billyf

I've met Firebird 65, met up with him to do research downtown, nice guy and very knowledgeable. We lived in the same neighborhood growing up, but with our age differences and living several streets over we never met.

Unfortunately that area flooded bad in 2001 and it wasn't worth the money to repair as they had already built a new school off Gulf Bank and were using the old building for a magnet school. They area was hit really hard during Harvey as well. That might also be why your house got demolished.

Just saw there have been more replies to this. As shown on one of the videos, the 1992 outbreak also caused some damage to some stores, homes and apartments from Clay Road and Highway 6 before tracking north and diminishing near 1960 and 249. One of the 1983 tornados also moved through this area. The 1992 outbreak was worst in terms of damage (and intensity), but the 1983 outbreak spawned more tornados in SE Texas. It has practically been forgotten since most of the tornados were north of the Houston Metro area. Also there was just less news back then and few people owned VCR's. In fact I haven't been able to find a single video on it. Also it happened during the early morning hours when most people were sleeping and news crews were off. We got little from the November 1992 outbreak in the Aldine area so while I remember the event it wasn't too relevant to me. Just like people that didn't get anything from the 1983 outbreak tend to feel the same way. One thing is for sure and that is that is we are overdo for another outbreak! http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/rtimages/crp/training/sr157.pdf

I wouldn't have any issue with buying a house where there was a murder as long as all traces of the event were removed. There are several houses throughout the city where people were once murdered. Contrary to popular belief a seller does NOT have to disclose this unless it was caused by the condition of the home. Natural causes, murder, suicide, death by AIDS or an accident not related to the condition of the home does not have to be disclosed. It would be a good idea to disclose it however especially if it was within the last 5 years. There have been cases where I buyer was able to terminate a contract due to a murder not being disclosed. My guess with most of these home is the buyers were told, but didn't care. Usually only spiritual people care about that kind of thing. Selling a house where a murder happened would probably take longer, but eventually you will find someone that doesn't care.

I think they call it Studewood because that's the Metro bus that runs near the neighborhood.

I was just a child at the time, but I remember the oil crash of 1986 very well. Whole subdivisions in some areas practically became ghost towns as people were packing up and moving out of Houston. The population still grew from 1980 to 1990, but it slowed substantially. While I have no proof they were related; the Greenspoint area seemed to rapidly decline around this time. In fact crime in general rose rapidly in the late 80s in the Houston area. Once great, well established areas never recovered. Again I don't know if this was the result of the oil crash, but it happened around the same time. My dad did security for Brown and Root and later Allied Industries from the late 70s until 1987. He was laid off from both due to cuts around this time. I've been hearing a lot about how great the economy is in Houston. It was great in the 70s too, but that all changed in the 80s. Don't ever think we are immune from this happening again.

Its sometimes cheaper to demolish a school rather than renovating it. I have seen school built as late as the 70s demolished for this reason. In the case of Lamar I think HISD should spend any extra money to save the original building. There is too much history with this building not to. I found a video of a student filming through the halls of the school. While this may be a newer addition the school looks to be in pretty good shape. Demolishing this part would be a waste. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1jCcWUM08 BTW if this is the same Lamar we're talking about. I would go to this school any day now over some others north of Downtown.

You probably remember better than me. I remember going there and I know it was in that area, but could have been in Northline. HCAD says that 440 W Little York was built is 1970 and was owned by WEINGARTEN RLTY INV #0950. Of course they could have just been leasing the building.

My dad worked for Purolator armored car service back in the mid 70s here in Houston. He used to pick up money for many of the Weingartens stores. One day his partner was shot in the face in an armed robbery. My dad stayed in the back of the truck and reported what was happening. His name was in the paper and he got some award for remaining calm in a crisis. I was just a baby at the time. I only remember going in a Weingartens store once with my mom and our next door neighbor. It was located on Little York and I-45 at 440 W LITTLE YORK RD. Its a Food Town today.

I moved to the Addicks-Barker area about 6 years ago and have been researching the the history over the past year. I figured there had to be artifacts left behind when the town was moved for the Addicks Reservoir. I was wondering about those buildings on Pine Forest Lane and their history and now I know. Thanks for the link! If you have any more information about this area please share it.

We were looking up my friends condo on Historical Aerials and saw that this road went right through it. The remains can be seen on the 1978 areial on Google Earth. The condo was built in 1980.

A lot of them died in car accidents too which is as equally as shocking to me. I saw that a guy I had several classes with at Aldine died in a motorcycle accident last year. With the number of people that went to the school deaths are to be expected. I knew a lot of people in the Aldine area that died young due to health problems (under 60). I'm sure lifestyle had a lot to do with it. Lot's of the old schoolers did a lot of drinking, smoking and had poor eating habits. I will say overall the kids I went to school with were pretty strong and healthy. It wasn't like today where schools have no peanut zones in the lunch room. A few kids had asthma, but it didn't stop them from playing sports. I had bad sinus allergies, but have outgrown them for the most part. I also hardly get sick. BTW does anyone know if there were ever any disease outbreaks like Polio, measles, pertussis or diphtheria in the Aldine area before the vaccines were introduced? A lot of communities had major outbreaks which killed or permanently injured a lot of kids. I researched the history of the polio epidemic and it affected the poor much less. This was likely due to the fact that poorer kids are not afraid to get dirty which strengthens the immune system.

