Home At 8 West Court Dr.

[Ashikaga]

From 1962 to 1964 I lived in a small white house located at # 8 West Court Drive. It was on the corner of that street and Galveston Road, just south of where Park Place Boulevard dead ends into Galveston Road. Sims Bayou is nearby.

Has anyone out there been in that area recently? As I said, I haven't been there in over 40 years (I live in Orange, Texas, which is 100 east of Houston). I was wondering if the house that I lived in back then is still there.

Chet Cuccia

[gnu]

From 1962 to 1964 I lived in a small white house located at # 8 West Court Drive.  It was on the corner of that street and Galveston Road, just south of where Park Place Boulevard dead ends into Galveston Road.  Sims Bayou is nearby.

Has anyone out there been in that area recently?  As I said, I haven't been there in over 40 years (I live in Orange, Texas, which is 100 east of Houston).  I was wondering if the house that I lived in back then is still there.

Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Looks like it may still be there. Check the listing from the harris co. appraisal district.

8 West Court

you should look at Google's satellite maps (or terraserver etc) and see if you can pinpoint your house.

They channelized Sims Bayou about 10 years ago and cut a new path for it on the south side of your old street. I do not know for certain but houses on that side might have been removed.

[Ashikaga]

Looks like it may still be there. Check the listing from the harris co. appraisal district.

8 West Court

you should look at Google's satellite maps (or terraserver etc) and see if you can pinpoint your house.

They channelized Sims Bayou about 10 years ago and cut a new path for it on the south side of your old street. I do not know for certain but houses on that side might have been removed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! You're both good and fast! I had barely posted that topic. You knew exactly where that was. One day I hope to drive over there and take a picture of it (if it's still there) to show to my parents. Thanks again.

Chet Cuccia

[YakuzaIce]

Heres a pic of the corner I am not sure which side it is on as addresses tend to be off, this is from about two years ago.

[Ashikaga]

Thank you. It looks like an apartment complex. I don't recall one being there 40 years ago. I remember us living in a small white house. Next door to us was another house that had one apartment on ground level and another one upstairs.

Maybe those houses have been demolished. But I appreciate your efforts.

Chet Cuccia

[gnu]

Thank you.  It looks like an apartment complex.  I don't recall one being there 40 years ago.  I remember us living in a small white house.  Next door to us was another house that had one apartment on ground level and another one upstairs.

Maybe those houses have been demolished.  But I appreciate your efforts.

Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From the HCAD map link I posted for your address, your lot looks to have been the one opposite the apt complex. should be the first house visible through the trees on the north side of the street.

[YakuzaIce]

Thank you.  It looks like an apartment complex.  I don't recall one being there 40 years ago.  I remember us living in a small white house.  Next door to us was another house that had one apartment on ground level and another one upstairs.

Maybe those houses have been demolished.  But I appreciate your efforts.

Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Was your house on that side? Because as gnu said HCAD said it was on the other side. (google gets addresses wrong, mines about 7 houses off). Might it be in the area covered with trees?

[Ashikaga]

I think that it might be on the other side of the street. I don't know about you, but I can't see anything through those trees. What exactly did you enter on Google to come up with that? I wish I knew how to forward e-mail it to my parents.

Chet Cuccia

[YakuzaIce]

I think that it might be on the other side of the street.  I don't know about you, but I can't see anything through those trees.  What exactly did you enter on Google to come up with that?  I wish I knew how to forward e-mail it to my parents.

Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I did it using google earth which is something you have to download, they have another one here that you don't have to download.

http://maps.google.com/

I just typed in what you see there. On the link if you want sattelite the toggle buttons are in the top right corner of the map.

[gnu]

do you remember what your house looked like?

My curiousity got the best of me and I drove by 8 west court street at lunch

it is a Mission-style bungalow with a red clay tile roof.

It is not in great shape but it is occupied. The street looks like it might have been really cool a long time ago. Very nice topography, the road cuts into a ravine down to the bayou and there is a nice old rock retaining wall (Think CCC/WPA campgrounds) Unfortunately, the new channel of Sims Bayou scaped off all the folliage, on the south side, down to the water.

