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DMac

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Everything posted by DMac

  1. Edit: The DePelcin Faith Home would have had multiple city addresses? There was many buildings, or it was that large? One address was 4950 Memorial Drive. Are there any campus kids {now adults} that lved @ and remember the wonderfull life a kid had while living there during the late 40's to mid 50's @ the Sandman {12 acre} campus. It was located along Shepherd Dr. back when it was a 2 way str. and across the street was Geo. Washing Jr, HS which I thank now has some connection w/HPD and also St. Thomas School for boys. Across the str. from Sandman admin Bldg. was the Florence Crittenten Home for what in those days were termed unwed mothers. Faith Home had a 25 bed Hosp./clinic for the new borns to be adopted. BTW the Home is 112 years old. Yep been around a very long time. The Shepherd campus was build during the '39-'41 time period I believe. Also Pine Tree Camp was a really kool place they would take kids for 3 weeks during the summer. Itz history I heard was that it once was a farm. Anyway over the intervening years the Harris Cnty YMCA took possesion of it. It is still there {709 Riley Fuzzell} in Spring just as I remembered it sum 50+ years ago. Respectfully Danny Mac
  2. Hello to everyone. I am new to the group and have a facination w/Houston's history. I have recently begun a roster of Bldg's (180+) in the downtwon area {defined as Commerce (100 blk.} to the north, Dowling to the east, Mcilheny to the south & Houston ave. to the west} w/Main str. as the center divder down the middle. I suppose the first question I would like to get settled is just where does So. Main begin? Would it be @ the site where the old M&M Bldg. is? Or @ the corner of Main & Commerce? Or elsewhere? Anyway my interest has been spurned after viewing many photos recently @ the historical Houston page. I absolutly hate the new skyscrapers but will not let that influence any comments or input from others. Like many others I prefer the older {1940-1960} architecture. W/that said I have begun to trace sum history of several Bldg's. I will use the beautiful old Gulf Bldg. as an example. While puting my list of 180 Bldg's together and viewing photos I noticed that the same Bldg. had several different names. So far I have read that the Gulf Bldg. was originally the Texas Commerce Bank (TCB) & that 2day it is the JP Morgan Bldg. What I have not yet concluded was the Bldg. purpose built as a bank and over the intervening years new tenants occupied? Does anyone recall if indeed it was @ one time named the TCB or did they have a separate Bldg. elsewhere down town? One of my goals is to get to the Tax assessor's office and try to examine original tax records for a given parcel ID and along w/that to establish physical address' over the intervening years. That would be a hugh help as those records list the original and subsequent owners. I have also traced sum history for the original Bank of the S/W {now Bank One}, SP's Grand Central Sta. {the 5th depot to occupy that site} & now home to a huge Postal serv. facility, Houston Natural Gas which became the Enron Bldg. and the M&M Bldg. which had sum 600,000 square feet of floor space when it opened in the 30's ( considered a very large Bldg. @ that time) and is now occupied by UH. I would welcome all comments for everyone & will post additional findings in the future. I would also share my list w/anyonw who wishes a copy. It is Excel formatted and a works in progress. Respectfully Danny Mac
  3. While recently prowling/snooping about HPL's site I read a statement from them that went on to inform me that the Main unit would close April 3rd, 2K6 and reopen late 2K7 upon completion of a $14 mil retrofit{?} ALL circulating books & film and would be available @ the Express unit downtown and 4 regional + all local branches throughout the city. ALL reference, historical & special collections will not be available during that period & the main unit will not be open to the public during the retrofit. This is sad news for me as I am in the process of selling my home and relocating to the pineywoods country of SHelbe Cnty. And upon completion of the move I was planning on spending 6 weeks {or more} doing extensive research on all aspects of the big H. Will now have to wait until sometime late 2K7. Who sez poop don't happen? Respectfully Danny Mac
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