Houston In The 1990s

[blue92]

I lived in Houston from April 1999 thru Oct. 2001, in the Cooperfield part of NW Houston off 290 & 6. There used to be a Japanese buffet right in front of the Willowbrook Mall. Is it still there, what's the name of the place? They had the best Sushi I've ever eaten. It was 21 bucks a person for all you could eat. Also there was fish place that was built in a boat on 1960 Capt. somethin anyone know the name of it and is it still in business? They served fried catfish.  

[Witch King]

I lived in Houston from April 1999 thru Oct. 2001, in the Cooperfield part of NW Houston off 290 & 6. There used to be a Japanese buffet right in front of the Willowbrook Mall. Is it still there, what's the name of the place? They had the best Sushi I've ever eaten. It was 21 bucks a person for all you could eat. Also there was fish place that was built in a boat on 1960 Capt. somethin anyone know the name of it and is it still in business? They served fried catfish.  

 

Captain Tom's Oyster Boat.

[brucesw]

I lived in Houston from April 1999 thru Oct. 2001, in the Cooperfield part of NW Houston off 290 & 6. There used to be a Japanese buffet right in front of the Willowbrook Mall. Is it still there, what's the name of the place? They had the best Sushi I've ever eaten. It was 21 bucks a person for all you could eat. Also there was fish place that was built in a boat on 1960 Capt. somethin anyone know the name of it and is it still in business? They served fried catfish.  

 

That was originally a Captain Benny's.  A guy named Tom was the manager of the Captain Benny's on 59 @ Wilcrest where I was a regular in the 80s.  He told me Benny Heileman (?) had been approached many times by investors wanting a franchise and he finally let a couple of guys open that one on 1960, but they weren't restauranteurs and the place did poorly.  Tom wanted his own place so Benny let him take it over.  There are now 3 Capt. Tom's and several Capt. Benny's still in business.  The menus are very similar but Tom always claimed his recipes for gumbo and deviled crab were better so the dishes may be a little different.

 

The Capt. Benny's on 59 was moved down Murphy Road about a half mile due to the widening of 59 but the berm it perched on is still there, I think, right at the intersection.

 

[Triton]

Anyone have a photo of Main Street before the light rail construction began? I was thinking of Main closer to Buffalo Bayou looking towards downtown. I remember it being a large four lane road with potholes everywhere.

[IronTiger]

I heard it was 6. Anyway, I did make a similar topic almost 3 years ago: http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/27318-what-was-main-street-like-before-the-light-rail/

Edited September 29, 2015 by IronTiger

[Triton]

I heard it was 6. Anyway, I did make a similar topic almost 3 years ago: http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/27318-what-was-main-street-like-before-the-light-rail/

 

Was it really that big? I guess I am looking more for going down the bridge from UH-D into downtown type photos. Yes, very specific but that thread is certainly a great start! thanks!

[mollusk]

'twas six lanes, with narrower sidewalks than we now have.  And no turns.  No lefts I get, but why no rights is beyond me - but people did indeed get tickets for it.

[cspwal]

No turns?  So once you got onto main street, you were stuck on it for the duration?

[Triton]

There were a lot of potholes, right? I remember Main and N Main being terrible in that area.

[mollusk]

No turns?  So once you got onto main street, you were stuck on it for the duration?

 

Yep.  All the way from Commerce down to Bell or so, IIRC.

 

There were a lot of potholes, right? I remember Main and N Main being terrible in that area.

 

Probably.  At the time that described just about all of the downtown streets, all of which were in pretty much the same shape that lower Westheimer is now.

[Subdude]

Here's Lower Main St in the 1990s in all its glory.  Not a great shot of the street itself however.

[Ross]

I don't recall Main being full of potholes. I used Main quite a bit from 1976 to 1991, simply because it had less traffic, and was a pretty cool drive. I was banking at South Main Bank for much of that time, so heading out Main was a natural choice.

[MirrersTrucking]

I personally never liked the idea of the Light Rails, made driving in those areas even more of a game of Russian Roulette.

[j_cuevas713]

I personally never liked the idea of the Light Rails, made driving in those areas even more of a game of Russian Roulette.

Light Rails? And how is it a game of Russian Roulette? Follow the traffic signs like anywhere else and you should be just fine. If you don't like the idea of rail running thru the middle of a street then go to Boston or even Denver and realize it's a normal part of life in those cities.

Here's Lower Main St in the 1990s in all its glory.  Not a great shot of the street itself however.

I can't believe we allowed the city to decay so badly. 

[IronTiger]

What does that block look like today? Or was it leveled entirely?

