templehouston

This house is on Yoakum Blvd. on the block south of Richmond Avenue (just before the Southwest Freeway). It's a law firm office now.

Hey, it's almost three years, but no one appears to have described the 70s in Montrose. First, the area around Dunlavy and Westheimer is the closest I see today to the atmosphere of lower Westheimer (i.e., Westheimer EAST of Montrose) in the 70s. The antique galleries on lower Westheimer were all in old homes and not nearly as accessible as the ones you find nowadays between Woodhead and Mandell. The original Tootsie's was located across from Dorothy Schwartz's gay bar near Whitney and Westheimer. Dorothy had two bars, Prufrock's and the Round Table. Prufrock's had the text of the poem written around the room just below the ceiling. It had a very eclectic jukebox (Piaf, movie themes [e.g., North to Alaska], etc.) (remember, it's the 70s). Artists frequented the bar and certain politicians were also found there regularly. It was a converted house with a fireplace and several rooms in the back where people played cards and chess. Many foreign beers. Great place to get drunk and lose at chess. It was a mixed bar, so the opportunities were unlimited. In the next block was the Round Table (across from Tootsie's, remember). This was a really rundown old house whose most distinctive feature was a porch swing on the porch. This would be unremarkable, but this was the 70s and the Round Table was a gay bar, so sitting on the swing and having a drink was considered quite daring by many people. During the early 70s, the Round Table was best known for its Sunday afternoon beer bust. In the spring, summer and fall, it was packed with young men (boomers) in cutoffs and not much else who stood around the front yard and spilled out into the street. It was quite a sight. All sorts of things took place on the front steps, but were shielded from view from the street by the sheer number of bodies. Much fun. There were still a good number of four-plexes, apartment houses, and homes on Westheimer at that time, so people were always out and about, walking, talking, sitting on the porch or the steps, drinking a beer or smoking something. It was quite safe to walk along the street in the evening. There were a number of gay bars in the area and people would walk (stumble actually) from one to another. There was only one bar on Pacific Street at the time -- the bars were on Westheimer. Katz's was originally Art Wren's. It served great enchiladas and had a shobar in the back. The meat market was on the steps in the front. Periodically, you wouild see Houston's Finest parked in front busting the hustlers. Mary's was there, of course, but it was smaller -- the right door led to a topless shoe shine parlor. There was a swing out front and the girls would swing on it to attract customers. Real girls. Of course, the times being what they were and when the spirit moved the powers that be in the HPD, Mary's would be raided and everyone would be lined up outside so passersby could see who was frequenting the queer bar. In addition to the bars, restaurants, and residences, there were a number of retail establishments: men's stores, a dentist's office, several convenience stores, a great boot shop at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose, and a number of homes converted into mini-malls. These conversions weren't too successful, but they always showed great promise with their candle shops, beauty salons, and gift boutiques when they first opened. The point is there were people about constantly and there were always places to go and explore and the crusing was constant. Of course, the violence was never too far away. I knew several people who never survived their encounters with Herman Short's boys. And then straight people moved in with their streetwalkers and massage parlors. And then the decline began. Once it was no longer safe to walk on lower Westheimer after dark because of high school boys from the suburbs and their clubs, people stayed away. The bars moved. The shops closed. And then the firebug arrived.

I just finished a quick review of all the posts in this thread and I can't find any reference to the Village Theater. Located in the Village, the last movie I saw there was Visconti's "The Damned." That must have been about 1970. The theater declined in the 70s (I seem to recall it became notorious for couples having sex in the balcony). Sorry, I don't have any picture to post. Someone asked about the interior of the Majestic. As I recall, it was "classical," i.e., it had Greco-Roman statuary, etc. The last movie I saw there was "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 1967. As I recall, the Metropolitan's decor was "Egyptian" and the Loew's State next door was deco.

In 1984 I flew to San Francisco to attend the Democratic National Convention. Among the passengers on my flight were the Singing Boys of Houston. They numbered about 40 or so and were extremely well behaved. They were flying to San Francisco to give a concert at the Cathedral. When we landed, but before we exited the plane, they sang a couple of songs for the other passengers. They sang very well and the mini-concert was appreciated by the other passengers. I didn't know the choir was defunct. That's a pity.

The first bar at the old Hollyfield Cleaners location (now the Empire Cafe) was the Locker. At the time, it was considered to be Houston's first gay leather bar (although Mary's could certainly make a case that it was a leather bar in the 70s). I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Round Table (located next to where the Veterans Center is today). It was very popular on Sunday afternoon during the early 1970s. The crowd literally overflowed into the street (Westheimer) and the crowd was so thick that all sorts of things occurred al fresco in the front yard. The original Tootsie's was across the street. WRT the bar on California Street, my memory is faulty, but I believe it was called the Silver Bullet, not Quicksilver. The late 60s music venue on Richmond was Sand Mountain, but I'm not sure it was at the location later occupied by EJs. My nomination for the most interesting bar: Prufrock's. It was owned by the same person who owned the Round Table and was just a block away. A mixed bar, it only sold beer and wine (no liquor by the drink), had a truly unique juke box, and had the text of the poem written around the walls of the main room. If you found the mistake in the text, you got a free drink. It was a hangout for artists and more than a few politicos. I once saw Dick Wray sign the shadow a lamp cast on the wall as "found" art. There were rooms in the rear that were dedicated to playing card games and chess -- and they were busy.

Quicksilver was on California Street, just east of Montrose. The Chinese take-out place is located next to where it was located, which is now a parking lot for Prive'. Quicksilver had a rather notorious tree limb in the backyard. (If you have to ask, don't.)

I live two blocks from HSPVA, but haven't kept up on the plans after HSPVA moves. Which school will be moved into the current building? BTW, I'm sorry they are moving the school, it has been a good neighbor (unlike some elementary schools on Kirby I could name, or that parochial school on Yoakum).

I've lived in Montrose since I escaped from Memorial. Except for a period of time in San Francisco during the dotcom boom and one brief foray to the Galleria area, Montrose has been my home for over 30 years. Lower Westheimer in the early 70s was a pleasant street lined with antique stores and restaurants. The increase in crime and prostitution (catering to outsiders -- gay men don't frequent transvestite hookers) caused a severe decline in the area. The oil bust of the 80s caused many gay men to leave Houston in a search for jobs. Apartment complexes lost tenants and turned to the undocumented to fill vacancies. Car theft increased exponentially. High school kids from the suburbs created gridlock on Westheimer on weekend nights and all summer long. During that time a criminal masquerading as a real investor and developer started a string of fires that gutted Lower Westheimer while he collected the insurance proceeds. (He's dead now.) The traffic gridlock and the demise of the restaurants cut down on the foot traffic and, except for the transvestite prostitutes, crime decreased. At some point in the late 80s and early 90s, some developers discovered that they could make a killing by leveling fourplexes and putting in multiple three-story townhomes. That change caused a loss of the 20-somethings and an influx of the affluent who had formerly lived in the suburbs. An incidental result of this development was that the area now floods fairly regularly because they paved over the yards that had absorbed the rain water. Anyway, these new residents, complete with walls and gates, do not want to live in a neighborhood that is not like the suburbs they know. Zoning is not going to change their attitudes. In fact, if past history teaches anything, they would use zoning to force out "undesirable" businesses and neighbors. It's too bad they couldn't all live in West University Place. But then, Montrose wouldn't be as hot a housing market as it could be.