Libbie

What a great picture! Exactly as I remember it, even to the big inkblot-shaped ceiling design!

Interesting! My father had an MRI done very near there in about 1989 or '90, but I don't have a picture.

Do any old-timers remember the original incarnation of UHD, the University of Houston Downtown School, located at 925 Caroline, downtown? My father taught there and once mentioned that the Caroline building had previously housed a paint store.

My father was Mr. O.R. Hicks. He taught English in the night school there from the late fifties until his retirement in 1973. I can't find anything in Wikipedia or elsewhere about the first UHD. The current one, at One Main Street, was established in 1974. My father may have planned his retirement to coincide with the closing of the U of H Downtown where he taught, but at 22 I didn't have those details on my radar. In any event, I wonder if any HAIFers either actually remember or have heard anything about the original University of Houston Downtown School.

Your mom worked at Suzanne's? Interesting! I must have seen her during the years when my parents and I ate there. In the mid eighties, a sort of high-end Mexican restaurant (an Austin transplant called Fonda San Miguel) had a brief stint in the old Suzanne's building. I remember sometimes taking my attention away from my pollo pibil  to look around and see what I could recognize that had been there when it was still Suzanne's. 

Remember the Alabama at Shepherd strip center in the old days? It's still there, of course, and Trader Joe's kept the old Alabama Theater marquee, so that at first glance the strip center looks almost as it used to. But do any of you remember it from the old days? Left to right (i.e., south to north on Shepherd), it was Walgreen's, A & P Supermarket, Alabama Theater, Suzanne's Cafeteria, Wacker's, and Western Auto. When I was a child and a teenager, it was my great treat to be taken (or to ride my bike) to the soda fountain at that  particular Walgreen's for a big glass of chocolate milk -- or on more luxurious days, an ice cream soda. The A & P, AKA the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (just to the left of the Alabama Theater, I think) was, to my child-mind, merely a supermarket, nothing special, a place where we shopped if we happened to be in the area -- second choice after the Dunlavy Weingarten's (which had been the 1400-block-of-Richmond-Avenue Weingarten's in the earlier '50s). Next door sat the Alabama Theater, which lasted a long time, till the '80's, wasn't it?  To its right (north) was Suzanne's Cafeteria, a very good cafeteria of the same species as the Cleburne, Albritton's, or Luby's, run by a genial Greek gentleman called Mr. Gus. On Thursday nights it was sort of festive, and a pretty waitress would sing. Her specialty was "Moon River." We continued to eat there even after my mother was served a well-boiled grasshopper atop her bowl of spinach one evening. And next door to Suzanne's was my childhood shopping paradise, Wacker's:  a sort of mini-Woolworth's, where a child with a quarter could buy a small plastic doll with MUCH more strength of character than one of those snooty, new-fangled Barbies. Finally, on the north end, was Western Auto. My father would go there -- not to browse in dreamy joy as he did at Southland Hardware (at this writing, still sitting there, ageless, in its appointed spot at 1822 Westheimer) -- but simply to buy something for the car when the need arose. 

In 1969 I moved to Austin for college and for a long time didn't think much about the Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center and its various shops. I moved back to Houston in the mid-eighties. Venturing back to the Alabama Shopping Center, I encountered  Butera's,  Whole Earth Provision Company, Cactus Video, Bookstop, and Whole Foods . Roaming one day in Bookstop (constructed within the old theater) one day in the 1990s, I suddenly had a joyful flashback, among the bookshelves on the second floor: a sudden memory of having seen NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS  there in 1958 with my parents. Now, well into the 21st century, the A & P is Whole Earth, I think; the Bookstop is Trader Joe's; and Whole Foods is Petsmart.

I still enjoy driving past the new/old Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center, squinting a little. Out of the corner of my eye, I can almost see Walgreens, the A & P,  the Alabama Theater, Suzanne's, Wacker's, and Western Auto. It's a good feeling. 

On 2/22/2018 at 11:08 PM, EspersonBuildings said:

I apologize if I've responded to this in the past (or maybe I just read it a while back).  LC Cafeteria was under Walgreen's on Main @ Walker, not Woolworth's (Main & McKinney)  You could enter from the front entrance on Main @ Walker via an escalator (right next to the entrance to Walgreen's) or from the back entrance on Travis @ Walker (right next to the back entrance to Walgreen's).  It was huge, occupied the entire side (the basement) of the southern half of the block (Walker, Travis, Rusk & Main) directly under Walgreen's.  I came back to Houston in 1998 (gone for 15 years) and by this time it was an all you can eat buffet but only occupied the western half of the original LC Cafeteria, you could now only enter and exit at Walker and Travis.  Don't think it lasted very long after this and years later the entire San Jacinto Building was demolished.  Across the street on Main was James Coney Island, so many eating places on street level in those days!

I remember the L&C. From 1950 or before till some time in the '70s, every Tuesday night the Scribblers Club met there. That was a group of amateur and published writers, including Hughie Call (some old-timers or old-book lovers may have read her). I started going with my mother in the early '60s when I was in junior high. I remember the food as being very good, as well as the novelty of entering a restaurant from a down-escalator, right outside in the open!

