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Take A Walk Down South Main St.


Subdude

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It would be great to do a project where you collect together images of all the everyday stores in Houston from back in the day... the grocery stores, the car dealerships, gas stations, pharmacies, cafeterias, produce markets, hamburger stands, dry goods stores, etc.
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Hermann Professional Building

Extant

Hermannprof.jpg

6500 South Main

The Fabulous Tidelands Motor Inn

Demolished

Tidelands.jpg

6515 South Main

Bill William's Chicken House

Demolished

BillWilliams.jpg

6545 South Main

Ye Olde College Inn

Demolished

YeOldeCollege.jpg

6601 South Main

Medical Towers Building. Classic modern architecture.

Extant

MedTowers.jpg

6605 South Main

Hemphill Ford

Demolished

Hemphill.jpg

6638 South Main

Cathay House Restaurant

Demolished

CathayHouse.jpg

6703 South Main

Christie's Restaurant

Demolished

Christies.jpg

6800 South Main

Ding-How Restaurant

Demolished

DingHow.jpg

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6900 South Main

Shamrock Hilton Hotel. The most famous building in Houston.

Demolished :(

Shamrock.jpg

6900 South Main

Trader Vic's at the Shamrock. Excellent tiki! :)

Demolished

TraderVics.jpg

6935 South Main

Vallian's. Houston's original pizza place.

Demolished

Valians.jpg

7021 South Main

Sheriton Oaks Motel

Demolished

SheritonOaks.jpg

7315 South Main

Red Lion Restaurant

Demolished

RedLion.jpg

7707 South Main

El Chico Restaurant

Status?

ElChico.jpg

7900 South Main

Kaphan's Restaurant

Demolished

Kaphans.jpg

7905 South Main

Rodeway Inn

Extant

RodewayMain.jpg

8000 South Main

Car'Lon Hotel Courths

Demolished

CarLon.jpg

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8001 South Main

Stuart's Club Grill

Demolished

Stuarts.jpg

8011 South Main

Johnson's Magnolia Service Station (the address on the picture is incorrect).

Demolished

MagnoliaGas.jpg

8200 South Main

Grant Motel

Extant

GrantMotel.jpg

8300 South Main

Motor Inn Hotel

Demolished

MotorInn.jpg

8330 South Main

Surrey House Motor Hotel

Status?

SurreyHouse.jpg

8510 South Main

Gateway Crystal Swimming Pool (notice the rolling hills in the background :lol: )

Demolished

GatewaySwim.jpg

8700 South Main

Alamotel Court

Demolished

Alamotel.jpg

9000 South Main

Chief Motel

Demolished

ChiefMotel.jpg

9001 South Main

Crestwood Tourist Hotel

Demolished

Crestwood.jpg

9051 South Main

Buffalo Inn Hotel

Demolished

BuffaloInn.jpg

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There are other pictures as well, so if you have any requests let me know and I'll try to find them.

It's funny. These are all from before my time, and I didn't even grow up here, but I really like seeing how the city used to look in these old pictures.

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Do you have a photo of Pier 21 Restaurant? It was on Main or Fannin just south of Holcomb. The front center of the building was the prow of a ship.

I went to a number of dances at Sylvin Beach including (ahem) both of my senior proms. Anyone ever go there before? Is it still in operation?

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Do you have a photo of Pier 21 Restaurant? It was on Main or Fannin just south of Holcomb. The front center of the building was the prow of a ship.

Of course! It says "End of Main", but I think it was on Old Main Street Rd. (now part of Fannin) near the Prudential building.

Pier21.jpg

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Awesome photos Subdude!! Great job of putting thee threads together!! :)

I love the old look of the Holiday Inn building as well but I don't remember it looking too different now? I need to take a closer look next time i go by there...

I've always liked that Weldon's Cafteria building as well.

And personally I kind of like the current facade on the Sears building... I'd just like to see it cleaned up and the windows put back in place on street level... (like that will ever happen. :rolleyes: )

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And personally I kind of like the current facade on the Sears building... I'd just like to see it cleaned up and the windows put back in place on street level... (like that will ever happen.  )

On the old forum someone had posted pictures of Sears right after it had been "modernized" in the 1950s. It didn't look as disgrusting as it does now, but it's still hard to see what possessed them to change it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
9100 South Main

King's Court

Demolished

KingsCourt.jpg

9300 South Main

White House Motor Hotel

Status?

