brucesw

7 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

Was it Dominion Jaguar by '76?

If this is the same company, not until much later.   May have been all British makes but I'm not sure.  Don't know when it closed either.  

Never heard of it but very interesting indeed.  Just a parking lot now?

Pizza pies - Valian's gets named as the first to serve them in Houston so this is late 50s at the earliest?  

Iced coffee and espresso on the beverage menu.  I wonder just what the iced coffee preparation was.

Egg Plant Parmesan - 😊 - the eggplant could not possibly have been unknown to Houstonians, could it?  Just a typo?

Full course Italian DInner - $3.50!  Those were the days.

Okay I cleared up some of my confusion.  I see the list posted by Ross was from '59, not '76.  I couldn't reconcile my memories of the (upscale) import dealership on that corner in the late 70s with Wendell Hawkins still on that list.  I think (not an expert) all those cars in the pic were late 50s Chrysler products.  That red (Imperial?) on the grass is a huge car.

Interesting to see 2 Olds dealers downtown, Sam White and Bill McDavid, plus Sam Montgomery on Kirby.  I don't remember the Sam Montgomery facility at all.

I do remember DeMontrond Buick on Kirby at Westheimer; later became Hub Buick and was there for a long time after I got to town.

3101 would have been right on the corner w/Alabama.  Grace is 3111 (may have been part of the plot).  

I don't remember this one but I never paid much attention to Chrysler products.  By the late 70s, in fact by 76 I think, that was a large import car dealership with several lines of upscale foreign cars as I remember.  Jag-you-are was among them.  An acquaintance was intown for a couple of days sometime in '76 and had to take his car in there before he could continue but I don't remember what he drove (other than it wasn't a Chrysler product).  MG?, Triumph?, 

I must have missed this thread when it came up before.  I thought I recognized Curly Fox in the photo when I first looked at it.  When I read the caption I was surprised to find I was correct.  Would he have been a director if he didn't own a store?

Fox was born in Tennessee, played fiddle and was considered one of the best and was a showman.  Married Ruby Owens from the Decatur area in 1939 and their act was Curly Fox and Miss Texas Ruby.  They were members of the Grand Ole Opry for two stretches in the 30s and 40s and played on all the other big country radio shows around the country.  They had a show on WNBC-TV/NYC in 1949 then moved to Houston and had a Sunday afternoon show on KPRC-TV for 7 years before moving on.  I had inherited a fiddle from my grandfather and watched the show regularly.  Fortunately for me (and my teacher) I gave up on the fiddle after only a couple of years.

I remember Pasternak's on Alabama; the first I knew of the Butera name was the fabulous deli on Montrose.  

3606 Bissonnet is where Cleburne Cafeteria is now.  I knew that was not it's original location but had no idea what was there earlier.  5403 is the address of a chiropractic clinic now, possibly the same building as the food market.

Did a quick search of this topic and found no mentions of Molina's on Irvington. Sorry I can't help with that location, but it wasn't the original.  Per both the website and an Oral History in Robb Walsh's Tex Mex Cookbook, the first Molina's was at 1919 W Gray in 1941.  In that same year, apparently, the family took over the Mexico City Restaurant on South Main, which had been open since 1929.  No specific address on S. Main and the term probably referred to a different stretch of the street than it might now.

3 hours ago, EspersonBuildings said:

You mean Medical Towers Professional Building on Dryden (now The Westin Houston Medical Center Hotel), not Medical Arts.  Medical Arts was located in downtown on the northern end of Houston Center, demolished in the early 1970's, I think.   I am the youngest of five kids who were all born at Methodist Hospital (the first four on Bertner, me on Fannin) and our mother's OB doctor's office was in The Medical Towers Building.  I visited the KAUM offices in the Fannin Bank Building when I was 16 in 1979 and tried to meet DJ Joannie Brennan.  Unfortunately, they would not let me see her but gave me a KAUM bumper sticker.  I did manage to speak to her on the phone later and she mailed me a picture of herself in front of her DJ microphone with a big beaming smile.  I might even still have that picture (somewhere boxed up).

Thanks for the correction on Medical Towers.

I never knew of the low-rise building but I didn't get here until 1970.  When did it become just Fannin Bank?

It would be interesting if we could identify all the structures along Main and Fannin.  Is that Bill Williams in the distance?  Can we see Capt. Benny's original shrimp boat?  Nah.  Too early for Capt. Benny.  What's the bank with drive through lanes on both sides?  Isn't the low building behind the building under construction the APC building - Adams (or Ada?) Petroleum Company, as in Bud Adams?

