that aren't even in Houston, so the actual number on the list is closer to 170 than 200. Remember that Houston had fewer than 50,000 people in 1900 and the city's physical limits were considerably closer to Downtown. You should probably sort by zipcode to get a better idea of which houses are actually in what was Houston in 1900. (Or in Houston Heights.) The list doesn't even include the Kirby Mansion, located at 2000 Smith Street (77002). That house was built in 1884, remodeled in 1895 and again in 1925. I don't know if the 2000 Smith Street location is its original location. A number of the older houses were moved from their original locations (in what is now Downtown) to more "suburban" locations (e.g., the Waldo Mansion on Westmoreland).

This house is on Yoakum Blvd. on the block south of Richmond Avenue (just before the Southwest Freeway). It's a law firm office now.

We moved to Memorial Forest (the subdivision along Plantation Road south of the mall) in December 1961. At the time, the only access from Plantation Road to the Katy Freeway was by way of Taylorcrest to Benignus Road. The site of Memorial City Mall was a turkey shoot (a shooting range). There was a tall earthwork (to stop bullets I assume) in the middle of what is now the mall. I understand there was also a small pond near the mound where people would go skinny dipping (or so I heard while riding the school bus to Spring Branch Junior High). Anyway, the Sears could not have opened in 1962. I think it opened in 1964. I remember attending the opening of the Memorial Theater. They had a bagpipe player and some Hollywood starlet made an appearance. The movie was "Nevada Smith." Oh, yeah, I saw "La Dolce Vita" there in 1967, give or take a year.

Hey, it's almost three years, but no one appears to have described the 70s in Montrose. First, the area around Dunlavy and Westheimer is the closest I see today to the atmosphere of lower Westheimer (i.e., Westheimer EAST of Montrose) in the 70s. The antique galleries on lower Westheimer were all in old homes and not nearly as accessible as the ones you find nowadays between Woodhead and Mandell. The original Tootsie's was located across from Dorothy Schwartz's gay bar near Whitney and Westheimer. Dorothy had two bars, Prufrock's and the Round Table. Prufrock's had the text of the poem written around the room just below the ceiling. It had a very eclectic jukebox (Piaf, movie themes [e.g., North to Alaska], etc.) (remember, it's the 70s). Artists frequented the bar and certain politicians were also found there regularly. It was a converted house with a fireplace and several rooms in the back where people played cards and chess. Many foreign beers. Great place to get drunk and lose at chess. It was a mixed bar, so the opportunities were unlimited. In the next block was the Round Table (across from Tootsie's, remember). This was a really rundown old house whose most distinctive feature was a porch swing on the porch. This would be unremarkable, but this was the 70s and the Round Table was a gay bar, so sitting on the swing and having a drink was considered quite daring by many people. During the early 70s, the Round Table was best known for its Sunday afternoon beer bust. In the spring, summer and fall, it was packed with young men (boomers) in cutoffs and not much else who stood around the front yard and spilled out into the street. It was quite a sight. All sorts of things took place on the front steps, but were shielded from view from the street by the sheer number of bodies. Much fun. There were still a good number of four-plexes, apartment houses, and homes on Westheimer at that time, so people were always out and about, walking, talking, sitting on the porch or the steps, drinking a beer or smoking something. It was quite safe to walk along the street in the evening. There were a number of gay bars in the area and people would walk (stumble actually) from one to another. There was only one bar on Pacific Street at the time -- the bars were on Westheimer. Katz's was originally Art Wren's. It served great enchiladas and had a shobar in the back. The meat market was on the steps in the front. Periodically, you wouild see Houston's Finest parked in front busting the hustlers. Mary's was there, of course, but it was smaller -- the right door led to a topless shoe shine parlor. There was a swing out front and the girls would swing on it to attract customers. Real girls. Of course, the times being what they were and when the spirit moved the powers that be in the HPD, Mary's would be raided and everyone would be lined up outside so passersby could see who was frequenting the queer bar. In addition to the bars, restaurants, and residences, there were a number of retail establishments: men's stores, a dentist's office, several convenience stores, a great boot shop at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose, and a number of homes converted into mini-malls. These conversions weren't too successful, but they always showed great promise with their candle shops, beauty salons, and gift boutiques when they first opened. The point is there were people about constantly and there were always places to go and explore and the crusing was constant. Of course, the violence was never too far away. I knew several people who never survived their encounters with Herman Short's boys. And then straight people moved in with their streetwalkers and massage parlors. And then the decline began. Once it was no longer safe to walk on lower Westheimer after dark because of high school boys from the suburbs and their clubs, people stayed away. The bars moved. The shops closed. And then the firebug arrived.

