Michelle C

Mollusk, you are absolutely correct. They were made at the Wixom assembly plant in Michigan. I also owned one of the Lincoln convertibles that had the maze of two hydraulic pumps, five electric motors, ten relays and six limit switches. It was a fine car and worked flawlessly most of the time. I have known of other people that did not have as good luck with their cars as we did. A picture with the deck open. You can see two of the electric motors and wiring attached to the deck lid. My faithful little poodle Roxie that always seemed to find a seat with me where ever I happened to go. A picture made at the old Prince's drive # 10 at 4509 South Main. A good side view of the car with the top up. A picture of the top folded down in the trunk. One of my spouse unloading it from the truck we carried it to car shows in. We were on our way to a National meet of the Lincoln club and left early so we spend some time at Yosemite National Park, we unloaded the car at Fresno and drove it to Yosemite and stayed a week there before loading back up and going to the meet.

The Delman was later remodeled. and you went in from the side where the strip center was located. The terrazzo that Sevfiv mentioned was not part of the Delman but rather from a store in the strip center to the right of the Delman. Here is a pic of the first remodel of the Delman. I think it went through a second remodel later.

I have been dancing there a number of times on the seventies. Ernest Tubb was there once when I went. A great old western dance hall and bar.

When the old Katy road was widened to make way for the Katy Freeway (I-10) there was a road side park on the south side of Katy road between Wirt road and Silber, I can't remember the exact location or I would nail it down a little closer for you. It was a very pleasant little park that had hills and gullies in it. When I was a kid in the mid fifties we went to church in Spring Branch and would pass by it on the way and coming back home from church. Some times in the summer my mom would pack a picnic lunch for us and we would stop on the way back from Sunday services and have a picnic at the little park. I remember one time we were there and a GI was driving his girlfriend around in an Army jeep and a boy ask him if he could climb a hill in the jeep that was pretty steep. I remember the GI telling him that yes he probably could but he would not as he could not take a chance on doing damage to the jeep. If I am not mistaken the park was owned by the Texas Highway Department.

Yes, after I had posted I started reading the swamplot piece from Nina E's earlier post. A lot of questions were answered.

A little more information on the old cemetery. I have posted some aerial shots from 1957, 1964 and present day, and a Google street picture of the now vacant apartments that are build over the old cemetery. The boundaries are in red showing the location of the cemetery. The boundaries are approximate and it may extend down closer to Memorial or a little more to the west, I do remember that it did not go all the way down to Memorial Drive. It was an abandoned cemetery and not kept up. It was in the a stand of trees and I can only assume that most people in the area never knew it existed except for maybe a few old timers. Some of the head stones had toppled and were laying on the ground. The area was all grown up with vines as well. In the first picture from 1957 you can see a vacant lot directly to the east of the grove of trees. The elevation of the vacant lot was lower than that of the cemetery. There was about a ten or fifteen foot bluff that you had to climb to get up to the cemetery from the lot, however you could access the cemetery without a climb if you gained access from Chandler street. I remember an old tree on the edge of the bluff with its roots exposed from the years of erosion on the bluff. Some of the neighborhood boys built a fort with in the exposed roots and would fend off other neighborhood kids from the high ground with their BB guns trying to gain entrance to their fort. The next day the tables would be turned and the kids feeling the sting of the BB's from the day before would be the ones holding the fort. At the end of the day they were still friends. There was no gangs in the neighborhoods in those days. In picture two from 1964 you can see that some apartments have been built on the vacant lot east of the cemetery. In that picture you can see the cemetery is still untouched. If you look close you can see that something has been built in front of the old cemetery on Memorial Drive, but did not infringe on the cemetery. In picture three, the present day picture, you can see that some apartments have been built there. According to the historical aerials maps there was some building going on there as early as 1981, and in 2002 you can see that they are finished and in 2004 the building are still there. Some time after 2004 those apartments were torn down and some news ones built and now they are now abandoned and from the aerial picture they look like they are being torn down. Why did the new apartments last less than ten years? It leads me to wonder if spooky things were happening there, after all they were build on sacred ground. That leads to another question. When and where were the graves moved to? It would be hard for me to believe that they were just plowed under and the apartments built on top of them. The last picture made from Chandler street shows the apartments that were sitting directly on top of what was once the cemetery. Note, after I posted this, I started reading Nena E's post above and it has a lot to say about this cemetery and the possibility that the graves actually may have been bull dozed over to build the apartments. I do not see or understand how anyone could have done this without knowing it was a cemetery, as there were plenty of head stones clearly marking this as a cemetery as last as 1957 when I was playing in the near by area. I have walked through the cemetery and looked at the many head stones and wondered about the people that were buried there. This could be a case of someone putting money ahead of respect for the dead.

In the early to mid 50's I lived in 5000 block of Gibson. We used to play near an old cemetery just north of Memorial drive. If you look on the Google map you will see a short street named Chandler street. At the far west end of Chandler it dead ends, between there and Memorial drive is the exact location of the old Cemetery, Now there are apartments built on top of it. The graves in it were all old with birth dates from the late 1800's could very well be the cemetery that you are looking for. It is right in the neighborhood of the lost location.

