brerrabbit

The tunnel under the mall went to all the stores. There were three entrance/exits. One was by 610/Holmes Road basically right under the bridge to the movie theatres. Another was next to the lower level of Joskees and looked like it went right under Sakowitz. The third and final entrance was behind the old Weingartens next to the bank. They all connected under the mall and had loading docks for all the stores. Also included in the underground portion of the mall was a bowling alley, Dentist offices, an auditorium, and several stores actually had part of their stores down there. Grants had a downstairs, Joskees had a lower level, and I think the banks vault was down there. Weingartens restrooms were also on the lower level. One of my favorite places was Mize's bakery and sandwich shop. It was a really small place wedged between Weingartens and the Bank. THey made great sandwiches and I ate there a lot when I worked at Joskees.

I honestly did not know there was ever a golf course there. The driving range however was there. There is to this day a narrow street that comes off of Belfort right across from Hartman. I think it has since been made into a one way street because it was so narrow. The driving range we went to was bordered on the west by that street, so I am sure that a driving range was there at one point. There may have been another one where the Krogers no stands but I don't remember it.

As I mentioned in my earlier post I can tell you where a lot of driving ranges were, and the location you mentioned was where one was. I don't think it was a golf course but I am certain there was a driving range as it was where my Father took me a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons to pound balls. It was in the late 60's when we went there.

The old Texaco Golf Course is an interesting story. Texaco has actually donated the site along with some additional land to the Houston Parks Board but because retirees were promised membership for life after retirement they are still using it as a golf course till those retirees permantly retire. There was a big fight right after the donation to maintain their memberships. But since it makes virtually no revenue the condition of the course is going downhill fast.

Golfcrest CC. It was located south of the 610 loop between Broad and Telephone. The streets in that area still have the golf inspired names like Golfcrest, and Fairway. By the way those names were taken to Pearland with the course. Barnett Stadium which is a HISD complex is located on the old site. Its also the location of an HISD Bus Barn. Golfcrest moved from that location to Pearland around 1971. Up until not long ago they still used the old club house for the transportation offices for HISD at the bus facility. Others that are closed but not repurposed yet would be Clear Lake Golf club in Clear Lake. It went public when Bay Oaks opened and has since closed for good. Another is Friendswood Golf Club which started life as Sun Meadows CC in Friendswood off of FM 528. Its closed and has been for several years. In other discussions on this board Gus Wortham which is still open was once Houston Country Club until it moved to its new location off Woodway. It was one of the first in Houston. I think Golfcrest was like the third and it was opened in 1926. It was the home of the New Rich in Houston that were not able to get into Houston CC. I hear that till this day getting into HCC is difficult unless the family has been arounf Houston for several generations. Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but I am sure there are more. I can tell you where a lot of driving ranges were that have closed but thats a different story.

I know the Globe on Woodridge had the service as well.

It definitly was a Fed Mart for a while. It was in the old Globe building. When Fed Mart closed they tore down the building and built the Mervyns there. Next to the parking lot for the Globe/Fed Mart was a large apartment clomplex that ran from there out to a street called Plum Creek that ran from Telephone near Stubbs Cycles over to Winkler. A friend of mine lived on Plum Creek and we would cut through the apartments over to Globe, and then Fed Mart. Someone who lived in the apartments had actually built a horseshoe pitch in the grass between the parking lot and the back fence of the apartments and cut a hole through the fence to have easy access. That was our cut through to the store.

I graduated from Milby in 1977 and attended Jackson Jr High prior to that. I played football and can tell you that all of our Jr High home games were played at what they called Little Jeppesen. It was was west of Jeppesen stadium behind the old fieldhouse. There are U of H residential apartments on the site today. The Little stadium also doubled as a baseball field in the spring and therefore the bleachers went all the way down the field, and then turned left to form a corner. In that corner was where home plate was for the baseball field. I played high school football at Jeppesen till my junior year and in the fall of 1976 which was the start of my senior year all district 17-4a home games were played at Barnett which was built on the site of the old Golfcrest Country Club. Golfcrest moved to its current location in Pearland in 1971. When they closed the old course my friends and I used to go swimming in the old ponds that were part of the course. If you want to see some neat architechture right next to Barnet is the old Spanish styled Golfcrest clubhouse that they still use as an office for HISD transportation. There is also a bus barn at the old Golfcrest site. I also played baseball in high school and we played at Little Jeppesen until 1977 when Barnett's baseball fields were opened. In college at U of H I played Lacrosse and during my junior year we were allowed to play our home games at Little Jeppesen and that brought back a lot of memories.

