SpaceGhost

Already went into a bit of detail on the blog, but does anyone have any clue what's going on? Thrift Store suddenly closed, doesn't look like the property was sold. Maybe rebuilding?

Unfortunately it looks like some web scraper went around and created the post without help. That first image is Houston Street in New York, and the sixth image is labeled as being from Rugby, England! I believe this photo is from Flickr? Some of the images are of Houston, but many, maybe even most, are not from the 30s. A few are from the 50s-70s, but a bunch are also very recent Black and White images, like the Terminal Building photo, which is likely no more than 20-25 years old, right before the renovation. Also, the building was even around until 1940! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Air_Terminal_Museum

Permits note Quanta Insurance Company Inc as occupant.

You're correct, the perils of reading an article and going back to "find it" via Google exist. Here's the one for this portion of Shepherd. https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2021/01/15/txdot-opens-public-comment-period-on-shepherd-durham-project/ Basically the same plan, although a detail that I didn't notice earlier, it looks like there are plans to drop from 4 to 3 lanes in certain areas to add more sidewalk space.

https://abc13.com/houston-traffic-shepherd-construction-montrose-road-us-59-work/10402823/ It's adding new storm drains, and rebuilding the sidewalks/lighting and making it more pedestrian friendly as well. No street widening, other than the turn lane here. https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2020/04/15/city-council-oks-purchase-of-shepherd-drive-parcel-for-road-project/

The land was originally a Stuart's Drive-In, and later a Price's. Jack in the Box opened here around late 1974 building this new structure. The greenhouse windows were likely an addition as most other JITBs built it Houston during this time were later expanded. The building only hosted Jack in the Box, and the temporary COVID testing center in the Streetview screenshot. The demolition is related to the construction on Shepherd and has been in the works for a few years now.

Demolition permit has been filed for the AMC.

Finally, had some time to look into it. Al Fairfield according to county docs. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/al-fairfield-obituary?pid=155430597

Demo permit issued for Chappell Jordan, house directly behind had a permit issued last week.

I have it as Luke Market/Luke's Grocery from the 40s-50s. By the late 60s it had become Rutland Food Market, and seems to have been closed by the 1970s.

Search the county property records, and you'll probably be able to figure it out. On the other hand, I'd be glad to figure it out for a research fee! 😂

Construction fencing is now up according to a commenter on my site.

Plumbing permit filed

He does, and tbh this is probably just a clerical error. Also looks like all the money from the Nau Center was "refunded" in 2015.

Found something very interesting this morning while working on the upcoming Demolition post. Check out who is listed as the occupant for the demo permit. This could of course be outdated info, but could the Nau Center be back on?

Demolition Permits issued for 1933 and 1937

I've found eBay is a good way to source old photos. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=%22finger+furniture%22&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=finger+furniture

According to some other ads around the same time yes. It looks like H&H closed recently, and sold off most of their property prior to doing so.

Doing some research on North Oaks Mall for a new page on my site. Turns out it was originally planned as a 200,000 square foot mall. Which while still small, especially for a modern mall, is much bigger than the current ~70,000 square feet of mall space that ended up being built. The mall was also planned to include a full size ice rink, racquetball court, and bowling alley in addition to the movie theater. Looks like what we ended up with was more of a compromise. I haven't been able to find any older photos of the mall, but do have some recent ones on the page. https://houstonhistoricretail.com/malls/north-oaks-mall/

I had personally never heard of her. Searched the Chronicle Archives and was able to find lots about her. The restaurant was named "The Garden Room" and featured the first fully electric kitchen in the South! She was also manager of the Palomino Bar (another dining room), and the Gourmet Shop. It seems she was there from the grand opening of the Houston Joske's (October 25, 1948). In 1950 she prepared lunch for the Duke of Windsor when he visited Houston, by Christmas they were selling items branded with her name. By 1951 she had been promoted to "Food Service Director". She was still at Joske's in June of 1951, but left sometime later that year for the Driskill Hotel in Austin. I can't post the photos here because of Copyright uncertainty, however if you can get access to the microfilm there are some great photos of Joske's from their grand opening.

Did you ever end up finding this?! Sounds awesome!

Makes me wonder how much longer until Croak Bend/Probly Dyin' finally shuts down.

Drove by this recently, looking close to being done with construction.

Confirmed via Chronicle Archives that the Weather Ball was removed in September of 1970. It was removed to "tidy up the citie's skyline". Some other earlier published articles announcing the removal mention that Conoco was changing their logo, and felt that large signage atop buildings was no longer in style. Found this at the bottom of an ad

Locations were as follows: Downtown 812 Main River Oaks 2010 S. Shepherd Sharpstown 111 Sharpstown Center Almeda 240 Almeda Mall Northwest 240 Northwest Mall Memorial City 730 Memorial City Greenspoint 347 Greenspoint It's from an older directory. I forgot to take a picture of the cover so I don't have a date for this list. From the design of the ad it really seems like it's from the 70s. I would upload it but this thread is limited to files 0.19 MB or less.