brucesw

Butera's was a great place - especially the Butera family. I am saddened that nothing remains of Mr. Johnny's legacy.

I was looking at Damian's website and see the place is run by Frankie Mandola and Joseph Butera.

There's a Dallas phone number on the sign out front with "Call for information" next to it. I'll try to remember to write down the number the next time I go by there.

214-349-1100

The one on Broadway in San Antonio reopened several months ago.

In mid-January 1948 Houston hotelman W. Albert Lee, who at that time either owned or leased the Milby Hotel, installed a 62' animated Trans Lux sign on the Texas Avenue face of the hotel. It was a smaller version of the famous sign in Times Square, NYC, and displayed messages in letters 4' tall.

The sign was in support of Lee's first broadcast venture, KLEE-AM, 610, which launched at the end of the month and had studios on the 2nd floor of the hotel.

The full page ads for the launch of the radio station included pictures of the studios and transmitter facility and the control room for the Trans Lux which had 2 full time employees to type the messages displayed, but no picture of the sign itself.

Do any HAIFers know of any pictures of the hotel with the sign? or any memories of the sign? I do not know how long the installation was maintained. (It was turned off at 10pm each night, which I'm sure the guests at the Rice appreciated).

Lee owned the radio station until his death in late 1951; in 1952 his estate sold it to Dallas' Gordon McLendon who changed the call letters to KLBS and then in 1957 to KILT.

Zimm's on Montrose near Richmond - wine bar now? (but still owned by Mr. Zimmerman)

I used to live across the street from one of Butera's sons - he had opened an Italian restaurant on Bellaire Blvd. called Angelina's (?) after his daughter, I believe (it's now Nick's Pasta Place). I think when he sold it he moved out of the Houston area.

I see Nick's every time I go to WF across Bellaire. I was thinking it was some other restaurant before it became Nick's but even before that it was a Volvo dealership.

I've forgotten about the Russian restuarant on Richmond and Yoakum! Unfortunately, I forgot the name along with it - though "Rasputian's" lingers in my mind.

Butera's was a great place - especially the Butera family. I am saddened that nothing remains of Mr. Johnny's legacy.

The location that Zimm's is at now isn't the one they had in the '80s. Same strip, but they had the east corner location. I don't recall the food, but it was one of the few establishments that served Belhaven Scottish Ale (resulting in more lost brain cells and GPA points).

Sorry but Rasputin's doesn't ring a bell with me.

Butera's had the best pasta salads ever and a navy bean soup that was good enough to provoke a spiritual awakening - soul-satisfyingly good. I wish I had some of their recipes. Do you know if any were ever published?

I guess I never went to Zimm's in the original location.

West of Shepherd Dr was Boyle, Victor and Nashua. Nashua is still as is, but Boyle became Laird, and Victor became Roderick, later a part of Durham. An old map shows Nashua going north to beyond 29th. It now stops at 16th.

Yes, it was Roderick, not Rodrigo. Thanks for that.

While on 18th street traveling west crossing North Durham... you can see a concrete street post that shows NASHUA STREET. i recall looking at an old map and it showed North Durham was Nashua past 17th street.

i'll try to post a picture soon on the concrete post.

A portion of Nashua still exists further south, around 12th. The street that was obliterated by N. Durham at that point was called Rodrigo, I think. My aunt had a house there in the 50s; the house still stands but it's on N. Durham, now. Rodrigo only ran north from 12th for a few blocks, perhaps.

There have been many mentions here on HAIF of the original Sears store on Buffalo Drive at Lincoln. Lincoln was taken over by the northward extension of Montrose, apparently. There is still a short remnant of Lincoln Street behind the Valero station at Westheimer @ Montrose.

All,

Although I haven't lived in Houston in over 10 years, here is what I recall (after removing some duplicates made by others in earlier posts):

• Jenny's Hideaway on W. Alabama (popular spot to recover the day after the night before . . . )
  
• Dalt's (located WAY down Westheimer, art deco/stainless steel style cafe)
  
• Balaika's (Houston's only Russian restuarant in the '80s. The head waiter was Igor, with a great, twisted sense of humor.)
  