When I first moved back to Houston in 1984, I saw it and was really impressed by it. It had a sign that said "Boarding House," and there was what looked like a cabbage patch or vegetable garden along its front walk. I soon moved into the neighborhood but had little reason to pass by the mansion/boarding house for several years. In 1991 I enrolled my daughter in a daycare home down the street, and by then the mansion looked vacant, but soon there were signs of construction and remodeling, and before long I was told that a fraternity moved into it. I wished I'd had some excuse to go inside when it was a boarding house. How was that for an anachronism!

6 hours ago, mollusk said:

Scott and the Gulf Freeway still has two gas stations - they're different brands now, but that's not exactly unusual.  The main building of the Phillips 66 / chicken joint that's there now even looks like a reskin of the former Gulf station.

I thought it might be farther west, like maybe West Dallas at Montrose, since it's both far enough and close enough to see so much skyline. Could we see that much skyline at Scott? Dunno. I'll have to look and visualize the next time I drive that way.

My husband, Mr. Martinez, taught there as a full-time substitute (they called them "dedicated" subs) from 1986-1988.

I haven't read this entire thread from 2007 to 2 weeks ago, so I might be repeating something,  but how about Reba in River Oaks, which becomes Fairview East of Shepherd, which then becomes Tuam right before downtown?

 And Gray, which just past Shepherd becomes Inwood.

Another quirky Village store I remember from the '90s was a handcrafts shop called Iowa and Guatemala, which sold hand-made folk art crafted by rural Iowans and rural Guatemalans.

I think you mean El Meson.  It's still there, and still good.

It's actually Mexican-Spanish-Cuban. I don't know if the elderly owners I knew are still living, but the husband was a Spaniard, the wife was a Cuban, and the adult son was a sort of Cuban/Spanish/Tex-Mex-American Houstonian. Very nice people, all three of them.

There was a half-priced books in an old bldg. I used to frequent in West U. I loved walking through, checking out the details of the place, 1990's, I think it was. I think it would be west of the tapas restaurant, now. Had old display windows & a back loft, balcony, staircase, and a tiny smaller room to the left. Reminded me of those '50's ladies clothing stores at Gulfgate. 

It's still there. It's now double the size it was, though, because a few years ago it took over the space of what had been a baby-clothes-and-accessories store.  (Come to think of it, in the late 80s and early ninties,

Rice Village had two baby stores. Was there a baby boomlet in those years?)

I was using my lap top earlier and didn't have any pictures on it. I have found the picture, hope you enjoy it. It also has a big Rettig's ice cream sign on it too. Looking close at the picture it appears that an A & P store was next to the drug store. The photo is from the Sloane collection so we will give him credit for the pic. I have posted two pictures one from when It was built and the other as it looks now.

That's a fantastic old picture! And it DID have a Rettig's ice cream sign on it. It is delightful beyond all logic to see that old picture.  You have helped me to scratch a decades-old memory itch! Thank you.

I hope you find the picture. I would really love to see it.

For years, whenever I would turn left from Mandell onto Westheimer, I would look at the building on the north-west corner (now Hugo's Mexican Restaurant, http://kaldis.com/hugosrestaurant.html ,  before that, Imperial Plumbing Supply, before that (?), and I would have a dim toddler-memory of having eaten ice cream there, some 60 years ago. I had the notion that it had been a Rettig's Ice Cream Parlor, but I learned a few years ago on HAIF that the nearest Rettig's had been 3 or 4 blocks east, on Windsor at Westheimer.  Finally, my dim bulb lit up enough for me to do a little googling and discover that the building had been a Mading's Drugstore.  That made sense: most drugstores back then served ice cream;  as a toddler I probably thought that any place that served ice cream was called Rettig's;  there was a Rettig's down the street... .  But the memory is both indelible and dim.  Did anyone else ever patronize that business when it was a drugstore?  Just wondering.

I remember it, too.  I used to skate there some, in the early to mid 60s.  I didn't remember the address, though, just the sort-of location.  I've often thought of it, driving through the area. So, "2400 Norfolk, kind of behind Ninfa's." That's good to know. That'll help my geographic nostalgia. Now I'll know where to look when I'm driving through the area.  I'll visualize it right there, behind the former Ninfa's, right off Kirby, at Norfolk. 

Interesting about everybody's reaction to Roman Meal.  I had no idea it was so popular.  According to the website, it was originally a hot cereal and had some ingredients that are trendy today.

 

It was supposed to be good for you but wheat bread was supposed to be good for you too and Roman Meal tasted a lot better.

 

I think I'll have to pick up a loaf sometime and try it.

 

I drove over on Washington today; they sure don't brag about that place being a bakery.  It's a Sunbean outlet store and I did see a Flowers Bakery sign behind the burglar bars at what I assume was the entrance to the main building.

About 10 years ago I found some Roman Meal bagels at a Rice Epicurean across town. They were WONDERFUL!  But I've never found any more, anywhere.

