WillowBend56

This book is a thumbnail guide to Houston: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1467118001/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2QETXY0KJE7TY&coliid=I37P7DATCBKC52 Not much depth, but it covers a lot of topics.

I saw this book at Barnes & Noble yesterday: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Houston-William-Dylan-Powell/dp/1910496758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458481972&sr=8-1&keywords=lost+houston

Check out the new book from University of Texas Press on River Oaks and Highland Park http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/ferhig

Yep, that's Illinois Central's "Green Diamond" train set on tour before it went into regular service between Chicago-Springfield-St. Louis in the 1930s. P.S. T&P and CNO&TP are two different railroads, neither of which served Houston. The latter was not even in Texas despite the name!

There was a GH&SA line (part of the Southern Pacific) that ran through the Montrose area down to east of Hermann Park and paralleling the I&GN line to another GH&SA line at a location called Stella. A 1.7 mile segment in Montrose (excluding the northern section of it near Allen Parkway) was pulled up in 1918 because of residential development and the construction of a bypass line further west. The northern section that existed into the 1990s was called the Sears Lead. The segment south of Montrose to Stella was pulled up a decade or more after the 1.7 mile Montrose segment was abandoned.

Sakowitz was one of my mother's favorite stores in downtown. She says Sakowitz had a restaurant or tea room that was a frequent haunt of hers on shopping trips. Even my father who worked downtown ate there on occasion. She recalls a dessert composed of a ball of caramelized ice cream sprinkled with pecans. Yum! Of course she was pregnant most of the years that she shopped downtown in the 1950s. Another thing she remembers was a Nieman-Marcus store in downtown Houston. This store was a few blocks from Sakowitz on the same side of the street, my mother recalls. She said she went to a bridal show there and won a $100 drawing. She thought Niemans in Houston was bought out by another store way back when.

Another set of photographs by industrial photographer Robert Yarnall Richie taken inside a Houston store in 1951: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/Sakowitz/order/upload

Here's the full album of Robert Yarnall Richie aerial photos of Houston starting in 1948 (including the ones I already posted) and ranging in subjects from suburbs to downtown streets to industries to Southern Pacific's Englewood Yard: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/Aerial%20View%2C%20%20Houston%2C%20Texas/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/upload Enjoy!

Here's another looking north over the Shamrock Hotel area toward downtown: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ryr/id/3045/rec/33 Neat!

Here are seven aerial photographs taken in December 1951 by noted industrial photographer Robert Yarnall Richie: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/suburban%20Houston/order/upload Can you identify the areas?

Back in 1909 when Rock Island and Frisco were controlled by a common business syndicate, trains operated between New Orleans and Frisco under the Frisco Lines name. St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was the corporate name or just "Brownie" for short. This was a precursor to the Gulf Coast Lines. https://www.flickr.com/photos/28918113@N07/6784520607/in/photolist-bkwrBe-9vY8Sp-8toLQN-bqwV7x-dDWFp3-7HLjRt-bfQkHZ-eee1Sh-9JtQ3K-9K9ZL8-doSHsX-dfceRt-avL8Av-8P5TiS-gm8jo3-jz8bQ6-fARdu6-fB6yDS-bniiH4-fARj6z-fB6sSY-eu3nv6-8Myd8w-csXn11-8T31CR-82dXck-jfarQA-bBdqCo-dDWG9w-83LBL9-dDWFhY-7R1JQt-cWr4mm-hMNfqr-cvGQt5-cvGQDb-cvGQAA-cvGQGW-doWzhh-eh22Tr-cvrprL-dog4ux-cp9fey-dog3Vn-832fms-dVDE2X-97ePiU-97eQm3 Frisco Lines first entered Houston from the south (Rio Grande Valley) in 1907. Offices in Kingsville TX had Frisco on the facade.

Try Lufkin in East Texas or further to Palestine or Rusk to ride the Texas State Railroad.

Our immediate neighborhood around Tierwester was middle-class white from 1954 to 1956 when we rented a house there. I was just 3 then, so I was not aware of any black neighborhoods or racial boundaries nearby.

We lived on that street from 1954 to 1956. It must have been on the block near Idaho which appears to mark the city limit then. Behind us it was a vacant lot for some distance. A 1957 map of Houston shows streets in the vacant lot area I remember. Houses were a small three bedroom/one bath arrangement. Not sure of the vintage whether pre-war or post-war.

We lived at 5111 Stillbrooke (west of Post Oak). Before homes were built up behind ours circa 1956-57, we could see all the way to the RR tracks along S. Main. I never recall seeing any lights flashing in the distance when the noon whistle sounded.