Not as big into sports as you guys, but here is my take. I agree that a good coach is much of what makes a winning team. Out of a school of over 2000 students a coach can put together winning varsity team with the right training. I don't think it matters where the players come from or what ethnicity they are. I guess if all the coaches are looking for easy wins it might help that the team has a bunch of big black guys. The same holds true for academics. The Kipp charter school which was founded in Houston performs better than some of the best public and private schools in the country. The schools are pretty much all minorities from poor neighborhoods. Most of the students perform below grade level when they come in, but are above in about a year. HISD's Apollo 20 program follows many of their methods. It isn't the kids; it is the teachers and administrators that make winning students. I knew kids that didn't have a father in the lives and their moms were a drug addicts. They managed to graduate and make a life for themselves. I know a good school life played a big part in that happening. It was once thought that if you bussed kids from the ghettos to the nicer schools, the kids would get a better education. Instead people made what is known as the White Flight to the suburbs and the schools and neighborhoods declined. You are also forcing kids from different upbringings to go to school together who don’t necessarily want to which leads to racism and bullying. If the parents want their kids to go to that school they will move closer to it. One change in Texas schools over the last few years has been to allow kids to go to any school in the district so long as they have transportation and there is room. When I was in school this wasn’t an option and I knew people who used relatives address so they could go to a better school. Hopefully they will one day allow parents to send their kids to a school legally outside the district they live in. This along with a voucher program would force bad schools to shape up. I must say that Aldine ISD has long been a good school district. They have good test scores, good sports teams and have always managed their budget well.

The state shut down the North Houston School district shortly after Aldine ISD was formed in the mid 1930. It split the school district between Klein , Aldine and HISD with Aldine getting most of Acres Homes. Aldine just kept it students at the school closes to their home even after desegregation in 1965. In the late 70s Aldine ISD and several other Texas schools were sued by the federal government claiming they were segregating its students. Aldine fought, but lost. In the end a plan was devised that no more than 30% of any Aldine school could be African American. So Aldine bused a small amount of its students in Acres Homes to every school in the district. Bethune and two other schools in the Acres Homes area became intermediate schools (5th and 6th grade) and Carver became a magnet school. In the 1980s my elementary school had one bus from Acres Homes which made up 90% of the black students in the school. In my neighborhood when students got in the 5th grade they went to Bethune and then Grantham Middle school from 6th – 8th grade and then Aldine. The order was lifted in 2000 (I believe), but Aldine continued to bus it's high school students so there would be no sports advantage at one school. A little racist if you ask me. Now all the schools are zoned more like they should be. In my old neighborhood it is Carroll, Stehlik Intermediate 5th and 6th, Stovall 7th and 8th, then Aldine 9th Grade Center and Aldine SR 10th – 12th. Bethune in now a magnet school along with most of the other schools near it. I think bussing was one of the dumbest idea's ever. Most kids want to go to the school closest to their home and the parents like it that way too.

Your project looks like it is coming along good. You should send it to the principal of Aldine (and maybe the district) when you're done. I'm not understanding the entrance where the admin offices where. I thought the entrance went straight into the 200 and 700 halls? With the library being between the 100 and 200 hall. The old admin office is still there and was used as some kind of classroom when I went there. In front of it is the janitorial office where the breakers for much of the school are. Maybe they cut through it for the addition and only half remains. Did they make the entrance they sealed as off part of the library? Could the map be wrong? Also what is the area where the old band room used for now? In the four years I was there I never went inside that part near the auditorium and inside where the teacher's parking is/was. When I was there the band room was on the far end of the 600 hall. I had technology systems in the classroom back there next to the printing class (had a fight once there too).

It wasn't that bad. I actually liked the block scheduling. You only had to worry about 4 classes per day instead of 6. Now most schools have 7 and even 8 classes a day. The whole reason behind it is you earn more credits in a year. The biggest downfall to the 4X4 block scheduling like Aldine had is students only have classes like Math and English a half a year. So there is a big gap not taking those subjects. In fact I think the pilot program showed a decline in those subjects test scores. Most schools that do block scheduling now do A days and B days. 4 classes per day, but different classes ever other day. On Fridays they go to all 8 classes for testing, but the classes are shorter. In Cy-Fair where I live now they have 7 periods and no block scheduling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_scheduling I would think the HVAC class would be in one of the vocational rooms, but there is no telling since it was a newer class at the time.