• Dentler's (located near the Medical Center. Closed sometime in the late 60's - may be related to the potato chip manufacturer)
  
• Butera's (all deli locations and the store - I used to work at the store during my high school/college years)
  
• Zimm's Wine Bar on Montrose (original location had stained paneling everyway - great atmosphere!)
  
• Old Chicago Pizza Corp. (down the street from what is now the Demenille Gallery)
  
• Westcott's Drive In (great burgers!)
  
• Roznosky's on Fagan (I still have a series of coupons for free burgers that I won - from 1979!)
  
• Casablana's Moroccan Restuarant (belly dancing and no flatware - ah, the memories . . . )
  
• One's A Meal in West Gray (great all-night eating. The "fresh fruit in season" was ALWAYS bananas!)
  
• The Ale House (I put many a wait-staff through college here . . .)
  

If any of you had parents that worked in the hospitals in the Medical Center during the 60's and 70's, do you remember:

• The Faculty Club (located in the old Fannin Bank building (I think). I remember my folks taking my brother and sisters to the "shrimp peel nights" there.
  
• The Doctor's Club (closed in the mid-late '90s according to my father. The memberships were then transfered to The Petroleum Club. My father took one look at the membership fees and said something very unprintable. Scratch one membership . . .
  

In regards to an earlier post on Ethel's Southern Cafe, this was literally around the corner from my parent's house. Before it came into existence, it was a mechanic's garage. After it went under, it re-opened as a greek restuarant. After that folded, the property owners thought a parking lot was more suitable for that location.

All that brings to mind another place that is currently in the news - the apartments on Bissonnet and Ashby. Back in the '60s there was a place called KG Drugs that had a fountain and grill inside. When that closed, a Jones Apothecary opened up, but minus the grill. That closed (along with the other businesses along the strip there - a barbershop is all I recall), and the site was redeveloped as the apartments that are there now. Before "progress" razes it to the ground, be aware that above the front entryway nearest the Ashby/Bissonnett corner, under the stucco, is the ORIGINAL name of the building (either cast or carved) when it was first built. I noticed this when they where redeveloping the property back in the '80s. For all I know, the actual building may date back to the '20s or '30s.

Regards,

Old Guard Guy

I have been trying for a long time to remember the name of the Russian restaurant in an old brick mansion at the corner of Yoakum and Richmond - was that Balaika's? This would have been pre-1978, I think. My first experience of Veal Orloff, butter squirting out of Chicken Kiev, Stoli dispensed tableside from a bottle encased in a block of ice.... A very memorable restaurant.

Butera's - originally a grocery store on Bissonnet, then the deli on Montrose just above the Glassell School of Art, right across from the Plaza. A great place.

Zimm's - still there I think. Earlier that had been a Steak 'n Egg.

There have been several discussions of George Dentler's Pier 21; it was still open in the early 70s because I went there a couple of times and I didn't get here until 1970.

Old Chicago Pizza - now Cafe Artiste?

I heard a lot about the original Rosnovsky's but never could get away from work long enough to go. Wasn't it in an old church or school gymnasium or something?

Dalt's - by way down Westheimer do you mean lower Westheimer? That one stumps me.

My list, with a few that haven't been mentioned yet:

Near downtown

Thiem Hung, banh mi shop on Pease @ St. Emmanuel

District 7 Grill on Hutchins

Thelma's BBQ - Lamar @ Live Oak, one of the best bbqs in Hou, catfish also good

Villa Arcos - Navigation, down from Ninfa's - breakfast tacos, home-made tortillas

Near UH

Frenchy's on Scott - Fried chicken, Creole Sausage PoBoy, Red Beans and Rice, Greens