I snapped a photo of it with my cell phone but I have a stupid phone that won't download pics to a pc or email it. So, I have to wait until tonight so I can send it to my wife's phone and then transfer it to the pc to post it.

[gnu]

Okay, here is the picture of 8 West Court.

Not the best shot in the world.

Is/was this your house??

[Ashikaga]

Okay, here is the picture of 8 West Court.

Not the best shot in the world.

Is/was this your house??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hello Gnu,

No, it is the best shot anyone could have taken. I wouldn't have known it, so my mother looked at your photo and she verified that that was indeed the house that we lived in a little over 40 years ago. Thank you very much. I printed it. Someday I hope to be able to go over there and take a picture of it myself. But like I said, I live 100 miles away.

Chet Cuccia

[Ashikaga]

Okay, here is the picture of 8 West Court.

Not the best shot in the world.

Is/was this your house??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Once again, thank you a lot! I don't want to risk losing your photo. Is there a way that it can be sent to my e-mail address so that I can store it in my folders? If you can do that, that would be great. My e-mail address is: chetcuccia@hotmail.com

Sincerely, Chet Cuccia

[YakuzaIce]

Once again, thank you a lot!  I don't want to risk losing your photo.  Is there a way that it can be sent to my e-mail address so that I can store it in my folders?  If you can do that, that would be great.  My e-mail address is:  chetcuccia@hotmail.com

Sincerely,          Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just right click it, then click save image (or something similar depending on browser). That will save it to your harddrive.

[Ashikaga]

Just right click it, then click save image (or something similar depending on browser).  That will save it to your harddrive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you again. I printed it. I came out pretty clear. I don't own a computer, so I can't do what you told me to. But now I have it on paper. Thanks.

Chet Cuccia

[Ashikaga]

Just right click it, then click save image (or something similar depending on browser). That will save it to your harddrive.

One of these days I hope to get over to Houston and see it myself for the first time in 42 years.

[Ashikaga]

Okay, here is the picture of 8 West Court.

Not the best shot in the world.

Is/was this your house??

Gnu,

I'm trying to learn something about digital cameras. Someday I might get one. I'm studying megapixels. How many megapixels does your camera on your cell phone have, the camera that you took of the house that I used to live in?

[gnu]

Gnu,

I'm trying to learn something about digital cameras. Someday I might get one. I'm studying megapixels. How many megapixels does your camera on your cell phone have, the camera that you took of the house that I used to live in?

not enough. its just a cruddy cell phone camera - i don't really know what it has - certainly not over 1. I am not a camera afficianado (maybe someone else could assist with information ) but these days you pretty much see 3 as a bare minimum and probably 5 is standard. there has been a couple of dig. camera threads on the board recently. you might search them out.

[Ashikaga]

not enough. its just a cruddy cell phone camera - i don't really know what it has - certainly not over 1. I am not a camera afficianado (maybe someone else could assist with information ) but these days you pretty much see 3 as a bare minimum and probably 5 is standard. there has been a couple of dig. camera threads on the board recently. you might search them out.

I've been reading a recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine here in the library (July 2006). It has quite a few pages devoted to an article called "The Right Digital Camera For You." Yes, it discusses 3 megapixels as what you call a bare minimum. It says that it depends on what you want to do. If you want to print your photos, you should have between a 3 and a 5 megapixel camera. If you don't plan to print, you just want to look at your photos on the computer, or post a photo ad on the Internet, then a 2.1 megapixel would be enough for that.

Who knows? I might just stay with buying the Fuji disposables. Some people say that 35mm photos are better quality than digital photos. I'll probably continue getting them developed at Wal-Mart, then scan and post them on the Internet. I've seen photos on the Internet taken by both kinds of cameras. Regular 35mm photos appear to look clearer than digital photos. But I might be wrong about that.

The only difference that I see is convenience and time. You have to drop them off at Wal-Mart, wait a few days for them to be developed, and go pick them up. But if they are better quality, the wait might be worth it.