The first Taco Bell in that area was at the corner of Bellfort and Telephone. Not really on the corner but just a littl east of the intersection down Bellfort. It was our late night hangout when I was in high school. After a night of drinking we would sober up with $.25 tacos and burritos.

September till May Tuesday nights at Pearland lanes on 518. My wife and I both bowl in league play. A lot of the lanes in town have closed but the ones in the burbs are going strong. There are two on Bay Area Blvd within a mile or so of each other. One is between 45 and Highway 3 and the other is farther down across Highway 3 past El Camino Real. Aramadillo Lanes on Fuqua in South Belt still has real wood lanes not the synthetic ones. Spencer Highway inside the Beltway. I am not sure on Meadowcreek lanes on Richey in South Houston but I think they may still be there. Alleys I know have been lost from years past, Belfort Lanes corner of Mykawa and Bellfort, Gulgate Lanes in the basement of Gulfgate Mall, Mimosa Lanes right off the Gulf Freeway near Airport, Tropicana Lanes on Lawndale. I also know there is still a bowling alley on Holcomb near West U. They are still around and believe me bowling is actually still growing in number of participants. I still get the USBC Bowling magazine.

Red, I don't have any problem with your logic, and I do agree that at some point the voters will get their say. While you point out that the parking garge and the soccer stadium are seperate I see them as being linked in the backroom negotiations as Drayton thinks if the stadium is built he will give his support on the contingency that he gets the parking garage that he feels he must have in return for the sacrafice of the surface lot to the new stadium. I doubt Drayton is merely a huge soccer fan. As far as the overall money I must admit I tend to be bias because I have a good friend that works in the middle of it all and gets extremly frustrated when money is not available from the private sector because there is a fixed amount of it available from year to year. He can and has lost numerous smaller projects because of the large amount of funds that have been dedicated to the GRB project. It is certainlt accesable to many but his multiple projects are spread all over Houston while the one that got the money is downtown. As far as addressing wasteful spending, I have no specifics other than my discussions with my friend as to how much the $70 million going downtown could have done in multiple other smaller projects.

In my little rant I guess I failed to mention that what I was saying was really two different things. Corporate and Foundation funds can not be used on anything that taxes would probably go to pay for. So no they would not pay for the building of a new stadium. There exsists in Houston an orginazation that is the Houston Parks Board. A small non profit 501 © organization that solicites donations from the cities large foundations, and corporations and in turn buys land for parks and oversees the construction of the facilities. When they finish they give the park to the City of Houston. My rant covered two things, first how many stadiums can we actually pay for before we scream thats enough? Second in the current proposal to build a Dynamo stadium the Parks Board is being asked to spend money to buy and build the training facility for the Dynamo. In this case it would in fact be taking dollars out of the Parks Board hands to build other parks all over Houston and create a limited use facility on 288 for the Dynamo. Granted soccer could be played on some of the fields built there but the majority of the cost of the structure would be for the exclusive use of the Dynamo. There has been discussion on other parts of this board about the east of downtown project along Buffalo Bayou with the concert island on paths and developments. The project is on hold and somewhat scaled down in the near future and one of the big reasons is the amount of money that Bill White was able to get from the above mentioned donors. There is a finite amount of that available each year and he has got a lot of it for the next couple years to build a smaller $70 million park in downtown. I guess the jest of my rant is that while I am a huge advocate of improving Houston in every way possible, I am pragmatic enough to know that it has to happen in moderation so we can afford it. Lets face it we already pay quite a bit in property taxes, and when you add in all the rest of the taxes we pay including an 8.25% sales tax we are pretty heavily burdened from the start.

