brucesw

Yikes! What an ugly building. Are there any pics without the facade? I spent Sunday morning driving around downtown, appreciating old buildings, then some time Sunday eve looking up stuff on HCAD, thanks to sevfiv.

How did you find when it was built? Is there a place to go to find information like that on buildings?

Yes, that's the place. I had forgotten the name Cody's - it was that for a long time, I think, but something else was in there before that -- I thought it was Scott Gertner but I see that's what's there now. Maybe I have him mixed up with some other local entertainer. Yeah, very impressive place; not what you'd expect from the outside of the bldg. Nice view of the sunset, downtown. I'd forgotten that about the elevators, too.

Anybody know what the original club atop 3400 Montrose was? I vaguely remember Glenn McCarthy had several clubs in town and that was one of them, I thought the Cork Club but that has been identified as atop the Central National Bank Bldg. I know it was a gay club in the early 70s, the Palace or Plantation or something like that, Scott Gertner's, a jazz club, etc., but it dates to the 50s I believe.

Thanks, H2B, I saw it was episode 3 of the Houston Remembers When tapes and there's a good bit on the KUHT website describing the program; unfortunately the tape is out of stock and it's one I don't have. The two references I have: one referred just to Luna Park, the other to 1406 Houston Ave, which is about 3 blocks north of Washington as I recall (drove the area a couple of weeks ago looking for a school or something 'Luna'). I'm proceeding on the assumption they are references to the same place. Thanks for all your info; I'll be trying to find a copy of the tape. Do you have the tape? Does it make any mention of Bay Shore Park in La Porte, same time era, apparently a competitor of Sylvan Beach Park? -- a dance pavilion, band stand, pier into the bay, even an inn on the grounds.

I imagine there was. I was only about in the 5th grade and wasn't asking a lot of hard questions.

Re another thread: the caption on the Bailey calendar mentions the 'sandwich' sign in the lower left corner marks a One's-a-Meal. The year was 1933.

I had relatives living just a couple of blocks from there so went by it so many times but didn't remember the name. I think it also showed Spanish language films at one time.

You remember some good ones, belmontdrew. I didn't remember the Antone's in Sharpstown Center. The Tamales was in an old Meyer Bros. store in the Village, I think (or the Meyer Bros. might have been the store next door). I remember Yamin's and Stefano's pizza places; they had been one chain at one time, but went their separate ways and now both are gone. The Ming's on Montrose just north of Westheimer was a Big Frank's. Go to this page: http://users.ev1.net/~plhailey/hpat/index.html click on Topics, go to Restaurants and Diners, page 3, scroll down to the series of pics labeled 23469, #s 1 thru 13 -- it's an Albritton's, I think the one on Waugh, which was the only one I ever went to. Lot's of great pics of old restaurants on that site, many of which I've never heard of.

Chestnut is just a block or so outside the loop. I think that's the corner where Don's Record Shop was for years - set back from the intersection, the parking lot was triangular but the building was rectangular. You may be thinking of the block bounded by Bissonett, Cedar, and 5th St., between Rice and the intersection where Bissonett and Bellaire cross. There's a triangular building there that's been there as long as I've been driving Bissonett (I don't remember Old Richmond Road). I'm sure there used to be a prescription shop in there and a cleaners, I think. The exterior has recently been updated; the shop 'on the point,' so to speak, is a computer shop.

Thanks for the info. That book is on my list but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I have a couple of the KUHT shows on tape; I'll have to review them. I hadn't even thought about that.

I was trying to remember the name of that place! I went there a couple of times. It was not far off Almeda Rd., which was Texas 288 back then. I'm pretty sure it was on an east-west street rather than a north-south, probably between Elgin and where I-45 cut through, south of downtown. The colors were blue and white inside and it was freezing in there.

Does anyone know where the old Houston neighborhood known as Luna Park was/is? (In the mid-20s). Was it a neighborhood or a park? Alternatively, has Houston Ave. always been known as that? Or did there used to be another Houston Ave.? I have 2 references, one to Luna Park the other to an address on Houston Ave., but I don't know if it's the same place being referenced. If so then it's basically between Downtown and Woodland Heights, north of Washington Ave. I'm new at this and I have no idea where to go to find this sort of info. Thanks.

Amen. They just don't make furniture stores like they used to! I was thinking Waddell's became Brittain's then moved out to First Colony near Hwy 6 but is gone now. I'm not sure, may have that mixed up with something else. I keep getting distracted in my research by these old ads which I can't resist taking the time to read, but I didn't note where Waddell's was located downtown. Re: another post above. According to something I found on line, Ineeda Laundry and Dry Cleaners big plant was where the Federal Building is now. That was in the 20s. I thought I remembered in the 50s they were out near Telephone/Winkler. There was also an Ineeda Tire Co. in the 20s. Edit to insert: In the 20s, Waddell's ads gave the address as Prairie @ Fannin. Many merchants never mentioned their location in their ads. I guess they thought everybody knew since they had only one store. A couple more from the 20s that were still around in the 60s-70s, Shudde's Southern Hat Co., Travis @ Preston, and Houston Trunk Factory.

Can't say that I remember that dish. I went to the one in the River Oaks Theatre bldg many times for breakfast in the late 70s, early 80s, and the one on Memorial not long before it closed.

As a kid, riding along in the back seat of the car, I always looked forward eagerly to seeing the one on W. Gray, almost as much as passing the Mrs. Baird's bakery a few blocks east and smelling the fresh baking bread and seeing the loaves moving along the production line through the big glass windows. Dino never did much for me, but I really dug the Flying Red Horse. Several people have mentioned Henke and Pillot in this thread. I just came across a special section in the Chron in 1922 - August 15, Henke and Pillot was celebrating their 50th anniversary. Founded in 1872 in Market Square; Henry Henke hired Eugene Pillot as his produce manager and then made him a partner. They were sold in 1956 to Kroger. Here's a couple more I came across in the old papers that were still around in my childhood: Waddell's Furniture - I think they were in business up until about 10 years ago. Ineeda Laundry and Cleaners - started out doing home laundry but by the 50s I think it was mostly commercial and industrial laundry and linen supply. Used to see their trucks all the time.

Zone d' erotico was originally a Roy Rogers Roast Beef, then Rolando's or Roland's, I think, a burger joint, then Luke's.

The building is gone, now a Randall's service station. Charlie's seems to be slip-sliding away.

When the Duke of Windsor, nee King Edward VIII, was at the Med Ctr for open heart surgery, the Brit press corps lived at the Red Lion and raved about it. Wallis stayed at the Warwick, I think. I never got to go.

The JoJo's on S. Braeswood, 1 block w. of Hillcroft, has been vacant for about 15 years now and you can hardly see the building for the overgrown shrubbery. The JoJos on Wilcrest @ 59 became a Champs and is now an Exxon station. I don't know what ever happened to the Champs - they always seemed to do a good business but the food wasn't anything special. I only ate at one a couple of times. I think a lot of the JoJos went into former Sambo's locations.