[cspwal]

Every single one of those buildings is still there

 

It's Main & Congress, looking southwest

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7622208,-95.3606692,3a,75y,256.92h,89.2t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sumgt0Am5abJDdJYD5EAyvQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Edited October 22, 2015 by cspwal

[Blade Runner]

The walmart heb and lowes on westhiemer and kirkwood used to be a greenfield with a small church and a cemetery next to it.

 

 

 

That was the church that my grandmother (and some of my other obscure family members) attended for several years. I had relatives buried there. I still seethe when I pass that damned H-E-B.

[SpaceGhost]

The walmart heb and lowes on westhiemer and kirkwood used to be a greenfield with a small church and a cemetery next to it.

Phonecia used to be across the street from where it is now (pre-2005), it was a small family store back then.

Westpark tollway used to be a railroad track that extended to uptown.

 

The Andrau Airpark extended from Richmond down to Westpark. It was sold and demolished in 1998. A tiny piece of road from the airpark still exists. It was the roadway that led from Westheimer to the runways. It was eventually bisected by Richmond Ave. It's possible that the road might of been signed as S. Kirkwood due to the close proximity. (Just a guess though)

 

As for Phoenicia, it indeed was originally across the street. It was in the corner of the brown brick shopping center. The original store was bought by a ballroom called "The Bougainvilleas" The inside was completely redone and is unrecognizable except for the general shape which was a distinctive L. My family gave, and continues to give tons of business to Phoenicia. According to my dad who has shopped there as long as I can remember, the owner put in tall shelves to take advantage of the small store space. This was carried over to the new store, which sort of gave it a warehouse store feel, without truly being a warehouse store.

 

There was a spot called "Phoenicia Cafe" located in the strip center to the right of the main store. The cafe lasted in its original spot longer than Phoenicia. It stayed there for I think, around a year after the store moved. It was moved and renamed as Arpi's. Got Banh Mi & Pho? moved into the old spot, and kept the same layout.

[august948]

That was the church that my grandmother (and some of my other obscure family members) attended for several years. I had relatives buried there. I still seethe when I pass that damned H-E-B.

 

They're starting to fill in the last piece of the woods behind that church with new townhomes.  Still a couple of open sections of land south on Kirkwood past Richmond.  Won't be long and all of what's left of Andrau will be built over.

 

[Victor Del Rio]

 

I remember Wolfe Nursery on Beechnut.  Just west of the nursery was Builder's Square, which was briefly redeveloped into a store called Pace; after that it was torn down to make way for Lowe's.  Next door to Builder's Square was a Toy Store called Children's Palace, which was later redeveloped into a music store.  I think a bike store is there now?

 

A few more memories:

• Sharpstown Mall was still respectable in the early part of the decade, but we stopped shopping there around 1995 because of the increased crime in the parking lot.
• A redeveloped Meyerland Plaza opened ~1996
• Video Central rented VHS tapes and video games.
• The Rockets and the Houston Aeros played their games in the Summit, which later became Compaq Center, which later became Lakewood Church.
• There were large street parties held on the Richmond strip after the Rockets won the Championship two years in a row.
• There was a lot of vacant land along the south side of 59 between S. Shepherd and 610 that was redeveloped towards the end of the decade.
• An outdoor concert venue called "Lone Star Amphitheater" was located on Westpark, just outside of 610.  It was later converted into a church called "Prayer Mountain".  I think it was demolished in the late '90s to make room for the Westpark Tollway.
• Many of the high-rise condo towers around the Galleria were built in the later part of the decade.
• The Houston Chronicle bought the Houston Post in the early part of the decade.
• The Bel-Air Theater on Bellaire Blvd closed, and was converted to an indoor playland for kids called "Discovery Zone".
• "Celebration Station" on 59 and "Fame City" on Beechnut were popular places for kids.
• The Village Arcade shopping center opened in Rice Village (~1994?).  A few years later, The Village Arcade II opened on the next block.
• The Hard Rock Cafe was still on Kirby, and it had a '60s-era Thunderbird mounted on a pole.
• There was a car dealership (Buick or Cadillac?) on the SE corner of S Shepherd and Westheimer in the early part of the decade.  Across the street was an Academy Sporting Goods Store and an Oak Farms Dairy facility.
• Dietrich Coffee House on Westheimer was a great place to hang out and people watch.
• Bookstop on S. Shepherd was an awesome book store.
• There was a movie theater on West Gray (Cineplex Odeon?).
• The Jeff Davis hospital sat abandoned on Allen Parkway as a giant creepy Art Deco monument.
• A blighted Allen Parkway Village sat next door, adding to the creepiness.
• The rice mills were still standing on Studemont in the early part of the decade.
• Washington Avenue and the surrounding area was in pretty rough shape.
• We would roll up the car windows and lock the doors when we drove through the Heights area.
• The long-vacant Rice Hotel downtown was renovated and re-opened as the "Rice Lofts."  "Enron Field" opened about the same time.  There was a lot of hope that these developments would revitialize downtown.  They eventually did, but I think it took much longer than everyone anticipated.
• It snowed in the early part of the decade (~1992 or 1993?)
• There were some big floods around 1995 or 1996 that caused many businesses and schools to close.  I seem to remember there being a lot of damage in the Kingwood area.