This may be slightly off topic, but here goes. Discussion here has come around to parking for events in downtown and that is certainly a big consideration, but the jest of the discussion is really about a new stadium for the Dynamo, how to fund it and where it will be. I'm all for sports and while I don't watch soccer I understand those who enjoy it. What is starting to bother me is the idea of build, build, build and let the city/ county pay for it. Make no mistake about it, if funds to build anything are provided by the city or the county, it costs you the taxpayer. Forget the politicians buzz phrases like "all the funds will come from hotel taxes, and rental car taxes, so your not paying it". Thats a load of BS because since that money is paying off Reliant, Minute Maid, Toyota Center, and oh by the way the $50 million of improvements to the Dome from the eighties its not going to other concerns that would benifit the larger population as a whole, like parks, roads, and other city infrastructure. Some one even mentioned the new park in front of GRB. While it will no doubt be nice, I seriously question the idea of spending $70 million on a 2 maybe three block park. Again the majority of the money is coming from donations, but just like any other scarce commodity (in this case money) there is a limited supply of it and they just took a huge chunk of it from the foundations and corporate givers for a while. This project will delay widespread park projects all across Houston because your spending so much, for so little. While Drayton McClain looks to be pushing for the new Dynamo stadium, keep this in mind, he will only support the ide if in return he gets a publically funded parking garage that he can take revenue from. He knows the loss of surface parking to the stadium will be what he needs to force the city's hand on the matter. The latest proposal for the practice facility to go along with the new stadium would be at highway 288 and Airport on a 40 acre piece of land there. And get this the rumor is the powers that be want the non profit group that aquires and build park for the city to fund the aquisition. Guess where they get their money from? The same places Mayor Bill has raided for his $70 million park at GRB. I want to see Houston be a dynamic beautiful city that grows and prospers, after all I am a native Houstonian, and a sixth generation Texan. This is my home, and this is my heritage, but mortgaged the future to get all this stuff is not what I had in mind. The city/county needs to stop spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave or Houston is going to suffer greatly tomorrow for todays short sighted actions.

Few pics from my trip today. Hope you enjoy. Just had to comment on this last picture. With the expansion of the school the addition was built between the football field and the main building. It totally changes the feel of the building. I remember riding the city bus to Jackson and getting off on Telephone Road and walking to school. The approach from that direction made the back of the school look like a prison. It was the Boys and Girls gymns from that angle with the lunchroom above them on the third floor. It had a definite prison feel to it. The newer building really takes that away and really softens the look.

I want to say the principals name when I was there was Marion Skaines. Mr. Morgan was never an assistant Principal till after I left. He went on to be the Principal at a Jr. High in Southwest Houston and took a lot of the teachers from Jackson with him. After that he moved into administration with HISD and at some point I remember seeing his name on the news as having been involved with some wrongdoings associated with the school district. He eventually lost his job over it and I think faced criminal charges. My drama teacher was Ms. Hargis who I also had for RWS in the 7th grade. I wasn't till I was a junior in high school that a girl who was a year ahead of me from the drama program at Jackson who was also at Milby explained to me that Ms. Hargis was gay. Wow what a shock that was to me way back then. Ms. Hargis followed Mr Morgan to the new Jr. High and was the librarian there for many years. I saw her and several of the other teachers from Jackson when I tought a Project Business class at the school in the early 80's.

Actually now that I think about it I think it took like three days to show it because classes were only an hour long and the movie pushed three hours. Mentioning Mrs. Fortenberry reminds me that I was in class at Jackson with her daughter Tracy. I had classes with her all three years at Jackson and she was in Speech and Drama with me as well. Also we had Coach Herman who I actually knew before I got to Jackson because I played Little League baseball with his son Craig.

I went to Jackson from 1971 to 1974. I remember watching the movie "The Battle of the Bulge" in that auditorium with several history classes. (And no it wasn't about loosing weight) I really enjoyed my three years there and was going to go to Austin HS but changed at the last minute and wound up going to Milby instead. I had Ms. Hargis for RWS in the 7th grade and wound up taking Speech from her in the 8th and 9th grade and went to numerous tournaments. Those were some very good times growing up.

My understanding is that the city is going to close one block of a street over there and the garden will take up two city blocks and the rightof way for that one block of street. I don't think its the area you are talking about as it will be farther west on the south side of 59 closer to the China Town area.

