Houston's Oldest Businesses

[Dieseldrvr]

Oh, and the great Shudde Bros Hatters is closing, or may have already. They couldn't justify staying in that location. Neil Shudde has moved all of the equipment to the Brookwood Community and is training the good resindents on how to use the equipment, some of it is turn of the century equpment that hasn't been reproduced in a better way. I used to work there restoring old hats, the factory there in the house has some amazing history that alot of people never get to see. Using that old equipment was a blast. Interestingly they are only 1 of 2 if I remember correctly, that is allowed to stamp the Resistol and Stetson hat brands back into restored hats. I helped to restore an original General Sam Houston hat for the museum, was very satisfying work. It's amazing how much business they do with the arts field, Broadway shows have used their hats for many many years, as have many movie prop companies. Many famous people passed through their shop, many I had the honor of working on their hats.

[rsb320]

I think Imperial Sugar (Sugar Land) dates back to the mid 1800's.

Does anybody know when the Maxwell House 'roastary' closed? I remember driving down the freeway and you could smell roasting coffee.

[isuredid]

Here are a few more

Southland Hardare: Established 1935 Southland Hardware

Cox Hardware: Established 1946 Cox Hardware Web Site

The Briar Shoppe: Establised 1962 The Briar Shoppe Web Site

Avalon Drug Store: Establised 1938

[rsb320]

Cleburne Cafeteria - 1941

Breens Florist - 1943

[rsb320]

Here's a bunch.

Baker Botts - 1840

Fulbright & Jaworski - 1919

KBR - 1901

Kelsey-Seybold - 1949

Shipley Do-Nuts - 1936

Stewart & Stevenson -1902

Vinson & Elkins -1917

Imperial Sugar - 1843

Humble Oil/Exxon - 1911

Texas Oil Company/Chevron-Texaco 1901

[Vertigo58]

There must be a few Tailor's that have been around for years?

and then like the shoe repair place in Rice U? (Had the big sign picturing a mans shoe)

[rsb320]

There must be a few Tailor's that have been around for years?

and then like the shoe repair place in Rice U? (Had the big sign picturing a mans shoe)

Houston Shoe Hospital - 1906

[Vertigo58]

Houston Shoe Hospital - 1906

Thats it! Tks!

Notary Public's come a dime a dozen so not sure if those quality. Liquor Stores change often and Spec's may have orginated elsewhere but remember seeing that big bunny with the spectacle's since childhood.

Door to door Britannica Encyclopedia sales people and Fuller Brush sales people too?

Avon, Stanley Products

Just brainstormin...

[rsb320]

Spec's opened in Houston in 1962 and is still operated by the same family. They also have stores in Beaumont.

[Dieseldrvr]

Spec's opened in Houston in 1962 and is still operated by the same family. They also have stores in Beaumont.

All hail the great Spec's!! The downtown store is the Greatest Place On Earth!! Walt Disney has nothing on the Spec's empire.

[Vertigo58]

All hail the great Spec's!! The downtown store is the Greatest Place On Earth!! Walt Disney has nothing on the Spec's empire.

I remember (as a child) Spec's were located in some of the most unassuming locals around Houston. The building of one of them is at Hardy and Quitman? in very Near old North Side. It was mysterious to a 6 year old kid. I never dreamed thats where adults buy their own personal fuel.

The giant rabbbit is what got our attention so we assumed it was a store for children.

[isuredid]

Three Brothers Bakery - 1949

Variety Fair 5 & 10 in the Village - 1948

River Oaks Theater - 1939

[brucesw]

Nielsen's delicatessen - 1952 - I read that when they first opened they tried serving Danish style open-faced sandwiches, smorrebrod, but Houstonians were baffled so they switched to American style sandwiches. Interesting that they're older than Someburger.

Molina's - 1941. Seems like there's another of the old style Tex-Mex places that started that year too - Loma Linda?

Yale Grill and Gift Shop - 1923

Star Furniture's current TV ads are about their 96th anniversary sale.

[FilioScotia]

For some reason the Dallas Morning News is considered the oldest business in Texas. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe because the Galveston paper moved to Houston for a couple of years during the Civil War.