I recall a White Castle in Spring Branch (on Gessner, north of Long Point, I think) in the early 60s. Those burgers were distinctly unacceptable to Texans and appealed only to homesick Yankees. That location did not last very long. We went once.

The Uptown Line is not for the residents of the Galleria area. It's for the people who work in the area and for the people who come to shop. Those are the people who create the traffic in the area. If you give them an alternative to searching for parking in the area by offering the rail line, they will probably take it. The merchants in the area wanted this line and they got it. You are wasting time talking about subways and elevated lines. Metro appears committed to street level for most of the light rail routes and you are 20 years late to be proposing Kathy Whitmire's monorail. There is still nothing to stop you from driving your car anywhere in this city you wish. You do have to use your head and learn the alternatives to direct left turns, however.

I just finished a quick review of all the posts in this thread and I can't find any reference to the Village Theater. Located in the Village, the last movie I saw there was Visconti's "The Damned." That must have been about 1970. The theater declined in the 70s (I seem to recall it became notorious for couples having sex in the balcony). Sorry, I don't have any picture to post. Someone asked about the interior of the Majestic. As I recall, it was "classical," i.e., it had Greco-Roman statuary, etc. The last movie I saw there was "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 1967. As I recall, the Metropolitan's decor was "Egyptian" and the Loew's State next door was deco.

In 1984 I flew to San Francisco to attend the Democratic National Convention. Among the passengers on my flight were the Singing Boys of Houston. They numbered about 40 or so and were extremely well behaved. They were flying to San Francisco to give a concert at the Cathedral. When we landed, but before we exited the plane, they sang a couple of songs for the other passengers. They sang very well and the mini-concert was appreciated by the other passengers. I didn't know the choir was defunct. That's a pity.

The first bar at the old Hollyfield Cleaners location (now the Empire Cafe) was the Locker. At the time, it was considered to be Houston's first gay leather bar (although Mary's could certainly make a case that it was a leather bar in the 70s). I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Round Table (located next to where the Veterans Center is today). It was very popular on Sunday afternoon during the early 1970s. The crowd literally overflowed into the street (Westheimer) and the crowd was so thick that all sorts of things occurred al fresco in the front yard. The original Tootsie's was across the street. WRT the bar on California Street, my memory is faulty, but I believe it was called the Silver Bullet, not Quicksilver. The late 60s music venue on Richmond was Sand Mountain, but I'm not sure it was at the location later occupied by EJs. My nomination for the most interesting bar: Prufrock's. It was owned by the same person who owned the Round Table and was just a block away. A mixed bar, it only sold beer and wine (no liquor by the drink), had a truly unique juke box, and had the text of the poem written around the walls of the main room. If you found the mistake in the text, you got a free drink. It was a hangout for artists and more than a few politicos. I once saw Dick Wray sign the shadow a lamp cast on the wall as "found" art. There were rooms in the rear that were dedicated to playing card games and chess -- and they were busy.

Quicksilver was on California Street, just east of Montrose. The Chinese take-out place is located next to where it was located, which is now a parking lot for Prive'. Quicksilver had a rather notorious tree limb in the backyard. (If you have to ask, don't.)

I understand that renting an apartment at Isabella Courts is as difficult as getting a place at the Beaconsfield. I also have an impression that they did not rent to men.

I live two blocks from HSPVA, but haven't kept up on the plans after HSPVA moves. Which school will be moved into the current building? BTW, I'm sorry they are moving the school, it has been a good neighbor (unlike some elementary schools on Kirby I could name, or that parochial school on Yoakum).

Good question. Does anyone know when they must make an announcement? I don't mean a deadline set arbitrarily by Culberson for his own benefit, but is there a legitimate deadline for submitting plans for obtaining funding approval? From what I recall, they did not need to do anything before December.