Dinner Bell Cafeteria, Lawndale at Wayside - down home cafeteria and pastry shop

Mandola's Deli - Telephone @ Leeland, poboys, closes mid-afternoon

Further South including just outside the Loop

Telwink - Telephone @ Winkler, breakfast, closes mid-afternoon

Dot Coffee shop - part of the Pappas empire, a great 24 hr diner

Taqueria Monterey Chiquita - Schley @ Garland, just south of the RR tracks, 75th @ Griggs

Original Kolache Shop - Telephone @ Park Place - the first and still the best kolache shop, limited hours, some cookies and other baked goods are great

Kelley's Country Cooking - Park Place @ 45 - lucdricously large portions, home-cooking

Noemi's Taqueria - just across Park Place from Kelley's

Taqueria del Sol - authentic Mex-Mex, across 45 from Kelley's - big parking lot out back; the place'll be packed

Capt. Benny's - faux shrimp boat, 45 @ Monroe?, catfish, gumbo, oysters on the half shell, cold boiled shrimp

Both these restaurants have been discussed many times on HAIF; try the search feature or just pull up the thread about long-gone restaurants.

I was going to the New York Pizzeria on Beechnut at Meyerland Plaza for a while but I got turned off by the slovenliness of the young, mostly male, staff, even the very young evening manager. It's no fun eating out if, when you see a waiter or busboy headed your way, you wonder if his pants are going to fall down or if you should hold your breath until he passes by. The food also seemed to go downhill but to be fair I never encountered anything like that at the NYP on Holcombe @ Greenbriar, but that location is not so convenient.

Thin crust is the style I prefer and I think what they serve at Romano's on West Gray is better than NYP but the best thin crust I've had in Houston was at Napoli Flying Pizza on Beechnut at Rice. There are several locations around town of that one, too.

Aha - I've wondered what this building was for several years now but couldn't find anything about it:

.

The State Theater - I thought isuredid's ad said 5013 but I guess that's a 9 - 5913 Washington, just east of the Circle.

And the Stude, 11th @ Stude according to the ad. I've noticed that for years whenever I went to Someburger.

Great ads, isuredid. I noticed Will Horwitz' ad for his Homefolks Theaters - Uptown, Texas, Iris, Ritz. Several of the movies were released in 1942 according to IMDB so this must not be long after his death. Into the mid-40s the ads for his theaters carried the line 'A Will Horwitz Estate Theater.'

Robb Walsh's story this week on CFS mentions the Frisco and says the site has been purchased by Walgreen's and will be demolished next year.

There is a Scholz Garten, but it's in Austin - perhaps you're conflating that name with the other place you're thinking of in the Heights?

Scholz Garten

That's neat. I had no idea Scholz was still around. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in Austin.

Sterling's memoirs Ross Sterling, Texan were just published this year by the Univ. of Texas Press. The book is available from Amazon.

Sterling's memoirs Ross Sterling, Texan were just published this year by the Univ. of Texas Press. The book is available from Amazon.

Sounds interesting. The chronology of Sterling's activities is confusing in sources I've seen -- just when he sold his shares in Humble to Standard and started building and buying -- or did he start that before selling?

Re: the Sterling Hotel - I understand Wyatt C. Hedrick was Sterling's son-in-law and architect for most of his buildings and also later designed the Shamrock for Glenn McCarthy.

Sort of off topic: does anybody know who designed the Texas State Hotel and was that a Jesse Jones project?

Thanks Jeebus and Bruce for the detailed information about the neighborhood. My spouse and I want to move to Houston and are trying to learn about various neighborhoods from people familiar with them. We've seen houses we like in 77071 and 77096 and when I visited in January, I looked at some houses in Glenbrook Valley. We'll be visiting for several days in June and I'm trying to determine out which neighborhoods we should concentrate on while we're in Houston.

We don't have any children, so we're not worried about the quality of the schools. We'd be moving from the SF Bay Area and our housing budget is between 380,000 - 400,000. We're Black, which I mention only because Bruce commented that some of his Black neighbors had experienced problems when they first moved to the neighborhood. The ideal situation would be to have a place in Houston and another near the water (Galveston, Corpus, Aransas Bay, South Padre Island?) The price of the house at the address listed was 185,000 which made me think we might be able to buy a place in Houston and another at the beach. We're open to suggestions for both the Houston neighborhood and beach property. So if you (or anyone else) have any suggestions, please send them along. Thanks again.