 

 

It was a Loews theater

LCE River Oaks Plaza 12

1450 West Gray Street

Gray Street at Waugh Drive

Houston, TX 77019

http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php?theater=2837&view=contact

 

[H-Town Genius]

On 1/5/2014 at 0:57 PM, ChannelTwoNews said:

I distinctly recall a huge warehouse fire near downtown, or at least within the Loop... maybe early 1995 or 96? I think it took a few days to get completely out. I definitely remember that one of the stations (I think it was 2) kept cutting into whatever sports were on during the weekend to show the aerial shots.

 

I also remember a Two Pesos opened in my hometown and closed not too long after the whole court case involving Taco Cabana came to an end. Still waiting for a replacement TC.

 

Also, RABDARGAB

 

 

 

 

 

It was the Houston Distribution Inc. warehouse off of Market St. in June 1995; it was on the northeast side near Loop 610 and I-10, near the Budweiser plant

[Kasper]

Watch Robocop 2, it was pretty much all filmed on location around HTown. I watched a couple of scenes being filmed at that end of Main & they didn't have to do much to make it look like "future dystopian metropolitan Detroit'. 

[Itz_Jai]

It’s so cool reading about all these places and y’all’s memories. I was really young when I lived in Houston and can’t remember much. I do remember going to a pizza place that was right next to a Foodarama on South Post Oak. It was my favorite pizza but it closed down. I wish I could remember the name. I remember going to a YMCA near there. Near the Foodarama they had those aluminum can collection places. I remember crushing cans and putting them in huge garbage bags. I remember going to some parks but have no idea what the names were. There was a huge basketball court with a warehouse roof over it. The playground floors were made up of tiny round pebbles. I remember the dry cleaners that gave you some type of discount when you put the little orange stickers on a card. There was a Long John Silvers and a Taco Cabana nearby. I was born in 1988 and moved away in 2000. It’s so sad that I’ve lost almost all my memories from that time.

Edited October 28, 2020 by Itz_Jai
Add stuff

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

I think the YMCA was on Fondren. My sister was the gymnastics coach there for a while. I vaguely remember a Foodarama on Fuqua between Hiram Clark and S Post Oak. The dry cleaners was probably Pilgrims, they were all over town (might still be, i don't know). There is a Foodarama on S Post Oak at Ridge Creek, it used to be a Rice store. There was also Pyburns a mile or so north of there.

I used to work nights in that area. 

[mkultra25]

11 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

The dry cleaners was probably Pilgrims, they were all over town (might still be, i don't know).

 

There are still a bunch of them around, but for the most part they've migrated outside the Beltway. I guess it's no longer technically true that "if you can't find a Pilgrim in ten minutes, you're lost".

[M@tt]

On 4/29/2014 at 9:33 AM, IronTiger said:

I found it! It was the TinselTown 24 at Westpark and Beltway 8, opening in 1997 and closing in 2008 (January of both years, I believe). Looking back at old HAIF posts, the theater was physically run-down and very "ghetto" by the the late 2000s. And I now how quickly these sorts of entertainment venues can get run down.

At Katy Freeway and Witte, there's a Chase call center (if I read correctly) that appears to be (from Google Maps) an old Costco before it moved east, but that's probably not the case. It was a large store of some sort though...

Tinsel Town became a place to get your car stolen or broken into. That movie theater was horrible, but saw several movies there. Kind of cool it faced beltway.   

[M@tt]

On 4/29/2014 at 9:33 AM, IronTiger said:

I found it! It was the TinselTown 24 at Westpark and Beltway 8, opening in 1997 and closing in 2008 (January of both years, I believe). Looking back at old HAIF posts, the theater was physically run-down and very "ghetto" by the the late 2000s. And I now how quickly these sorts of entertainment venues can get run down.

At Katy Freeway and Witte, there's a Chase call center (if I read correctly) that appears to be (from Google Maps) an old Costco before it moved east, but that's probably not the case. It was a large store of some sort though...