Litton Industries At 10201 Westheimer Rd.

[blue92]

Does anyone on here remember where the Litton Industries complex in west Houston was? I seem to remember it being south of Westheimer somewhere between Gessner and Westbelt. Not to far from the old West Chase shopping center.

[plumber2]

Don't recall that location, but Litton had a moderate sized complex in Alvin on By-Pass 35. Some other outfit owns the buildings now, but it looks just like it did when Litton built it back in the early 70's.

[Ross]

Looks liek that's the Western Atlas buildings. Litton owned Western Atlas at the time.

[DrFood]

The complex you are referring to had an official address of 10201 Westheimer. My dad worked there from the late 50's until the late 80's. When they were tearing down the building my dad worked in we tried to get a brick by were not allowed on the property.

Brief history--no dates sorry.

Complex housed

Southwestern Industrial Electronics--purchased by Dresser Industries I believe in the early 60's. My dad started at SIE over on Post Oak near where KPRC used to be. Then they moved over off Hillcroft and Bellaire Blvd. behind what used to be Luby's. Then they moved out to the Westheimer location.

Lane Wells--If my memory serves me correctly they were the well logging company that Dresser purchased in the early 60's.

Dresser Measurements--this was the division that built meters for pipelines and gas wells etc.

Dresser Credit Union

In summer 1974 and 1975 I worked for Dresser Measurements as a summer job. It was great because we got overtime and I was riding to work wiht my dad so we saved money on gas.

The complex opened when Westheimer was just a 2 lane FM road. Westchase didn't exist that land was Bob Smith's cattle land. Where the Randall's is at Gessner was a golf course (maybe a country club). Gessner did not run through until the late 70's. Fondren didn't exist until the early 70's.

In the 1980's the office building that is now at the corner of Bltwy 8 and Westheimer was built. I was really hoping when they tore down the complex the tower would go too. It symbolized the beginning of the end for the complex....just took a little longer than expected.

Also, the tower downtown that is now the MW Kellogg tower was originally built as the Dresser Tower. I think it was built in the early 70's.

Litton purchased Dresser or at least the part my dad worked for in the mid-80's. One Monday morning in 1988 (I think that was the year) he walked into the building to go to work and was met by a security guard and escorted to the lunch room. In the room were all of the guys he worked with since graduating from college. Not sure of the number but it was probably 30-50 guys in the mid to late 50's. This was the history of all of the operations on Westheimer. They were all told they were being let go and each was walked to their office and a guard stood by them as they loaded 1 box with personal stuff. Any other items would be shipped to them. They were walked to the parking lot and the guard stood as they loaded the box into their car and then were timed to leave the complex. All had to leave through 1 gate and not stop. Very sad day for these guys as they never saw it coming. There was an effort to get a class action lawsuit for age discrimination against Litton but Litton told them they would loose all of their benefits if they pursued it. So they all just kept quiet. Litton was generous with their separation benefits and to this day my mom and dad still have benefits that were put into place when it happened. I believe Western Geophysical then bought the divisions from Litton in the early 90's and then it all ended in Halliburton or Baker Hughes hands. The land on Westheimer was far more valuable than keeping a bunch of 2 story mfg building so they sold it off and destroyed a bit of Houston history.

I can still remember the smell of those building and the great people who worked there. Everyone was like family and when kids were born you were shown off as a trophy and when deaths happened everyone grieved for everyones family.

[blue92]

I lived in Houston after getting married from 72-78. During that time we had a friend that got recruited from a Wendy's district manager job to Litton somewhere around 76. He took me out to his office at Litton, he worked for the electronics division. I still have one of the very 1st pocket sized calculators ever made that Litton made. My friend gave it me.

I remember them having a nice sized maybe 6 story black building with a nice long driveway off Westheimer. I owned my own watch repair service/business in those days and did a lot of antique watch repair for a guy that was in Westchase shopping center from 74-78. So I drove by the Litton complex twice a week. I used to drive down West Belt off Westheimer back then, it was a white gravel road that ran down to Alief.

Also on the edge of Westchase was a multi story Sheraton Hotel that on Friday nights had an all you could eat seafood buffet, yum yum.

[Pleak]

...

In the 1980's the office building that is now at the corner of Bltwy 8 and Westheimer was built. I was really hoping when they tore down the complex the tower would go too. It symbolized the beginning of the end for the complex....just took a little longer than expected.

Also, the tower downtown that is now the MW Kellogg tower was originally built as the Dresser Tower. I think it was built in the early 70's.

Litton purchased Dresser or at least the part my dad worked for in the mid-80's. One Monday morning in 1988 (I think that was the year) he walked into the building to go to work and was met by a security guard and escorted to the lunch room. In the room were all of the guys he worked with since graduating from college. Not sure of the number but it was probably 30-50 guys in the mid to late 50's. This was the history of all of the operations on Westheimer. They were all told they were being let go and each was walked to their office and a guard stood by them as they loaded 1 box with personal stuff. Any other items would be shipped to them. They were walked to the parking lot and the guard stood as they loaded the box into their car and then were timed to leave the complex. All had to leave through 1 gate and not stop. Very sad day for these guys as they never saw it coming. There was an effort to get a class action lawsuit for age discrimination against Litton but Litton told them they would loose all of their benefits if they pursued it. So they all just kept quiet. Litton was generous with their separation benefits and to this day my mom and dad still have benefits that were put into place when it happened. I believe Western Geophysical then bought the divisions from Litton in the early 90's and then it all ended in Halliburton or Baker Hughes hands. The land on Westheimer was far more valuable than keeping a bunch of 2 story mfg building so they sold it off and destroyed a bit of Houston history.

I can still remember the smell of those building and the great people who worked there. Everyone was like family and when kids were born you were shown off as a trophy and when deaths happened everyone grieved for everyones family.

Don't know the early history, but do know later. Baker Hughes bought Western Atlas (which is what Western Geophysical was part of - not sure when Atlas came into the picture) around 1999-2000 when there was a wave of consolidation in the oilfield servicing industry. Split Western Atlas into two parts - Baker Atlas moved up to Rankin Road by IAH, next door to Baker Inteq division. Western Geophysical was soon combined with the Geco Prakla (sp?) division of Schlumberger to form a joint venture - Western Geco and they moved to Briarpark and Richmond (still there I think. Then Baker Hughes sold the land at Beltway 8 & Westheimer around 2001-2002. Later (2005-2006?) they sold their interest in Western Geco JV to Schlumberger and I believe it is still a division of them.