marmer

No exterior photos? Even from the street? That sounds restrictive! (in a legal way!)

Yah. First time I ever heard that was on the RDA Southampton tour, and then last year's Staub tour. I've always just ignored it and taken pictures from the street or from next door, and no one's ever said anything to me but apparently BenH ran afoul of a particularly pushy docent at the Jimenez house.

I know the building you're talking about, but the one in the photo is waaaaay larger than that. It covers two or three city blocks. Unless the remaining building along 45 is just a small part of what was once a larger complex.

In the thread I posted above, brucesw says:

This building was discussed on the January GHPA 'Downtown Historic Waterfront' tour (not to be confused with the Market Square tour coming up in April). It was part of the huge Houston Ice and Brewing Co. complex which spanned Buffalo Bayou. Much of the brewery complex on the south side of the bayou was washed away in a great flood in 1935; part of this building fell into the bayou.

So it probably is the same.

I got a response from UT already (that was quick!). I can show it on HAIF if I fill out a bunch of paperwork and send them some money. I'm working on the paperwork now.

Well, I hope you don't have to send them too much money just to show us the photo.

Anyway, the building over Buffalo Bayou sounds like that brewery or ice company that had a building over the bayou. Apparently it was destroyed during the big 1930's flood and stayed a picturesque ruin for decades until someone built it out as a modern residence. I remember it being discussed on this forum a coupla years ago.

Edit: This thread.

Hmmm. I'd kinda be surprised if interior photos are freely allowed. I've been on a LOT of home tours and they always say no interior photos. It's only the RDA ones where they say no exterior photos, too! Once in a while some docent or owner will say to go ahead and take pictures, but that's been the exception rather than the rule. Once I asked and got permission to take a picture of a family's spectacular calico cat.

On the other hand, Ben, I would think that your professional status and your position within Houston Mod would open a lot of doors, so to speak, on a tour like this.

or see if you can find it at CAH and post a link.

That's a real shame. From the pic it looks like a cool mod.

That's Genghis KHAN.

and Lewis KAHN.

Not spelled the same.

By my arrival it was all gone, although the foundation slab for the square structure was part of a paved parking lot. When the area was 'beautified' for the G7 economic summit the paving and concrete were mostly replaced by grass. Some of the footings were very thick and deep, so there are still traces for a future archaeologist."

I remember that parking lot very well, and I remember when they replaced it with grass. Interesting, that there seemed to be two buildings there and they both seemed to have pitched roofs.

Also interesting, given possible uses for the space, that it was allowed to just go away instead of being rehabilitated. This is a fun mystery.

OK, I did a little more checking, and '53 is about right. It's between the two big building booms -- the postwar one that gave us Anderson Hall, Abercrombie Lab, the Nuclear Lab, and Wiess Hall (not originally built as a college as I had originally thought); and the late 50's one which gave us the Pierce-Pierce Science twins, Hamman Hall, the RMC, and the WMCA college additions to the old residence halls.

I thought the immediate postwar stuff was later than it actually was.

EDIT: A nuclear research lab built in '49? That was pretty darn cutting edge, I would think.

Now I want to know more about that "house" next to the Physics Building that LunaticFringe noticed. Fox's book, while having a very detailed treatment of the Physics Building, does not mention it.

Thanks for the pics, TBird! That second one is the best 50s aerial of Rice I have ever seen, and its pretty easy to see how it might have been a tempting cut-through from Rice Blvd to Main. Could that be a little later than '53? The Science triplets and the Memorial Center are not built, nor the College additions, but Wiess College and the Bonner Lab are.

I have a very similar story except it begins in Pearland in 1990 with a Pulte home. Wouldn't want to try to sell it, but it has been a darned good investment and it's just about paid off.

Considering I just entered my teens and only was aware of the news and such, the thing that I was aware of in the early 80's and late 70's was the price of fuel going through the roof and how Detroit was finally starting to gear up for smaller cars. The first one of note (to me) was the Chrystler 'K' car. Additionally, I can recall about how they were looking at oil alternatives.

It was about this time OPEC opened up the valves and made those not very cost effective.

The thing that stuck with me the most is my dad getting laid off for almost the entire decade living off savings and managed to support our entire family with it.

Since then, I've been fairly miserly with my cash and live well within my means, which is helping me not sweat this little bump.

I thought the early 80's, with the price of fuel going through the roof, was the oil boom in Houston, with lots and lots of new businesses, restaurants, charitable giving, building, etc.

Then, when OPEC opened up the valves, that's what led to the oil bust, about 1986 or so.

I might have just answered my question, thanks to this Life photo:

Rice Aerial from 1940s

and its pretty clear on the Historic Aerials from 1957. The road was just east of Willy's statue and went right between Anderson Hall and the Physics Building, then turned left on what we now call Laboratory Road.