WhiteHouse.jpg

9350 South Main

John's Restaurant.  This may have become the Poly-Asian restaurant later.

Demolished

Johns.jpg

9604 South Main

Las Vegas Motor Hotel

Extant

LasVegasMotel.jpg

9810 South Main

Sonny Look's Sir Loin House

Demolished

LooksSirLoin.jpg

9901 South Main

Elliott's Steak House

Demolished

Elliotts.jpg

10015 South Main

Mitchell Inn

Extant

MitchellInn.jpg

10200 South Main

The Yacht Restaurant

Demolished

Yacht.jpg

10319 South Main

Holiday Inn Motel

Extant

HolidayMain.jpg

That Sonnys and Sir Loin's resemble a place that I went to in Beaumont back in the 1970s called "Steak and Ale." Were there any "Steak and Ale" restaurants in Houston? I don't think that the one in Beaumont is there anymore.

Chet Cuccia

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El Chico is gone and has been for years. Guess you can call it demolished because I'm about 99.9% sure that building is no longer in existence.

Funny thing is that El Chico became just another run-of-the-mill TexMex place later, but back in the day of the restaurant pictured above, it was a pretty fancy place. I remember my parents getting dressed up for a night-on-the-town type evening to go out for dinner there. They didn't take us kids to such a fancy place! Funny to think of El Chico that way, or any TexMex place, but that's how it was back then.

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Subdude, this is great. I am flattered that my idea had something to do with the creation of this "project," but I never could have done what you have in making it a reality. For once I feel like this site could be something more than just a bunch of bored malcontents spouting off their views about architecture. As you build on this and other people contribute, we really could build a significant resource for historic Houston on the web - THE resource for historic Houston on the web. Bravo.

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El Chico is gone and has been for years. Guess you can call it demolished because I'm about 99.9% sure that building is no longer in existence.

Funny thing is that El Chico became just another run-of-the-mill TexMex place later, but back in the day of the restaurant pictured above, it was a pretty fancy place. I remember my parents getting dressed up for a night-on-the-town type evening to go out for dinner there. They didn't take us kids to such a fancy place! Funny to think of El Chico that way, or any TexMex place, but that's how it was back then.

Remember Molina's "Mexico City" restaurant? I think the original location was on Fannin or Main - delicious food & perfect atmosphere. I would love to find one of the old menus because for many years, it was a "family tradition" in our family to go there on Christmas Eve. Great pics! I have many good memories of Valian's too.

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  • 2 months later...
Another one I found.

Gaidos, 9200 South Main.

I knew they were in Galveston, but not in Houston.

Gaidos.jpg

It's not in this picture, but they used to have a Giant Shrimp sculture with a cowboy outfit on, brandishing sixguns like he is ready for a gunfight, and a Giant Blue crab, on the other end of the building, with a sign underneath it that said "actual size". :)

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  • 1 month later...
"...midtown... at the very center of the entertainment and cultural area."

Does this mean that "Midtown" was a lot larger back then? Was this before the "Museum District" label was invented?

Yeah, I think the "Museum District" is fairly recent, like from the 1990s. I'm not sure what was considered "midtown" back then, although it makes sense that it would have covered the area between downtown and Uptown (the area on South Main near the Shamrock).

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Yeah, I think the "Museum District" is fairly recent, like from the 1990s. I'm not sure what was considered "midtown" back then, although it makes sense that it would have covered the area between downtown and Uptown (the area on South Main near the Shamrock).

Huh? Are you referring to the "area on South Main near the Shamrock" as "Uptown"? If so, why?

Or are you saying that the "area on South Main near the Shamrock" is between downtown and Uptown? Hardly.

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I mentioned this in another thread - we need a section called "Historic Houston" for posts like this.

i agree! i think i may have some old postcards/flyers from the area too. i'll post them here if they serve as good additons to whats shown above...

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  • 2 weeks later...
The area around the Shamrock was known as "Uptown" from after WW2 until (I think) about the 1980s. I've seen it in a lot of old ads. Calling the Galleria area "Uptown" was just dreamed up in the 1990s as kind of a marketing gimmick.

yes - this Towers Motor Hotel postcards says it's in "uptown" (and it was located on Holcombe near Main)

towersmotorpcback.jpg

Edited by sevfiv
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