I first saw that mansion when house-hunting in the neighborhood in the mid 1980s.  Its shingle said "Boarding House," and along the sidewalk was what looked like a vegetable garden.  I was really intrigued.

There was an Okay car dealership on the Gulf Freeway (maybe across from Gulfgate?) forever!  But no more. A boy I knew asked me out on a date in about 1967. He picked me up and drove me to Okay Cars, saying that he hadn't budgeted well enough for a movie or a burger, so he just took me to stare at the cars.  He had a great time! I didn't, much.  I married somebody else.  Twenty-five years later we went to Bonnie's Beef and Seafood on the Gulf Freeway and  I looked over and saw the little "Okay" flags flapping. It still looked the same. But it's not there any more.

Phil's is now known as 59 Diner.

Phil, the owner of Phil's, which did indeed relocate to Shepherd, off Richmond, and is 59 Diner, worked there as a host for a number of years after he retired. Around 1992, when my mother was 80-something, she went there to eat but had forgotten her purse. Phil (also 80-something) was there, hosting, and he lent her the price of her meal--a true gentleman!

I ate at Cardet's in the mid 70's. If my memory is correct, they were part of a Latin food market. Does anyone else remember? The food was good there.

I started eating at Cardet's in the late 1970s. The food was good, and the restaurant was attached to a little grocery store--Cuban, of course, like the restaurant--that sold normal groceries and also a few exotic vegtables, like malangas (google it), as well as Cuban records and even books.  I'm pretty sure the Cardet family originally lived above the store; in later years it appeared that the cook and her family lived there.

I would see Cubans and people who seemed to be from the West Indies shopping there. After the 1980 Mariel Boatlift catapulted a lot of destitute Cubans into the country, I noticed several new employees. The food, if possible, got even better. Then, in 1983, it was sold to some Koreans,who re-named it Latina Cafe (this name jarred a bit if you knew Spanish and caught the incorrect grammatical gender of Latina + Cafe). But they kept the same cook and wait staff. I remember seeing a diminutive oldish Cuban waiter upbraiding his Korean lady boss in Desi-Arnaz-rapid-fire Spanish (the time I remember it was something about that customer didn't want his milk-coffe pre-sweetened). The new Korean owners soon learned enough Spanish for self-preservation, and I remember seeing their pre-school daughter sitting at the counter, the pet of elderly Cubans doting on her. The Koreans tried a Korean dish or two but eventually reverted to all-Cuban food. I didn't go for several years. When I went back, the daughter was old enough to take my order! A few years later, I heard it had been sold to some Indonesians, who, fortunately, kept the menu and the cook. Not all that many years ago, it ceased to be Cuban/Korean/Indonesian/Cuban, and became The Roost. I ate there once. The food is quite good, but the place was too noisy for quiet conversation, at dinner time, anyway.

But since San FILLipee is the accepted common local pronunciation that's what I call it. There's certainly no law that says we must adhere to pronunciations in source languages. After all, would you call Paris Texas "Paree" because that is how it is pronounced in French? That would just be silly.

Oh, I call it San FILLipee too. After all, I am a native Houstonian. I even tell friends from out of town them that the correct Houston pronunciation is San FILLipee. It doesn't bother me that people don't pronounce it like the original Spanish (I have no intention of calling it anything other than San FILLipee, either); it simply intrigues me that San Felipe could have evolved such a quirky pronunciation that obeys neither the English nor the Spanish pronunciation conventions.

I guess FiloScotia's theory makes sense: that the first generation of Texans pronounced it pretty close to the Spanish and that it gradually became San Phillip-ee. It's logical, in a way: pronouncing it like its English equivilant "Phillip," but pronouncing the final e of Felipe as a sort of a remnant of the original pronunciation. O.K. I can live with that theory.

I have a theory that San Felipe was the original road from harrisburg and later houston to San Felipe, capital of austins colony. Washington, north of Buffalo bayou went to Washington on the Brazos. If so these would have been the first roads coming into houston from the west. The only competitor would be old richmond road, which might have been of the same era.

You're probably right. That makes a great deal of sense. And thinking about the street name San Felipe, it just popped into my head to wonder why native Houstonians (I'm one) routinely pronounce it "San FILLipee"? If you're a Spanish speaker, it should sound like "San Feh-LEE-peh;" if you're an English speaker, it should be "San FehLEEpy" or San FehLEEP," but how in the world did it get started as "San FILLipee, which doesn't fit the phonic of either English or Spanish? It's enough to drive you nuts, wondering.

I have no idea when or why it was changed, but at one time the street we now call West Dallas was named San Felipe. It ran from the west side all the way into downtown.

I know it was San Felipe as recently as World Wars One and even WWII, because newspaper accounts of the Camp Logan race riot in 1918 said the rioting soldiers advanced toward downtown Houston on San Felipe Road.

Also, the City of Houston built that big public housing project just west of downtown early in WWII, and named it San Felipe Courts, for the street that ran along the south side of the project.

Does anyone have an old map that shows the original route San Felipe took going west out of downtown?

Oh, so that's why I used to hear old-timers refer to Allen Parkway Village housing project as "San Felipe Courts" when I was a child. Interesting!