I had to drive by - couldn't place the house. I don't think it's been on the market for long. I haven't seen the inside but $185k sounds like a bargain to me. Be advised it can be quite pricey to cool the upper floor of a 1.5 or 2 story in Houston's summer heat. There's a Black family about 2 doors down from that house; extended family, it seems, G-Ma and G-Pa, perhaps, 2 teen-aged sons, maybe some smaller ones. I wave when I go by but have never met them. Check real estate prices @ Galveston, etc. for that beach house!, you may not be able to afford both. You could check Surfside, further south. About as accessible and probably a lot less pricey.

Did you check the original section of Braeburn Valley, north of the bayou, south of Bissonett? It's maybe 10 years older, some really nice 50s places in there, some big enough to be country estates. That's probably the priciest neighborhood around --- whoops!, I guess that's not considered part of Braeburn Valley!

Braeburn Valley HOA

Great follow up Bruce. I happened to know a little bit about this subdivision because I have a friend in Maplewood West. One day after visiting, I drove around. You were right about the Jews, I saw them on Braesridge south of Creekbend I believe. They seemed at ease walking through the neighborhood in the evening, despite the proximity to low-rent apartments on Fondren. I figured that was a good indicator of the neighborhood's stability & general safety.

South Braeswood floods pretty bad right before Fondren if you're heading east. You're right about the close proximity to Police, Constables, Fire, and EMS as well. That neighborhood seems to be nestled right in between them all.

For grocery stores, my friend uses the Foodarama at South Braeswood & Fondren. For other stuff he heads east to Westbury. I think they have a Home Depot, Kroger, and a Walmart all around West Bellfort & Chimney Rock.

This is another one of those areas I'd love to live in if I didn't have kids. Unfortunately, between the home prices and private school, I can't afford to live there. My friend in Maplewood West said he had to take a second job just so he could put the kids in school. He said it was worth it though because his parents live three streets behind him, in the house he grew up in - all before the apartments went ghetto.

The supermarket @ Braeswood and Fondren is FoodTown, in a former Albertson's. Huge store, decent produce and beef, lots of Mexican items, long aisle of Mexican and Asian foods. Not fancy but good prices. I shop there regularly. There's a WalMart Neighborhood Market just off Hillcroft, one block s. of Braeswood that is quite nice for a Walmart - in a former Rice Epicurean Foods building. I go there a lot too. WalMart beef is awful but otherwise it's a surprisingly nice store and of course, good prices, though FoodTown beats it on produce, usually.

Small dismal Fiesta @ S. Braeswood @ Gessner, larger, still pretty dismal Fiesta @ W. Bellfort @ Fondren. Another WMNC @ S. Gessner @ Bellfort, not as nice but okay, a little iffier neighborhood. HEB @ Braeswood @ Chimney Rock - older store, lots of Kosher. Belden's across the bayou - more Kosher, nicer store, pricier. The nearest Kroger Signature is at W. Bellfort @ S. Post Oak -- not as nice as the one on Westpark but does have the Boar's Head Deli and a Kosher Bakery and Meat Shoppe. Otherwise, I avoid going all the way over to S. Post Oak. There are no Randalls left in this part of town that I know of. Home Depot is where Westbury Square used to be, or some of it.

Channel 11 had a recent feature story on neighborhood crime which focused on Ludington St. in Northfield, which is the subdivision between Creekbend and W. Bellfort. Might still be available on their website. There are some really nice, newer homes in there.