OK, I was reading along happily in Stephen Fox's guide to the architecture of Rice, and I came upon this startling fact: (I don't have it in front of me so this will be a close paraphrase)

Entrance Three is aligned with the cross-axis of the Academic Court, and originally a campus street continued along that axis. The growth of the Texas Medical Center led to morning and afternoon rush hours in the Academic Court, so the road was removed in 1959.

As a long-time Rice Krispie, I find this... startling given what it's like now. I would love to see a picture from this time period...

Very cool website, I think people would pay money online for old maps or aerial views like the one on that site. Very Cool Thanks

You can buy images from them.

Looks like there was one large structure and one house on Waverly in the 1957 map from historicaerials.com. Go to historicaerials.com yourself and check it out. You might also be able to tell from Sanborn maps.

Here's the Pearland one. It's about two miles south of my house, on McLean Road.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...1&encType=1

Marmer...spill the beans...how are you associated with this house? I cant see anything being developed here. It really reminds me of growing up in Channelview, which isnt a bad thing, just not something I would ever repeat.

Just remembered, when we were driving thru there were alot of mobile homes (trailers) all over the place...so its a long term gamble. Pearland is obviously developing in another direction and leaving this area behind.

I'm really not associated with it. Just, while the McLean Road bridge was under construction for four months last spring and summer, I drove by it every day on my way home from work. I rarely see houses like that in Pearland, and I noticed it was for sale. It looks architect-designed to me, though I don't think the banana-yellow paint scheme is particularly flattering. My interest is just that I'd hate to see it torn down and the area redeveloped. If I was in the market for a house, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I've lived in Pearland since 1990 and my house isn't too far from here so I'm pretty familiar with the area. Mykawa and Brookside can be sketchy but I think there are plenty of nice wooded lots in Brookside that have nice houses too. There are a lot of trailers in Pearland, including a few on Mykawa just south of here. When we bought our house, I raised the trailer question and the sales agent told me that there are trailers within two miles of almost every house in Pearland.

we drove the area and its very industrial and the houses around it are cheap rundown houses from the 70`s. I have lived in some bad areas, but this is bad and depressing.

There is some light industrial to the east and north, but there are also a lot of trees, including a densely wooded tract just to the east. The neighborhoods across Orange are from the 70s but they don't seem all that rundown to me. I would in fact lean the other direction. Several other nearby houses just to the west are large, new, and on large lots. There are some pretty substantial mod-inspired houses just to the other side of that wooded tract, and I think the front yard is quite lovely. True, the railroad track is half a mile away, but that's true for all the houses in the area. True, there are some pretty squalid examples of rural blight to the north on Mykawa, but it certainly seems well buffered by all the trees and land. It's a working class neighborhood but I don't hear a lot about crime there.

Yes, there does seem to be one other house close by. There are also several outbuildings and sheds and what looks like a swimming pool. Those seem like good things to me. I used to drive by every day because it was on my way home and it never seemed like a bad, or even ugly, area. Quite the contrary.

Bumpity bump bump. Still on the market, still a beautiful site, still a cool house. 4 car garage and three wooded acres, butterfly roof and terrazo floors. For $175,000. What's not to like?

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

Heh. I remember ranting and raving about realtor photos with obvious easy to fix errors like exposure settings, etc. Then I got slapped down by all the realtors on the board.

I have heard from a BCM staffer that one of the conditions of the breakup of the Baylor College of Medicine from Baylor University (in the 1960's) was that if the College of Medicine were to associate itself with another (then) Southwest Conference school it could no longer use the Baylor name. The proposed name would be something like the DeBakey College of Medicine at Rice University. Yes, the DeBakey name would definitely be used.

My source also said that the influential Jewish leadership of the Texas Children's Hospital really did not want to see Baylor re-associate itself with a "sectarian" institution (presumably Methodist or St. Luke's.) and that was one of the reasons why Rice was so attractive.

That plus apparently a lot of board overlap among Rice and BCM.

The time frame of this merger would be dependent upon substantial completion of the BCM hospital building structure so that it could be taken over by Harris County as a psychiatric hospital.

I have no way to substantiate any of this since I am hearing it secondhand. Just thought it was interesting.

Another point about this house, and other houses in the 100 year flood plain...

When you get a building permit down at the code enforcement office, they pull up the flood maps and see if the project is in the flood plain. They will not let you spend more than "X" on a project that is in the flood plain. I believe "X" is 1/2 the value of the existing structure. I'm only 50% sure on that value though. Even if the rule was that you can't spend more than 100% of the value of the existing structure, this house was doomed.

It was very nasty inside.

flipper

Does that rule have any effect on what new construction could go there? Limits on cost of house, construction standards (raised above grade, etc.) or anything like that?

There ya go. Inter-bruta-national style. I kinda figured that the big HISD projects from the sixties would be that way but couldn't remember what they looked like. Sharpstown, anyone?

Wow. Just wow. The master bath needs more mirrors, though.