They started the block scheduling during the 95-96 school year and with it came the one lunch period. It was 4, 9 week terms. Each term equaled one semester for that class. So a class like algebra that would be a full year was only a half a year. There were 4 classes per day and the classes were Monday through Friday. There wasn't any alternating days. Each period or block as they called them was about 1:20 minutes long. There was only one lunch block for the whole school. So all 3000 or so students were on lunch at the same time (no 9th grade center yet). There were carts setup through the whole campus where you could buy food and as you said we could roam the campus and eat where we wanted. Some students ate in the cafeteria, some ate in the halls and some even at in the classrooms. I had co-op and went home when lunch started and only had to stay for lunch once because of testing. They split the lunches a couple years later and I think in 2000 they went back to the traditional scheduling. As for the school map. I saw it on the website in the early 2000s. I want to say 2002 or 2003. It may have been sooner. I don't believe it was an attachment, but can't remember for sure. A question on the 1965 aerial. What were those buildings with the red roofs that look like houses where the 400 hall was added for? Also I noticed they added on to the field house from the 1965 aerial and the 1979 one.

Back when boys all wore pants and girls all wore dresses. In those days shorts and tennis shoes on guys were uncool by high school (shorts were aginst the rules too) unless you were playing sports. How times have changed. Those windows between the two sets of doors went to the library and is where the 600 hall now stands. When I went there they had the class pics for every school year on the wall to the left of the teachers lounge door. Looking at this pic I don't see where any restrooms or offices could have been on the front that were removed for the addition. I think those doors on the left brought you right by the auditorium and the ones on the right went straight to into the 200 and 700 (think that's it) hall. The main office must have been right behind the nurses office or that room on the 700 hall by the 200 hall. I wish I still had a map of the school. They took it off their website.

The building just above the mini gym is also an addition not show until the 1981 aerial. I believe that is where the other weight room I was telling you about is. Isn't the pool also in this area? I think this was added in 1978 also. I think those two buildings by the gym are the newer locker rooms also added in 1997. I do remember being told new locker rooms were added with the 1997 additions. I was also told by the auto mechanic teachers that they added a/c and did some renovations to the vocational area in 1997.

I have a feeling the 1972 date was a mean date of all the additions which were probably part of the same bond. I see in that pic that the A/C had already been added to the older wing. I'm pretty sure at least the 1970 addition had A/C when it was built. Not sure if they added it to the old wings at the same time. I do know it is all on the same chilled water system which is outside by the 400 hall, next to the 9th grade center. The front addition is also on the same system. The auditorium, gym and cafeteria had its own separate systems. I'm have a feeling the auditorium and possibly the offices by it had A/C when it was built, but the rest of the school didn't. I also think the cafeteria might have had A/C before the rest of the school did. I remember seeing a really big, old a/c unit behind the cafeteria by the incinerator. I know when the A/C broke in the school one year the cafeteria was still cool. So I think the answer to the A/C question is more than one date. I see from your 1960s pic of the front of the school that there is what looks to be windows near the auditorium. Those are now blocked with the 1973 addition. It looks like the library had windows too. BTW most of the front lost its windows when they added the other wing on in the late 90s. Have to get back to work, I'll add more later.

Thanks So where were the admin offices before this? I never saw any offices in the older wing that might have been used.

I think that was film in general in the 1970s. For what ever reason film in the 1970s got really cheap. You see it in pictures and in movies. On another note I had a plummer out yesterday that went to Aldine for a year and Stovall for 3 years in the late 70s to 1980. I couldn't think of anything to ask him about the school. He did tell me that he enjoyed living in the area during that time. He lived in Oak Glenn Place.

Ahh so my source was right Looking foward to that pic.

It was the same way when I went there. They would throw the black kids a basketball and the rest of us would sit and watch or play on the side goals. There was no swimming, baseball or football. I didn't learn to swim till I taught myself a few year back. It would have been nice if they taught us stuff like that in school. Later in the year about 6 of us were given the key and allowed to go to the weight room by the field house to work out. Some female coach didn't like that we were out there unsupervised and made a big deal about it to the head coach. That really pissed me off because we were not hurting anyone or doing anything against the rules out there. We were allowed a few times after that to use the weight room by the mini gym which had those weights with the cables. I would have probably dropped out if I had to do 3.5 years of PE. lol We were only required 1.5 years of PE, but there were a bunch of classes that counted for the other 1/2 credit. I took co-op and that counted for a PE credit so I only had one year. Now they only require one year and health is optional by the state, though some schools still require it. Looking back a lot of time was wasted in school. That time could have been spent preparing us for college or the work force, which is what school is for anyway.

I thought there was only one gym back then? The article say there was a boys and girls gym "each gym has a full length basketball court". Were they talking about the old court outside by West Road? I didn't play any sports in school, but I know during PE we NEVER took showers. I always found it odd how kids on TV showered after gym class. I mean it's not a bad idea, but it was something no one ever did. We never had any hair dryers, towels or drapes either! Maybe the girls rooms did. Reading these old articles it sounds like Aldine was a fun school to go to back then. It was a much smaller school and everyone pretty much came from the same background.