The neighborhood is Braeburn Valley Sec V, the last section built. My realtor, who'd been working in the area since the 50s, told me most of the builders went on to build custom homes. Management company is AVR. Very active HOA, got a little too active a few years back and I thought we were going to be one of those that wound up on the nightly news for some ridiculous harassment issue, but those people seem to have calmed down or moved on to the Super Neighborhood board, Fondren SW I thiink it's called, realizing there are a lot more serious problems to tend to in this part of town other than whether some little old widow painted her front door without filling out the appropriate paperwork first. One of the dustups came to lawsuits and claims of death threats.

Issues repeatedly brought up in the Association newsletter, parking on the street and trash (heavy trash, bags of lawn clippings) left on sidewalks for days. Traffic along S. Braeswood treats it like a freeway mornings and afternoons.

Jeebus is right about the areas to avoid, west of Gessner particularly is crime ridden, but they don't come into BV often; crime rate here is very low, according to the neighborhood patrol, Security Sure. There's a Pct 5 storefront in the Fiesta center at Gessner @ S. Braeswood and an HPD storefront on Fondren @ W. Bellfort. Twin Hills is a bad street for crime because of the run down apartments on Creekbend behind it and also a bad street for pass thru traffic. Fire station 68 is close by on Bissonett @ Gessner and there's another one close to W. Bellfort.

Annual fees $350 I think, covers pool (controlled access, you have to pick up the badges in person, they won't mail them), private garbage and recycling (Republic, very dependable), private patrol (Security Sure, a total waste), private mosquito spraying (nightly for about a month now, but because of heavy growth of trees and fenced back yards, it won't do much good on your patio; that house being on one of the alleyways may get passbys both front and back and side!) Aluminum wiring was probably the rule when the sub was built; a few have been rewired, particularly those who've lived here a long time. Many had early security systems by Security Sure, key-operated, and still have them. If that place has one, get it changed right away! I don't keep the flyers from the realtors but I think prices start around 170k and go up to the mid 300s. That's a little larger than average size for the neighborhood -- not that many 1 and a halfs. Per the latest flood control maps, only the houses along S. Braeswood are in the 100 year plain BUT CHECK FOR YOURSELF. I've never had water over the curb but almost had water in the house off the patio in back during Allison - a drainage problem I've taken care of.

Very quiet neighborhood; many retirees, many people who've lived here since the beginning. Not that many families with kids, at least not as many as you'd see in the suburbs. Jeebus is probably right about the schools, Fondren, Welch, Sharpstown Hi, probably. Valley Hills Elementary on Gessner may be okay. Orthodox Jews are mostly south of W. Bellfort; I've never seen any in this neighborhood. Lots of blacks have moved into the neighborhood, there are many orientals but few Hispanics that I'm aware of. One of my Black neighbors has reported some harrassment when they first moved in; I was totally shocked. Thanks to Tom Delay's tactics, your Congressman for the foreseeable future will be Al Green. State Rep is Dr. Alma Allen, State Sen. is Rodney Ellis. The neighborhood has been very politically active (liberal) in the past but is more mixed and less active now.

Many people walk the subdivision streets in the evening and before dawn; bicycle riders tend to be seniors. Braes Bayou Hike and Bike Trail along the bayou extends to the Medical Center area. Free fireworks show on the 4th courtesy of Braeburn Valley Country Club, north of the bayou, that is if you can see it through the trees (yours and your neighbor's, not the Country Club's).

Grocery stores close by - mediocre. Decent restaurants close by - 0.

I'm very happy here; have thought of moving closer in to a smaller place but I hate the hassles of moving so I'm probably staying put. PM me if there are more questions.

Hurricane Carla in Brazosport:

The article says water got up to the first floor of the administration building. As I recall the ground level is mostly parking. Plant B and Lake Jackson were flooded because the storm surge came so far inland it came around the end of the levees erected to protect Plant B (the one along Hwy 288 for those not familiar with Brazosport). Lake Jackson is approximately 10 miles from the coast.

The Ammonia plant is right across 288 from the Administration building.

Whew!

