Jump to content

Holiday/Days/Heaven On Earth Inn At 801 St. Joseph Pkwy.


MontroseNeighborhoodCafe

Recommended Posts

Current undergrad enrollment at Rice is just over 3800 students, and I believe on-campus housing capacity is around 3300. But not everyone chooses to live on campus (although every undergrad is a member of a residential college regardless of whether they live on-campus or off-campus). I think it more likely that if this rumor is true, the converted Holiday Inn would be intended for additional graduate student housing. Rice has around 2500 grad students, and although they own three different blocks of off-campus grad student housing, I'd be very surprised if the aggregate capacity of those facilities was anything close to 2500. They currently have to run a lottery to determine who gets into the three facilities. 

 

It wouldn't be the first time Rice has repurposed an old hotel for grad student housing - in the 80s they "converted" the Tidelands into the Rice Graduate House, where "converted" basically meant putting up new signage. 

 

Fair enough.  However, the Tidelands was almost literally next door; Rice's off campus grad student housing is also just a couple blocks from the main campus.  That's quite a bit different from taking over a building several miles away that will require a LOT of rehab work.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other thing is that the Holiday Inn building is huge and they had to eventually (prior to selling it) close off rooms because there was just too much. The thing had 600 rooms, and given typical dorm room size (two per a room of that size, give or take, usually take), that's capacity for 1200 students. That's certainly more than the undergrads, and converting it for grad student use doesn't make much more sense either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

doubtful. There would have been a couple of sizable holes by now.

 

IDK.  You're right if someone or some group chose a place in particular to start whacking, but there's an awful lot of surface area to be destroyed, and not everyone has magnificent biceps... :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I hafta confess I have been really bothered by this building for many years.  At this point, it reminds me of "Leviathan", the ruler of Hell in the Hellraiser movies, which I recall being depicted as a lighthouse-like obelisk, but with a beam of darkness emanating from it, rather than of light.

 

I'm exaggerating for the sake of effect ... but, really, this building does seem to have had an unnatural longevity, albeit in a seemingly undead state.  

 

In googling about the "Heaven on Earth Inn", I found this in an old article from Rolling Stone  (Issue 156, March 14, 1974):   "Jesus Freaks are proclaiming Guru Maharaj Ji the antichrist, while the Baptist churches of Houston have alluded more temperately to false prophets in a full-page newspaper ad that includes a quote from Timothy 4:34: "For there is going to come a time when people won't listen to the truth, but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear.""

 

I wonder if there were any Halloween events on the darker side there last night!  :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will shed no tears if the building came down tomorrow, but there's something vaguely appealing about it, and not in a "decay fascination" type like you see with abandoned buildings in Detroit. Perhaps it's a testament to pre-1980s crash times, when it was a shining example of one of the largest Holiday Inn hotels in the chain and a then-welcome addition to the skyline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In googling about the "Heaven on Earth Inn", I found this in an old article from Rolling Stone  (Issue 156, March 14, 1974):   "Jesus Freaks are proclaiming Guru Maharaj Ji the antichrist, while the Baptist churches of Houston have alluded more temperately to false prophets in a full-page newspaper ad that includes a quote from Timothy 4:34: "For there is going to come a time when people won't listen to the truth, but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear.""

 

I remember that Rolling Stone article. Guru Maharaj Ji's visit to Houston in 1973 for the Millennium '73 festival in the Astrodome got a significant amount of media coverage. The Wikipedia article on Millennium '73 is well worth reading as it has the obvious local-interest angle but also perfectly encapsulates many elements of the strange and near-mythical time known as "the 70s". 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_'73

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

http://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/tirzmap.pdf

 

Huh.  Looks like there's not a downtown TIRZ..there's a market square one, an east downtown one, and a midtown one.  The east downtown one stops at main street - and is called "Greater Houston" and shares the TIRZ with along Holmes and Main south of 610.

There's also an east downtown TIRZ - it's not called "EaDo" so at least we got that going

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That would make sense, but it is such a strange name for that TIRZ, and is the TIRZ the one financing the Dallas retail corridor renovations?

 

I wonder what condition the Days Inn is in - whether it would be worth renovating, or if I get to watch a nice demolition Sunday morning in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

801 Calhoun

 

I just checked my calendar and since it's not April Fools - this is the most exciting post I have ever done.

 

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/office/behind-the-scenes-at-central-square-plazas-redevelopment-50075?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

 

 

 

:D

 
Here’s the team on the top floor, which has a very high ceiling and the ability to build an outdoor patio. (Right behind the quartet is another blighted building that’s about to be redone—801 Calhoun is being redone as a Sheraton.)
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If this turns out to be true and they do as good a job on this as they did on CNB, I think they should go in the Repurposed building

Hall of Fame. I hope this is true. I've been praying someone would do something with the Day Inn eyesore for years.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...