This is one of the real oddities in Texas history. The Dallas Morning News claim to be the state's oldest business is true, sort of.

The DMN started out as the Galveston News in 1842. In the 1860s, a fellow named Alfred Belo went to work there and later bought the paper. In the 1880s, Belo started the Dallas Morning News to operate as a satellite of the Galveston News. In the 1920s, Belo's company sold the Galveston paper to Galveston banker William Moody and the two papers went their separate ways.

So the DMN can legimitately trace its lineage all the way back to the 1842 Galveston News, which makes it the oldest continuously operating business in Texas.

Here's the full story in the Handbook of Texas. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/...es/GG/eeg3.html

[isuredid]

I thought of some others that are all fairly close to each other:

Gibbs Boat Company Established 1945 - West Gray at Montrose - Gibbs Boat Company

Texas Art Supply - Establised 1948

Southwestern Paint Company - Established 1940 - 1000 West Gray South=estern Paint Company Web Site

Bobbit Glass Company - Established 1938

And one that is not close to the above:

The Original Kolache Shoppe - Established 1956 - 5404 Telephone Road at Long Drive

[Vertigo58]

There used to be a Lumber Yard named Tampke's Lumber Yard on Lawndale (any research Isuredid?)

Olshan Lumber must be quite old and that one that's still in operation on Old Galveston at is it College/Airport or Edgebrook? sits right along RR tracks. Guess thats considered South Houston.

How about Bethlehem Steel or Bama Jelly company used to be on Lockwood / Navigation?

American Can Company is like major old but I am not sure if all of the above orginated in Houston or up north? Is that a disqualifier...

[houwest]

I had lunch in today - here's the Reader Digest Version of this thread:

( I added a few I thought of as I typed)

Baker, Botts 1840 or 1874

Galveston Daily News 1842

Imperial Sugar 1843

Glenwood Cemetery 1872

Incarnate Word Academy 1873

Southland Hardware 1874

Westheimer Transfer & Stg. 1883

Schuttes Corner 1885 Galveston

Bering Hardware 1886

St. Joseph Hospital 1887

Houston Daily Court Review 1889

Schotts Bakery 1893

Montalbano Lumber Co. 1900

St Thomas High School 1900

Houston Chronicle 1901

Settegast Kopf Funeral Dir 1901

KBR 1901 as Brown and Root

Chenvron-Texaco 1901 as the Texas Company

Sewart & Stevenson 1902

Shudde Bros Hats 1907 moving remaining operation to Brookwood

Teas Nursery 1910 same location since 1910

Gaidos - Galveston 1911 Galveston

Humble/Exxon 1911 as Humble Oil and Refining

Star Furniture 1912 same family owned, recently bought out by Berkshire Hathaway

Original Mexican Caf

[Frank M]

"We should have had some beer brewery's in the mix somewhere? "

Saint Arnold has been around since 1994-we turn 14 June 7th, and, for a microbrewery, that's a lifetime!

FM

[rsb320]

"We should have had some beer brewery's in the mix somewhere? "

Saint Arnold has been around since 1994-we turn 14 June 7th, and, for a microbrewery, that's a lifetime!

FM

We had lots of brewerys starting in the mid 1800's. None them exist today.

Pretty interesting stuff - http://www.hal-pc.org/~lfa/BB27.html

[tmariar]

Saint Arnold has been around since 1994-we turn 14 June 7th, and, for a microbrewery, that's a lifetime!

FM

Houston is lucky to have St. Arnold's - hope 14 years is just the beginning.

Thanks, houwest, for the list.

Wabash Antiques & Feed Store on Washington can trace the feed-store side of the business back to "around the turn of the century."

[brucesw]

Thanks for compiling the list houwest. Looks like we missed Avalon Diner, 1938, and Barbecue Inn, 1946.

Since it comes all the way down to 1962 we could also add Antone's for that year.

I've wondered about Buffalo Hdwe in the same center with the original Avalon and the car dealership that was at that corner - Demontrond Buick, I think. There are still Demontrond dealerships around the area.