KXYZ-AM & FM shared space on the 16th floor, I believe it was, east end of the building.  There was a restaurant above us.  The FM was just a closet and just simulcast the AM ("World's Most Beautiful Music").  In '69 or early '70, ABC split off their FM's and launched Love FM, syndicated progressive rock with taped programming.  By September of 70, all 7 ABC-FMs went live with local programming and new calls.  KAUM got new, separate studios and offices on the 15th floor and in less than 2 years expanded again to the 12th floor.  

One evening before the first move I saw Dave Lamble, newsman on the FM, standing in the Chief Engineer's office looking out the windows on the back of the building. I went over to see what he was looking at but couldn't figure out what attracted his attention, so I asked.  The sunset, he said. Dave grew up on Long Island and went to school in NYC.  He said he'd never seen a sunset until he moved to Houston and he loved to watch them.

I wonder if the picture was taken from the Medical Arts building on Dryden?  That's where the studios of KFMK-98 FM were and had been - the first progressive/album/acid rock outlet in Houston.  I knew a jock who worked there who said when they put a long cut on, they'd go up on the roof and light one up.

Here's an earlier HAIF thread with memorabilia showing Pier 21 as Jack Landers Pier 21 and Roland Busch's Pier 21.

 Like Dave W I only ever knew it as Dentler's Pier 21.  

Looks like Busch's place on S. Main would have been in front of where Target is now?

The training program that transferred to Sweetwater was the Womens Army Service Pilots, the first women to serve as pilots in the USAF.  The first class started and graduated in Houston, the second class started in Houston but graduated after the move.  They were civilian employees, although they wore uniforms.

It may have been the Heritage Society that had a show on this a few years ago, or maybe I just read about the museum at Hobby.  I was going up thru Abilene that fall and looked up something there - I think it was a woman-owned restaurant that had a mural or something??

This article about the origin of the women pilots mentions both Howard Hughes Airport and Houston Municipal.

On 5/14/2023 at 9:56 PM, jallaway said:

I couldn't really find anything either of than a reference for a student with an amateur radio license living at the address.   The 1907 Sanborn Fire maps show a large house at the address.  Note the front looks like an addition to convert it to apartments or some type of multi-person residence.   I think OWL is the photographer.  Other records show an OWL Foto Studio in business around that time.

Do you have the name of the student?

The webster location looks much larger than an Arby's.  'Danish themed' - I wonder if they tried open-faced Scandinavian sandwiches like Nielsen's Deli did when they first opened (1952?, 1962?).  

PS - I have seen much larger Arby's in other parts of the country.

I haven't been able to place a Steak and Ale along there but that doesn't mean anything.  That stretch has undergone many, many changes.  Royal Coach was a huge motel and there's been discussion on Haif.  Probably had a restaurant but I know nothing about it.  There was another motel or residence inn type place next door that did not face the freeway, as I recall.  There was a steak house further down, right before the entrance to the mall - Rustler's or Cattle Rustler's or something. That's been discussed, too.  Where was Sharpstown Dodge?  That became a HouTran or Metro bus barn.  Did that replace Royal coach?  Then there was Allen Samuels, now Classic Chevrolet, I think.  (I don't get down that stretch as much as I used to).   What was in there where Lucy, the Ethiopian restaurant is?  How about what was where Pappas BBQ is now on the opposite side?  

Not helping much, am I?  One of our posters with the old phone books will show up here someday, I hope.  The only S&A's I can place were on Shepherd, between 59 & Richmond and further out 59 just before where the Beltway is now; I know there had to be others.

I've read now hiring signs are up on the Meyerland location, formerly Beldon's.  The interior shot looks more inviting for individual shoppers than I expected and I welcome the curbside delivery.  Discussions on Next Door have not been very hopeful that it'll be something that really benefits the neighborhood residents.

Later Galleria Area Ford, I think.  Which got into a dispute over the use of the Galleria name.  The white car in the Used lot looks like a Falcon to me.

Never went myself - in fact was not aware of it - but somewhere in the last couple of years I've come across mention of it somewhere.  Someone was mentioning growing up in the area and raving about the pizza.  Argentine pizza - whatever that is.  I'll see if I can find the reference (maybe it was here on HAIF).  

