theoriginalkj

Texas Children

here's a great historical aerial Erik (the freeway guy) has of the 610. If you go to the bottom of it you can see a house surrounded by undeveloped land. Is this what you're talking about?

I also should mention a plug for a company that Erik told me about. They're called Positive Image (on Stella Link) and they have lots of these old aerials. I went over and ordered a great photo of Willowbend from 1958. It was a great history lesson and they were very nice people. They've lived in Willow Meadows for years.

Jason

http://www.texasfreeway.com/Houston/histor...62_bellaire.jpg

Erik doesn't own or maintain texasfreeway.com, Ron Jackson does.

Kevin

The title of this thread appears to be incorrect. Isn't it Texas Children's building this facility?

The demolition of the old Methodist Diagnostic Clinic that was mentioned is to make way for the new Outpatient Care Center (next to the Smith Tower).

I am out of Houston, but when you said the bank site, I hope you mean that drive-thru one-story structure. Is that right?

Texas Children's Hospital bought both the Wells Fargo building and the Crowne Plaza hotel, both right across the street from the main TCH campus. Speculation is both will be torn down and the new 20-floor obstetrics hospital will be where the Crowne Plaza currently is. Catwalks (people movers) going across the street from the new obstetrics building would go to both TCH's West Tower and TCH's CCC building - forming a VERY impressive and very HIGH catwalk between the three buildings.

Kevin Jackson

What a great find! Wonder what became of that? I don't see any such streets with those names today. I'll have to compare that with the Harris County block books to see if the names have been changed. That appears to have happened alot. I saw a block book wher Aldine Mail Route was called White Avenue, or something like that. I didn't write it down so that may be incorrect. But it was definitely called something else at one time.

A couple of those streets do still exist today. Here's a aerial map from live.com that shows the town center of Aldine. You'll find that Colby, Willis, and Cagle still exist going North to South. It doesn't appear that any of the East to West streets still exist however. It would seem most probable thought that Hodgkins Street may be the same as Hooker street, changed names for obvious reasons.

Yeah, I doubt that story about it being named after a farmer, too. There's a historical marker on Aldine Bender that states most of the families living in the area were of Swedish descent and Aldine doesn't sound very Swedish to me.

I think it most likely that Aldine was named after the Kansas town of the same name. But that then brings up the question: What was Aldine, Kansas named for? LOL!

BTW, if you gre up in the area as I did and wondered about the name of the road Aldine Bender and more specifically, what was the Bender part of Aldine Bender, there's an answer to that.

Bender was a community located, naturally enough, at the other end of Aldine Bender about where the road intersects with the Eastex Freeway. Early rural roads were often named for their terminal points, so Aldine Bender was the road going from Aldine to Bender, Aldine Westfield was the name of the road from Aldine to Westfield. Addicks-Howell on the westside went from Addicks to Howell (wherever that was) and so on.

Addicks Howell is named for going between Addicks (SE corner of I-10 and Highway 6) and Howellville. The center of Howellville is at the intersection of Howell-Sugarland Road and Alief-Clodine (which is just east of Highway 6 and Alief Clodine).

Additional roads Dairy Ashford go between the towns of "Dairy" (a seldom used name for Alief) and "Ashford", a town up near the US290 area. Howell-Sugarland Road go between Howellville and Sugarland.

Kevin

Do any of your guys have photos or info on what I have always known as the "old Meyer property" at the NE corner of 610 Loop South & S. Post Oak, right across the freeway from the MeyerPark retail property. I know there were some scenes from a movie shot at this location, there appears to be the old footprint of a home, and there is (or was) a small retail building at the SE corner of this property that used to be a gas station ( i think ). Anyone have any citable information about this property or any photos? HCAD.org doesn't describe it at all except for the northern edge next to the bayou as being HCFCD (Harris County Flood Control District) ownership.

Kevin Jackson

Moderator edit: 

The Frank K. Meyer residential property was located at 9111 South Post Oak Road in 1967.

In present-day 2022, the Harris County Flood Control District water retention pond has an address of 4502 South Loop.

Anyone got any idea how Harris County had 62 FEWER residents than the City of Houston in 1962?

"I don't care who you are, that's funny right there"

-Larry the Cable Guy

Here is an aerial photo taken around late summer 1964 clearly showing the alignment of Old South Main. Soon after this photo was taken, the alignment was overrun by development

high resolution

http://www.oscarmail.net/dfwfreeways/image...f_1896x1513.jpg

low resolution

http://www.oscarmail.net/dfwfreeways/image...off_948x756.jpg

Here's a scan from a 1968 Houston Tourguide map published by Gulf Oil Company. This map clearly shows "Old Main Street Loop Rd" being truncated by the Astrodome sports complex. The rest of the road goes SW down to Main Street & Stella Link. This map even shows a few streets that are now completely gone without a trace that ran between "Old Main Street Loop Rd" and "Alt 90"; the streets of Ingleside, Clearview, & Hilcrest. A careful comparison of these three streets and current GoogleMap imagery appears to show no signs at all of these old streets existence. I wonder what or who used to live or exist on these old non-existent streets? I do also notice the old street of Fariss on this map going both east and west of Alt-90, where today it only runs east of Alt-90. Lastly, the "Old Main Street Loop Rd" did NOT run across the railroad tracks at this time and go any further. If it did run longer than the railroad tracks, like TexasFreeway.com indicates, it was before this 1968 map. Funny how AstroWorld is under construction on this map and today there's no hint it was even ever there.

i'm going to try and make it.

This implosion is not going to be worth ANYBODYs time to go see. Most of this Methodist Dianostic Clinic building is already destroyed and Sunday will be the finishing touches. This will be a very disappointing event if you spend your Sunday morning to go see this little bit be leveled. Don't bother...

Kevin

Here is the information I now have about Luna Park. It was opened in June of 1924 on 36 acres of land. The parking lot was right along the bayou on a somewhat precipitous slope. It was stated that the park was on the south side of Buffalo Bayou at Houston Avenue, but that cannot be as that is the location of Sam Houston Park. I am sure they meant to say White Oak Bayou.

The roller coaster may have been called the Scenic Railway. Another of the most thrilling rides was the Mechanical Caterpillar, a ride still found in many traveling carnivals. The cars went around in a circle on an up and down track, and a canopy was extended over the cars to make it dark.

A big attraction at Luna was

This is the section of old

main that the old Jake Freedman "Domain Privie" gambling house

used to be. He was Caroline Farbs grandfather BTW...

It's torn down now, and all that land is fenced field now.

There are still a few people living around that area, and the pro-

mark drumstick company is about at that location. I remember

in the 70's, there was also a regular house on the same side

of old main as the gambling joint, but farther east, closer to

main. But it's gone now... I drove by there a few months ago.

So...Whoever bought all that land, must have probably bought

out the whole block and fenced it up.. That land is probably worth

buckoo bucks.. I wanted to metal detect at the old gambling site,

but it's all totally fenced, and the land has been bulldozed over

I think. Makes me wonder if the old swimming pool at that joint is

still under the ground... :/

I'm not quite following you. Can you specify where this old 'Domain Privie' gambling house was, specifically?

Kevin