Ross

The work on the ExxonMobil building was to replace most of the facade. The original facade was detaching from the building.

My Dad grew up in Pelly. From the stories he and my Uncles told, it had a great sense of neighborhood and poeple liked living there.

According to HCAD, the property is owned by Northern Trust, and does not have a structure on it. What a waste.

Humble camps were the housing areas that Humble Oil provided to their employees so they could live close to the fields where they worked. My Mother's Dad worked for Humble from 1933 to 1966, with most of that in a camp. Humble provided basic houses of a standard design, utilities, streets, etc. The streets were generally oyster shell where available. I know my Mom lived in the camps at Tomball, ST, Freer, Heyser (near Bloomington, SE of Victoria) and I think one other. When my Granddad was transferred to Woodsboro, they moved into a regular house, although my Mom had left by then. After Woodsboro, they moved to Refugio, where my Granddad retired. One of my Uncles lived in the camp near Genoa, transferring there dometime arounf WWII, after working for years in the Baytown refinery. My Dad's parents moved to Baytown in 1917, and lived in a tent for a couple of years, until a blowout forced the companies to make all of the employees move out. My Dad's Dad worked for Humble as well, although there wasn't really a camp in Baytown due to the proximity of the town to the field. As I understnad it, the houses were pretty basic, but livable. The exteriors were painted on a schedule, as were the interiors. Of course, in those days, there wasn't any air conditioning. When my Mom was born, in 1936, my grandparents lived in Tomball, and made the long trip into town so my Mom could be born in a real hospital - Memorial on Lamar. I used to hear the story that the night my Mom was born, the temperature was so cold that the contents of the icebox froze. Soon after that, Humble started to provide refrigerators, eliminating the need for visits from the iceman. Heat was provided by gas space heaters, using gas from the nearby fields.

My mother was raised in Humble camps - and remembers living in one called Spanish Trail Camp, or Humble ST Camp in the early 1940's. I remember my Grandad talking about it as well. Does anyone have a reference to the location of the ST Camp? I assume it was somewhere off of Main, the 1935 map shows Hwy 90 called OST to San antonio, while the street currently named OST is called the OST Cutoff, under construction. I don't know if the camp was related to the Pierce Junction field, but that's the only large field near those streets.

The original plan was to encourage the homeless to migrate to Baldwin Park at Elgin and Crawford. This was when we lived in the area. The community meeting on the topic had over 200 attendees, who pretty much told the do gooders that if they wanted to support the homeless, how about doing it in the do gooder's neighborhood. There was much talk about how to disrupt the feeding/preaching plans, and in the end, the homeless didn't go to our park. I used to marvel at the apartments details, especially the colorful tile work on the facades. Really nice looking work. Since we moved to Timbergrove, I haven't had much opportunity to drive that way.

The Root family donated the block their house sat on to the City for a park. For years it was the main campground for homeless people in Downtown, a situation made worse by the stupid, although well meaning, do gooders who fed them on the weekends. Once redevelopment started with the construction of Toyota Center, the City ran off the homeless.

The only place I've found for information on LP's is the Texas Secretary of State site. Unfortunately, they make you pay for information that ought to be public record for free.

The name change was more than a few years ago. My Uncle worked in the Bellaire office starting in the 70's, and th estreet was named Fournace then. Texaco, now Chevron, has been at that Bellaire location since the 40's. The oldest building still there is on the SW corner of the campus, or the NE corner of Fournace and Rice. Chevron bought Gulf then Texaco. Maybe they will change the name to Gulfton again.

That's true, but they could have the consideration to put a bag over it so the rest of us don't have to look at it.

I think they call that style "Modern Ugly". Yecch

Here's a link to an earlier discussion where the WU building inside the BoA building is mentioned, about half way down the page http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/l...x.php/t213.html

've been shoppong there since it opened, and it definitely loks better now. They rearranged the shelves, changed some of the flooring, and it looks like htey upgraded the fresh stuff a bit. the meat looks better, and there's a good variety. The produce section is good - I haven't noticed anything I've wanted not being there.

The chances of that happening are somewhere between slim and none. No one in their right mind would start a newspaper in today's environment in competition with an established, deep pockets, publisher.

I remember going to HAL-PC meetings there in the mid to late 80's. Bill Gates still showed up on occasion, along with Philippe Kahn and other early PC bigwigs.

I noticed a few public notice signs at the apartments at Washington and Waugh announcing an application to redevelop. Anyone have any idea what's up with that?

I noticed there's a sign on the old Fu Kim location at McGowen and Fannin announcing the construction of a medical building, San Jose Clinic, I think, by Christus. The rendering looked reasonable, but I was in a hurry and didn't stop to take a closer look. Be nice to have a decent building there.

There's a Dallas phone number on the sign out front with "Call for information" next to it. I'll try to remember to write down the number the next time I go by there.

I seem to recall reading that Gillman moved because Pontiac told them they had to have a freeway locaiton, and Gillman was pretty peeved about having to move from property they owned to a new location. I bought my first new car there in 1980, but never went back.

Yep, Bland Cadillac was on Gray where the apartments are now. I seem to remember thay also sold Saabs. I met the last manager at a storage place one time. He said it just became impossible to sell luxury cars at that location, and the real estate was more valuable than the business.

I did a quick search for Ivy-Russell, and it looks like the successor is Russell and Smith on the South Loop.

I wondered if it had been sold. There's a bunch of homeless folks living in it, climbing in and out of the front window. Which probably means the interior is a sewer. The windows won't be long for this world. The one they use for an entrance is broken out. I wouldn't be surprised if it burns down when someone lights a fire to stay warm.

I've seen a map somewhere that shows where Hatahway and Westheimer came together was a rail line. i'll ahve to see if I can find that again, as it clearly shows the reason for the disjointed effect. It may be on the 1913 map. T C Jester was the pastor of the Baptist Temple on 20th. Apparently, they named the street after him when he died.

There's also a Wachovia on Sawyer by the new Target. They are getting as bad as CVS.

The Shepherd Street bridge over White Oak Bayou used to have a plaque calling it Erie Street Bridge. The plaque disappeared when they rebuilt the bridge. I have a small hope that someone takes those and puts them in a warehouse somewhere for posterity, rather than just junking them.