A picture from the Facts special edition:

The Surf Drive-in in the lower left, I guess that's Plant B in the background -- I think this was before Dow Badische (now BASF) was built. The drive-in across from the Surf was Boddiddlies or something like that; never went there. The interchange of 288 and 332 would be just off to the right; I guess it wasn't built then. I guess we lived in Lake Jackson when the only way in was on Oyster Creek Drive, a shell road coming off of the old Angleton-Clute road, but I don't remember it. Later, you could go to the foot of Azalea, jag over to Plantation and go out thru Clute, either following Plantation all the way to 288 or take the 'short cut' out Commerce. I don't remember when 332 came through from Brazoria -- originally that was just an extension of Oyster Creek Drive and didn't branch off to go to Surfside.

I took a trip to Brazosport recently and came back very depressed. I took a lot of pictures but not as many as I wanted as I ran out of space on my card. I'll get around to posting some of them.

Some corrections: above I referred to the Cherry St. bridge in Freeport -- there probably never was one. I should have been saying Velasco St. bridge. I'll go back and correct the posts.

I think the Velasco theater was probably on Ave A, not B. Just about everything there has been razed.

Quintana was on the south side of the mouth of the Old Brazos, Surfside on the north. The original site of Velasco in the early 1800s however was right on the coast. It moved inland after storms.

I've never heard of North Center Way or South Center Way; we always called it Other Way. Thought I even had a pic of a street sign but can't find it. I guess Sanborn should have passed out free maps to all the residents.

P.S. Lee's in Fpt has been razed and is now in a small space on Broad in the same block; looks like only one counter inside. They must've lost a lot of merchandise. There's nothing yet in the old Showboat.

I've been interested in the history of local Houston television for years. And you guys are suppling some really great stuff here. Thank you.

I thought I knew a little about the history of Houston television until I just found out about the existance of channel 16 and the other channels that Houston could have had.

I have always wondered how Houston ended up with the stations it has. For example, why does a city the size of Houston only have 4 VHF channels? Is it because of Houston's proximity to Beaumont, San Antonio and Austin? How did the number allocations get decided in the first place?

I suppose there are books about this stuff, but I've never been able to locate them and some of you guys here seem to be wealth of knowledge on the subject so I just thought I'd ask.

Thanks again.

The only books I know about with anything about Houston TV are The Fault Does Not Lie with Your Set by Jack Harris, long time general manager of Channel 2, and Texas Signs On by Richard Shroeder. The former is a collection of essays - reminiscences - by several employees of 2; they don't seem to have done any research for what they wrote, just relied on their memories, and there's a lot of puffery in some of the claims. The latter is mostly about radio but contains a big section on WBAP-TV, Fort Worth, the first TV station in the state and has several pages on KLEE-TV/KPRC-TV and a couple of pages on other early Houston TV stations. It is well researched but not without flaws and misstatements. For instance, he says KTRH won the assignment for Channel 13 but as I pointed out in post # 12 above, that's not exactly true.

The number of allotments to a city would have been influenced by the number of people to be served, technical requirements for spacing from same channel/adjacent channel assignments (the older TV sets had much better tuners than today and could pull in stations from much farther away, resulting in interference), and undoubtedly at times politics.

I have mostly researched radio history. However this site http://members.aol.com/jeff560/jeff.html (scroll down) has a section on TV which may have some explanatory articles which could help.

Take a look at that list of 1947 TV allotments; the ones for Houston were 2, 4, 5 and 7; there were 3 for Galveston, including 11 and 13, and so on.

Have you ever just googled on 'TV history' or something similar? There are probably sites like the above devoted just to TV which would have explanatory articles about FCC policies, etc. Also, books about the history of broadcasting or the relationship between government and broadcasting, perhaps available at HPL, might have expanations that would help.

It's interesting how TV equipment gets re-used like that. When KHCW (then KHWB) started its news operation, they purchased the video archive of the old TXN cable network (anyone remember them).

KHOU used to get a lot of hand-me-downs from WFAA/Dallas, but not so much anymore. That stuff ends up at TXCN and Belo's smaller stations now.