Do any of the Kroger banners compete against each other in the same market?  I can't see the Randall's name surviving.  Maybe some will become Kroger, some will be closed and sold off.  Most likely bye-bye Randall's Meyer Park (caddie-corner from Kroger S. Post Oak). 

Another factor in the grocery business:  Kroger launches grocery delivery in San Antonio, taking on hometown grocer H-E-B, Walmart (msn.com).  Kroger has been in SA before but abandoned the market.  There will be no physical markets, only delivery.

During the course of discussion on the above link it was noted Kroger operates in South and Central Florida in the same manner and has for several years.  There are no stores for hundreds of miles according to one poster.

And don't forget WM.  Main competition for HEB in SA (Austin?, South Texas?).  And WM Neighborhood Markets are smaller stores, so you don't have to deal with the big box SWMs.

20 hours ago, FilioScotia said:

That beautiful home at 1817 McKinney was on a site that's now occupied by Discovery Green about a hundred yards west of the GRB Convention Center. 

The exterior is awesome but the interior???  Stifling.  

I don't know if we have a thread devoted to Quality Hill, but this fits here:

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2017/04/20/219128/quality-hill-a-tour-of-houstons-first-and-forgotten-upscale-neighborhood/

The article cites the arrival of Union Station as changing the character of the neighborhood.  Click through the slide show - captions appear when you open each picture.  

Looks a bit grand for the Heights, perhaps?  Maybe Quality Hill.  

Here's the Wiki article on Henke's.  It mentions a house built by Eugene Pillot in 1868 at Chenevert and McKinney that is now in Sam Houston Park.  Perhaps the father of Camille (CG) who was the bookkeeper and later partner of the grocery store chain?  

The legend identifies the road next to the school as Almeda Rd., i.e., the road to Almeda.  Present day Almeda Rd./FM 521 runs parallel to the RR tracks coming down from the upper right corner of the map.  What was called Almeda back then later became Knight, I think.

Looks like Griggs was an early name for a section of what is now S. Braeswood.  

From ebay.  I did not see a reverse side.   Seems Mr. Angelo had quite a few locations.

I have not found a print of the ad I mentioned above but I did find a reference to it in my notes so I could go back and copy it:  "10/4/46, p.17, big ad for Angelo's Cafe (oyster bar), opposite Tower Theatre, grand cabin (?) dining room w/2 _____ fireplaces, meat counter too."   Unfortunately this page of my notes does not identify the source but it was among a series of pages of notes from the Houston Press and the dates are consistent.  The next two pages of my notes are from the Chronicle but appear to be out of place as they refer to the 1920s and then the Press notes continue.

Are the Press files available online?

That's a new one on me.  Yes, Kaplan's and Kaphan's are not the same.  When I lived briefly on Southmore in '63 there was a One's a Meal on Almeda about a block or two south of there; I don't remember this place at that time.

There was a Kaplan's Ben Hur on Yale in the Heights, a family run small department store.  I'm sure there's a thread on that here.  I don't know if they had a lunch counter?

Jetton's was out of Fort Worth, no connection to Romana/Luby's I think.  Jetton was a big barbecue operation but I can't remember if his place was strictly a BBQ cafeteria.  I only went once.  Jetton's was a one story, huge building (bigger than any Luby's I ever saw) at the NW corner of Richmond/Buffalo Speedway.  That address in the ad is at the corner of Richmond and Eastside and the building is still there (pictured in the ad).  I think Golden Inn Cafeteria must have just been an office building lunch room kind of thing.  Look at that pic of the interior - that serving line is even shorter than the serving line at Harry's on Tuam which is a lot smaller than a Luby's.  "Richly decorated main dining room..." lolololololol. 

I think the ad was intending to indicate that 3000 Richmond is between Kirby and Buffalo Speedway, not that there were three locations that close together.

I may have been in that space ca. 1973 when I worked briefly for a company in the building on the opposite side of Eastside and we went there for drinks after work one time.

Great info, cdenker.  Never heard of Leonardo's or the Brittain's @ Westbury OR the one listed in the ad at Fondren & BIssonnet.  There was a John's Broiler Burger, discussed elsewhere on HAIF, on Telephone @ Lawndale.  Thinking it might have been a Brittain's, I went over there once.  Wasn't worth the drive.  Bellaire BB closed during the pandemic.  The attempt to resurrect it by new owners was abandoned recently due to issues with the structure I think.  Still missed by so many, maybe they'll find a new place and try again.