emscougar

I used one of the links to old sattelites that another poster had made, and was able zero in on this: http://www.historica...96264&year=1966 you can zoom in and out all the way back to 1957 with amazing clarity, even better than I found on Google Earth. Cougar!!

How do I get the most recent topics to the top? Ok, folks, any help here would be appreciated....I am having trouble finding info on Jakie and the domain. Talked with my sister, she adamantly denies mom and dad having anything to do with the place. But this is getting spooky,......I found out that Vinson & Elkins law firm handled his will. He was friends with the lot of them, even taking some to the kentucky derby each year. I'll give y'all one guess as to where mom worked as a legal secretary before opening Herring Claims Adjusters with dad. Coug.

I just checked the sattelite map,looks like old main street loop road. dont know the exact address, but will prolly swing by there later today. I visited a few years ago and I think they said they were shutting down. looking at the pic it appears that the small kidney shaped pool is still there, the one I learned to swim in. WOW technology is a mind blower. Being able to actually check on something like that from my couch.....back then was pure fantasy. coug.

That one page just answered a lot of questions, then after it sunk in, a million more popped up. It was actually my grand mother who took me to that mansion, I was an in-family adoption from daughter to mother, my grand parents took me home from the hospital and I have always called them mom and dad. I referred to my grandfather like that in my original post to keep the timeline straight, in the peoples minds who would read it. My dad, (grandfather) was the president of the National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters back then. He talked about the mansion, and I have always been under the impression that William P Hobby was the owner, but now find that it was Jakie Freedman, a close friend. Now,...from what I was told, just a few years before I was born in 65, they had a ratty apartment and office on Tulane ave. But before we moved to Sugar Creek in 72, I was brought up in a large house on south Mcgreggor, with an indoor swimming pool, a Coachman motor home that we traveled the country in during summer months, I had nannies and maids when my parents were at work. Which was a small white office building on Del Rio near OST. We also had a yacht in Galveston Marina. My dad drove a corvair. Mom's sister still has a 300 acre ranch in west texas. I am now starting to wonder where all the money came from all of a sudden. Why would my mom take me to an old abandoned mansion, and climb the gate to explore an old house that you could only see the roof of because of the jungle? Obviously this place was not open to the public, how would my dad know about the govorner, and the alligators? I remember my parents taking me into hiding once, someone was out to kidnap me, we stayed at lavish hotels with doormen and the works. I was told it was just some fruit cake out to get money from my family, by the name of Vaughn Watts.(spelling?) And why do I have such a strong emotional and mental attachment to an old house that went to oblivion over 30 years ago? I think it's about time to have a sit down with my sister/biological mother, My dad is deceased, and mom is not lucid now. Coug.

All I can say is......oh.....my......God. You do not realize how long I have searched for memories of this place. The ariel photo even shows the garages I plundered. The outdoor swimming pool is right where I remembered, off to the right of the driveway. Another poster mentioned an indoor pool....my mom kept a tight leash on me and would not let me go into places that looked structuraly unsafe, so I guess I missed that one. I can relate to portions of the roof collapsing, there were portions of the lower roofs down when I was there. And when I poked my head into the attic to see all the bird poop, the roof had hundreds of holes in it, letting the sunlight beam down through onto the dung piles. These posts have unlocked some more memories too, I remember my grand father telling me about the alligators and I recently saw the same tactics being used in early Las Vegas on the History Channel. I now remember the red velvet wall paper too. Years later, I ended up getting put into a private boarding school in New Mexico called Brush Ranch. There were two girls there, a Marla Dorfman and a kristen Rosenthal. After watching the ep on History channel I am now wondering if I went to school with mafia daughters!! But back to the mansion....yes, it was overgrown, it was a real jungle, The pool to the right of the driveway was filled with black sludge, there was an equestrian type riding boot on the floor of the gate house (which was about the size of a phone booth) wow, this is just bringing a WHOLE lot back. As I posted earlier, I attended Town & Country school just down the street, it was third grade, and Im figuring I was about 8 years old. I want to do some serious research on this mansion, and learn more, especially since I have now publically admitted to burglarizing a mob bosses house when I was a child!! I'm prolly inline to get whacked now!! hahahah!! But seriously, since I have been there and it is such a part of old memories, I would love to learn as much as I can about the old place. This forum is awsome. Mike Sorry bout skipping spell check, Im just so excited to find people who remember this property.

i'm thinking Chimmney Rock at Gulfton,.....Yes, it was Photons. That place was so packed all the time, I have always wondered why it went out of business. I also remember the 20 lbs of equip you had to put on! I wore a costume there once, including motocross boots......didnt help, they still kicked my ass!! I got to the enemy pod and shot it, only once, every other time I was slaughtered. Coug

How about Fandango's Fajitas 10000 block of westheimer, Corrillian shopping center. Used to know the owner, Fred......last I heard he hurt his back real bad, then the store shut down, also the one on katy Fwy. But the westheimer store is when Fred's office was. He never would tell me the seasoning they used, just said it took years to develope and it was a dry marinate. LOVED those translucent hand made flour tortillas. Coug.

You didnt happen to get into any Melba Toast fights did you? {A JFDHS drama jock thing} Coug

I was doing some remenissing looking up videos of astroworld, and I some how ended up reading this forum. My eyes almost popped out of my head. I am 43, when I was a child, I went to a school called Town and Country. Across the street and down a bit was an old mansion. My mother and I used to jump the fence and go explore it. I remember the guard house at the gate, the black swimming pool, there was a ballroom with tall marble pillars, and an open stairwell that led down into darkness. I never went there! I even went into a closet on the upper floor and went through an opening to see an attic with piles of pidgeon poop 6 feet high. On the ground floor there was a bar, with red carpet. Over my visits, someone broke all the mirrors, then later I saw someone had tried to pull the bar out, but it never made it through the door. Inside that bar the floor was covered with trash, and in that trash, I kid you not, I found hundreds of child toy items like crayons, coloring books, army men, little cars, dolls, etc. There were garages out back where I found jars of screws and nails. We called it my haunted mansion. My grandfather said the owner was busted for gambling, and sent to prison. I never knew anything about this childhood memory till I saw your posts. This is amazing, I have been looking for answers all my life about this. Is there ANYWAY to find pictures of this mansion? You guys are the first people I have run across that even know anything about it!! And yes, I wanted to metal detect it too!! I even had wild thoughts of using a sizemagraph to locate the basement and dig down to it, cause back then I was chicken to go down there. Silly, huh? Oh....and the guy with the pony rides on main,.....bought my grand fathers car, last I heard of him, he was arrested for animal cruelty and they led the starving horses off in trailers. I would LOVE to get old photos of this area, the mansion, the shamrock hilton, especially that 25 foot deep pool I swam in once. But particularly I would love photos and more history on the mansion. I spent many hours exploring that place. it was not torn down, it was arsoned twice, the second time it burned to the groung according to my grandfather. Mike aka Cougar!! ems_cougar at yahoo.com