[northbeaumont]

not enough. its just a cruddy cell phone camera - i don't really know what it has - certainly not over 1. I am not a camera afficianado (maybe someone else could assist with information ) but these days you pretty much see 3 as a bare minimum and probably 5 is standard. there has been a couple of dig. camera threads on the board recently. you might search them out.

I see that Yakuza Ice posted a good aerial photo of it, and Gnu posted a clear photo of a house in that location.

[Vertigo58]

Many of the older homes in that immediate area are still standing (amazingly).

There is a bar/grocery store a little closer in right next to the RR tracks. Owner is named Engbrock that family owned numerous properties around Near East End for decades. His brother was our across the street neighbor over in Broadmoor. The place is alive as ever, gets quite packed by mostly the nearby residents and city workers. You will still see an old jukebox with old country stars records, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, etc. It is clearly a step back in time to old Houston days.

PS, I know I have seen the house you asked about at the beginning of this topic. There was a little cluster of neat small white houses that were rented out to singles/couples for years. Never knew the name but were very quaint and set back from OG (Old Galveston) as it was always referred to. They are still there. I knew a girl in the early 80's that rented out a cottage there. The windows in living room could open out for breeze, like a beach house. The area had a motel/cabins in the woods kind of feel to it. Good flash backs.

[northbeaumont]

Many of the older homes in that immediate area are still standing (amazingly).

There is a bar/grocery store a little closer in right next to the RR tracks. Owner is named Engbrock that family owned numerous properties around Near East End for decades. His brother was our across the street neighbor over in Broadmoor. The place is alive as ever, gets quite packed by mostly the nearby residents and city workers. You will still see an old jukebox with old country stars records, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, etc. It is clearly a step back in time to old Houston days.

PS, I know I have seen the house you asked about at the beginning of this topic. There was a little cluster of neat small white houses that were rented out to singles/couples for years. Never knew the name but were very quaint and set back from OG (Old Galveston) as it was always referred to. They are still there. I knew a girl in the early 80's that rented out a cottage there. The windows in living room could open out for breeze, like a beach house. The area had a motel/cabins in the woods kind of feel to it. Good flash backs.

That sounds like those Econo Lodge and other motels that have rooms called "kitchenettes."

[gnu]

Sorry to tell you Ashikaga/Chet (if you may be lurking about) but it looks like your childhood home will be gone after the weekend.

http://swamplot.com/daily-demolition-report-demolition-day-parade/2011-05-20/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+swamplot+%28Swamplot%3A+Houston%27s+Real+Estate+Landscape%29

It seems like #8 West Court Drive is now deemed a dangerous building by Neighborhood Protection.

Darn it, I really liked that house. Very cute mission/spanish bungalow.

[sevfiv]

^I bow down to your memory/tracking skills...!

[gnu]

^I bow down to your memory/tracking skills...!

Believe me, my memory is VERY selective. Mostly it looks like this:--->

I just saw West Court on the demo list and thought...hmmmm #8...i wonder....and it was.

Anyway, how could you not remember some of those exchanges with Ashikaga back then.

They were pretty interesting to say the least!

[NenaE]

Believe me, my memory is VERY selective. Mostly it looks like this:--->

I just saw West Court on the demo list and thought...hmmmm #8...i wonder....and it was.

Anyway, how could you not remember some of those exchanges with Ashikaga back then.

They were pretty interesting to say the least!

Thanks gnu for pointing that house out. I am familiar with the area, and know that one of the oldest bungalows I've run across sits in the area close to that one, on Waverly, where the bayou curls around the land. I never knew that Spanish house sat there,makes me very sad to see it lost. The large property (w/ the old white Spanish mission style house) that sits (sat) to the west of this smaller house was recently demolished. It faced Old Galveston Road (looks green in the GoogleEarth view) and is very similar in style, and has been talked about quite a bit on HAIF. The two houses may have been built by the same owner or builder. Again, very old structures, I'm guessing early 1900's.

It's interesting to study the previous years aerial photos, to see how the land has changed, through the years, with the bayou manipulation.

Always wondered what happened to Chet/ Ashikaga...had some interesting posts.

BTW - Rockleigh Place is another very old road, south of Waverly.

Edited May 20, 2011 by NenaE