My source has sat in on meetings with the City and Dynamo representatives and while the city is willing to talk putting the land into the mix the team is expected to contribute most if not all of the building costs. Given that the warehouse district is out because much of that area over there is considered to be worth as much as $50 a square foot. That would put the price at $2.2 million an acre. No way the city is going to step up to that. Also in the same area a little farther west in the China Town area the city is in the process of closing an entire block to create a garden in honor of our sister city in China. I never knew Houston had a Chinese sister city but apparently they do. They have already built a Houston garden over there and we are now reciprocating. Might be why the International Festival is doing China this year. Anyway the garden will be on a street in the area. The construction of the garden is why my source was looking into land costs in the area. He has also been looking at alternatives for the property at BW 8 and US 59 for a while when the Dynamo Stadium issue came up and it seemed a natural fit. Lets face it people here are dancing around the issue of who will go to the games and based on what I have seen from the games they have played at Reliant Park between international teams and the feedback I have got from the Dynamo games its apparent that the continuing fan base is and will be Hispanic. Sure the suburban soccer families will attend some games but the diehards will be Hispanic. As a result the discussion on where to put the stadium is wide open since there are Hispanics all over Houston and the surrounding areas while some of the other minority groups tend to be in specific areas. (I'm not saying this is good or bad or forming any opinion just saying it is what it is and the group making the decisions believe this to be true) If you accept this then the location of the stadium is wide open because the expected fan base is all over the place and will come to the games. Given that and a $2 million an acre price for the area near MMP I can guareentee it will not be built there. He works acquiring and building parks for the City of Houston and is a very good friend of mine.

Actually the way Sage got around the Blue Laws was to rope the areas off on Saturday and then open them back up on Sunday, thus being the only store selling that stuff on Sunday. The Blue Laws merely said you could not sell the stuff for seven days in a row and everyone interpreted that to mean that you closed on Sunday. Sage just exploited the loophold and made a pretty nice profit for a while till everyone else caught up to the idea. On that same note who remembers the Deauville Shopping Malls. These were short lived ideas that were originally meant to challenge the Blue Laws and be open seven days a week. The buildings still exsist such as the one on the Gulf Freeway at Bay area Blvd, on the east side of the freeway. The malls had off name stores and did 90% of their sales on Sundays when everyone else was closed. I think they did okay for about six months until the regular malls saw they were not getting in trouble and decided to open up on Sundays as well. That did in the Deauville bunch and they closed and eventually were turned into A couple of Garden Ridges and at the one at Baybrook became the home of several Big Box tretailers like Best Buy, Oshmans, and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Not necessarily the Mississippi river but certainly the Sabine, the Trinity, the San Jacinto, the Brazos, and the Colorado all add to the problem. That combined with the fact that the Gulf is very shallow comparitivly speaking to other gulfs and oceans. It takes almost ten miles off shore to get past the hundred foot depth mark. Add it all up and you get murky water that deposits darker sand onto the beaches giving it a "dirty" look.

In post number five I mentioned a house being built near Glenbrook pool on a piece of property near my Mother in laws house. Well I went looking for it on Live.Maps and look at what I found. The guy is building a dome house and apparently its all concrete. Guess he wants to be ready for the next hurricane. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...;scene=10479588

No unfortunatly the San Jacinto Inn is long gone. It was located right next to the Battleship Texas across the road from the San Jacinto monument. They were a family style resturant that brought out plates of food as you requested them and would keep bringing it till you were full. They had fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried chicken, the best biscuits in the world and most of the time straberry shortcake for dessert. It was one price for the meal and as I said you ate till you were full. My family loved that place and were sad to see it close.

What information I do have is from a very good friend who is very involved with the whole park business in Houston, in fact its his job. According to him the city as well as the group he works for is getting a ton of pressure from the community to increase the number of sports fields available in to the public. As the city grows a lot of open space that once was dedicated to Little League, Soccer, Softball, and Lacrosse is being gobbled up for new construction. The latest victim being the Lacrosse complex at the corner of Stella Link and West Belfort. They plan on extending West Belfort thus getting rid of the fields there. I was involved with Little League for many years and can tell you that the majority of the Leagues in the state are on public facilities that the city or county provides and pays the light bills for. The only current exception I know of is Pearland where the Dads Club owns the land and the Little Leagues pays for there own lights. East End LL, Magnolia LL, Friendswood LL, Sagemont Beverly Hills LL, and Dixie LL all play on public facilities and have no worries as to light bills. As the trend to public facilities continues and youth sports grow the demand will only increase. This means that facilities like Gus Worthem are being looked at pretty hard to decide if they can continue to operate as golf courses. In the end I think the city will opt out to the playing fields.

It goes right back to the issue of usage. The course is currently very under utilized and with only a nine hole course it would probably be even more so. Again the philosophy of the City is to maximize the number of users and visitors to the greenspaces in the City. This means building the most needed, and requested facilities to reach more people. Golf at that location is not it. The discussed tradeoffs would be community participation in the form of youth clinics and community involvement. I could not imagine the city contributing anything more and if they did I think it would be a bad decision. In talks with other places for the stadium it has been made clear there would be no financial support from the cities. At least when I spoke with several of the Pearland city councilmen thats what they told me.