Of course, if we're going to include Galveston, why not others in the boonies and burbs? That would easily add another 20 or 30 to the list, probably.

[isuredid]

I've wondered about Buffalo Hdwe in the same center with the original Avalon

You make a good point...Both Buffalo Hardware and Avalon Barber Shop are original tenants of the Avalon Community Center, which is what that shopping center was known by originally. I would put them both down for 1955 unless you can fird some earlier reference.

[tmariar]

Here's another one I don't think has been mentioned yet - Houston Armature Works, "established in 1907."

[FilioScotia]

Teas Nursery is how old???

I was Googling around looking for landscaping services, and Teas Nursery popped in. I was very surprised to learn that Teas is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the entire country. It opened in 1843 in Indiana, and moved to Houston in 1910.

Here's a link to the Teas website. http://www.teasnursery.com/history.html

[NenaE]

In trying to figure out which is the oldest bar in Houston, I realized that what business is the "oldest" in a category can depend a lot on the details (does the business need to have been operating under the same name? at the same location? uninterrupted? what counts as a "bar" (or restaurant, or whatever the category)? etc.). Still, I love hearing about long-running Houston businesses, so I hope you get some good responses. Especially if there are other businesses that have been in operation here since before 1900 - that's really interesting.

Shudde Bros. has been in business since 1907, I think, though they recently moved from Washington Ave.

Kaplan's Ben Hur recently closed after being in business since 1913.

I have some pre-1900 copies of the Houston Chronicle Daily Post, and will check them later for familliar names. I think there were some Foley Bros. ads in there.

Was driving down Washington Street area, close to Downtown yesterday, that Shudde Bros. Bldg. made me turn around & go back for another look. The sign w/"Hatters" is what caught my eye first. I really hope they preserve this bldg. It's great. Can't believe they would leave it. The streets around it are unbelievable, Red Brick paved. Other noticables were: Dow School - 1900 Kane, Huston Drugs - 2119 Washington, Red Brick House - 1805 Decatur w/porte-cochere, Gas Station - 2101 Washington at Henderson (suttle Art Deco features, tin roof).

[Rammer]

1909 Sharp-Hughes Tools

[brucesw]

Wunsche Brothers in Spring, 1902

[misplaced txgirl]

Stelzig's Saddlery started in 1870...the old downtown store on preston and louisiana was a neat building...i worked there in the mid-70's

misplaced txgirl living in yankee land Pa.

[DMac]

Indeed they are very open, and going strong. Many many homes in Houston have been built with the superior lumber from the Montalbano family. Big Johnny has been at the helm of the flagship Houston store for a long time, and his son John Jr is currently working his way up there, as he has done since a child, and his brother Vincent is working under their Uncle's tuttlege at the Shepherd store. A great family that has done alot for Houston, I have been friends of theirs for a long time. Interesting story, Francesco Montalbano, the original who immigrated to the US from Italy, was going through NOLA entering the country, he could only say in english "mill" as his former occupation, so they put him to work in a saw mill in East Texas, he actually worked in a flour mill. He saved money and moved to Houston to start a grocery market, and sold firewood on the side. The wood business worked for him far more than the food business did, and that's how the family was transformed into the lumber biz. His son Joseph married Sadie Butera before taking over the business from Francesco. Mama Sadie was a great woman who recently passed away. They are cousins to the Buteras, Carrabba's, Mandola's, Maida's, and many other Italian families in Houston.

Another note, if schools count, St. Thomas High School has been around since 1900 and is going strong, IWA downtown predates it though I know.

When I went to grade school in 1948 it was an old facility @ that time. Upon my extended absence {sum 56 years} I returned for a vist/tour in Jan this year and was stunned to discover that the original bldg's were still in use today. The school I'm referring to is Robt. Browing grade school {Heslep @ Northwood} And the school opened in 1902, makinging it 106 years old this year {2K8}

Respectfully

Danny

[Montrose1100]

Klein Funeral Home - 1922. I know they have two facilities (FM 2920 & FM 1960). I think the one in Tomball might be the older one.