Downtown on the corner of Main and Bell was the Simpsons Dinning car. It has long been closed and last I knew of, it had been moved out on Westheimer. Can't remember now just how far out it was moved and I do not know if it ever reopened again. Also as a kid I remember the Price's Hamburger place on the south west corner of Shepherd and Washington Ave. They had 19 cent hamburgers, 12 cent fries, and 5 cent Cokes. The burgers were great and the prices right. Also there was Phil's café on the corner of Richmond and Mandell. Phil's later moved over to Shepherd between Norfolk and Portsmouth where the What A Burger is now located.

Never has a TR-3 but had a boy friend that had one, It was a fun car to say the least. Another one of my cruisers from the past. 1963 Thunderbird Sport Roadster.

I skated there in the early 60's. We lived on Sul Ross not far from there.

Camp Logan drug store was located at 5723 Washington.

I know of four locations for Ivy Russell over the years. The eleventh and Yale location, 1700 North Main, 2201 Main and one unknown location.

In the late sixties there was a kicker dance hall at Shepherd (I-45) and Stubner Airline AKA Veterans Memorial Parkway called the Texas ball room. There was a house band headed by Ray Bates and Ray had Frenchie Burk playing with him. Frenchie went on to become a fairly big star in the Cajun music world. The Texas Ball room sat in the V where the Texaco stations is now. The V was a lot bigger then as the feeder was only two lanes wide.

Another one of my cruisers was a 61 Falcon Sport Futura. I bought it is 1964. The beautiful red bucket seat interior made it pretty snappy.

I was stationed at Ellington in the late sixties and at that time the building for the Dyer Home for Children was still there along with the sign, but the orphanage was closed.

I remember it now, it was Ashe Lake, it is located just west of the Hardy toll road and I-45 split

When I was coming up my dad worked for Ford and it seemed that we always had a Ford in our driveway. So it was a natural that my first car would be a Ford. At the tender age of about 16 or 17 I was quick to realize that it was no fun to drive a four door car or any car that looked like your mothers car. As for driving around or cruising as we called it, you had to have something cool to drive. From that time until today I have never owned a boring car. My first car was a 1931 Ford Model A, from there I went to a 1955 Ford convertible. I will post some pictures of my cars as this thread progresses. It was always cool to go topless. Another was my 64 Falcon Sprint convertible.

In the early 60's friends and I used to go swimming between here and Conroe, if I am not mistaken it was about where the Woodlands are now. It was a popular swimming spot with sandy beaches. It was on the west side of US 75 now I-45. I remember it was privately owned and you were charged a fee to get in. I think it was owned by a member of the Allan Shivers family. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it now. Any help on the name and exact location would be a great help.

When I was growing up at 1525 Sul Ross our number was JAckson 8-2810.

Hemphill also had a used lot between Main and Fannin at Holcomb. This is an areal shot of it from about the early sixties. The model cars was a display at a private showing for dealers of the new Fords for 1962. It supposedly was the Hemphill lot on Holcomb between Main and Fannin.

I finally see the light. The Hemphill Ford lot was between Main and Fannin on the south side of the Medical Towers building. Their main dealership must have been on the south west corner of Dryden and Main as that would be 6600 S. Main. I was thinking that the picture was taken from Dryden street of the dealer at 6600 S. Main, that is why I could not figure out why you could see St Luke's from that angle. Now I see that the picture must have been taken from Main street looking toward the east. Glad I got that cleared up, that was bugging me to no end.

It clearly says St Luke's and has the cross but it has me puzzled. St Luke's is to the left of where you see the lit sign. You can see part of a lit sign just to the right of the medical towers building. I am not sure but I think it is part of the Texas Children's hospital. St Luke's would be in that general area. It is a possibility that St. Luke's was once on the west side of Main but I do not remember it being there. This is a puzzle for sure. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

I was raised in the Montrose area at 1525 Sul Ross in the fifties and early 60's (I graduated in 63). It was a straight neighborhood at that time. When I was a kid I had always heard that Art Wrens was a gay hang out but I couldn't back that up with fact. It was a great neighborhood to be brought up in. At that time most of the people there were older people that had bought their homes when they were new, at least that was the way it was around where I lived. My next door neighbors had bought their homes new and were older folk. Phil's café was on the corner of Mandell and Richmond, it was my favorite place to eat as a kid. It later moved up to Shepherd and Portsmouth about where the Whataburger is now located. As for clubs I was a little to young to go clubbing but there was the Club De Lain on Montrose, it was located about the 4000, or 4100 Block on the west side of the street. Like so many other buildings in the area it is now gone. The house we lived in is gone also. St. Thomas University gobbled up all that property.

Thanks Subdude for the info. Here is another old one from Houston. Turbiville Lincoln Mercury. They were located at 3535 Main and the building is still being used.

That's a great picture Subdude. Do you know the location in the picture? I live in Smithville and I am only about 45 miles from Austin. As soon as I can I will be making a trip to the state library there to look at some old phone books there. I am making a list and will get as many addresses as I can find for these dealers and a lot of other old places in Houston from the thirties through the seventies. Another old dealer that I thought was Thad Felton Ford.