When I was at Channel 9 in Austin in the 60s (KLRN, now KLRU), we had some state of the art Marconi b&w cameras in one studio but hand-me-down RCA's in the other which I believe were from KPRC.

The GM of 9 told me KUHT had lots of hand-me-downs, including some old DuMonts from KPRC and equipment from 2 and 11.

When I was with Westinghouse I had my pick of lots of choice equipment. In those days, Group W engineers had big budgets. A couple of stations had spent tens of thousands of dollars on state of the art Telefunken and Neumann mikes for their whole operations, then decided they didn't like the sound of them so just put them in a closet and forgot about them. I got as many as I needed.

Glenn McCarthy's Shamrock Broadcasting owned KXYZ-AM-FM at the time and was seeking a TV station (he wanted to operate them all from the hotel but I don't think any of them ever had studios there). McCarthy shut down the FM to concentrate on TV but so far as I know, KXYZ-TV never made it to the air on any channel.

Wow.. That's great & memorable stuff. Do you have any idea where exactly the KNUZ-39 transmitter/antenna was? The earliest recollection I have (before KHTV) of that Candelabra tower near Missouri City was with only two antennas -- CH's 2 & 11. It seems to me like KHTV's antenna went in the vacant 3rd position in 1966. I wondered if that might've been where KNUZ-TV had been before ... But that was so long ago & my memory must be half shot by now.

KNUZ-TV was on the Channel 8 tower which was behind the building on Cullen according to the newspaper at the time.

KGUL-TV's original tower was at Camp Wallace, I understand. 11 may have actually had a couple of towers before going on the candelabra west of 288; an original one that was very short and then a taller one.

I looked it up: When Glenn McCarthy (Shamrock Broadcasting) took over Harris Co. Broadcasting he dropped out of the competition for Channel 13 and opted for 29 instead. Did it for the same reason the owners of 11 opted to go for a station in Galveston: to avoid the competitive hearings for the VHF slots in Houston which would delay getting on the air. HCBc had originally applied for 13 in 1948, the 2nd applicant for that allotment, before the freeze on TV permits which left Houston with only one station.

Roy Hofheinz had originally applied for KTHT-TV on Channel 7 when that was assigned to Houston but switched to 13 when new allotments were doled out.

Houston Television Timeline

In 1950 the Houston Chronicle discovered Lake Jackson and their Sunday Rotogravure magazine did a feature.

The big building lower left is the Lake Theater, apparently one of the first buildings completed. It faces Circle Way; along the side of the theater is North Parking Place. Marmer, looks like this might be before Nowlin's and the Lavelle shop were there. The baseball field at top left is where the state champ Lake Jackon Gators played. The short esplanade just below center is Other Way Street; the two streets approaching it are, from the bottom center, That Way, and from the right, This Way. The intersection of This Way, That Way and Other Way made Ripley's Believe it or Not. Architect and city designer Alden B. Dow's office was in the strip on South Parking Place, on the other side of Other Way from N. Parking Place. The strip along This Way included a Humble station, Lake Drug, Ben Franklin Store, Style Mart and and early grocery store that became a Piggly Wiggly.

I have so many fond memories of picnics at the lake. The covered area included large pits. Dow held company picnics here as did churches and civic groups. Many times volunteers prepared the food, but sometimes Dow hired Lennox BBQ of Houston. The street scene is taken from North Parking Place looking across the Other Way esplanade. I didn't remember the building on the right, which I think was an appliance store at first but Marmer remembers as a washateria, was there as early as 1950. Between the oak in the foreground and the light pole, you can see the entrance to the Ben Franklin.

And we all went out and played in the DDT fog. Between that, all the pollution Dow released in the early days, working one summer at Ethyl Dow checking the bromine cleansers everday (and getting a real strong blast of fumes every time you opened one) and the radium treatments I received as a child for sinusitis, it's a wonder I'm alive and don't glow in the dark.

This is waaaaaay before my time but I just had to post it. I never saw anything like this at Surfside and I know nothing about what happend in the Brazosport area during the storm of 1900.

(Also from Creighton).