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Houston In The 1990s


telwink

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I see lots of wonderful photographs of the very early days of Houston ... what is generally available on various Houston photography archives both in person (Houston Public Library's photo archive, Story Sloane, etc) and digitally (any number of excellent websites & digital archives). What I would love to see more of, are various scenes around Houston in the 1980s ~ 1990s.

I thought of this while driving on "Upper Kirby" over the weekend, as I was explaining to my girlfriend (who recently moved to Houston) what Kirby looked like in the late 80s/early 90s. I've lived here since 1987, so I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, as I tried to explain the 80s/early 90s scene to her, I could hardly remember it myself! I think it would be nearly unrecognizable to see a 30 year old photo of it.

It would be fun to see some photographs of Westheimer, the Galleria, Rice Village, various movie theaters and restaurants (interiors or exteriors), during the early days of Houston's *rebirth* since the 80s crash, and onward through the 90s. This may be too broad an idea to get off the ground, but I figured it would be worth a shot.

As I'll be going home to visit my family for the holiday weekend coming up, I'll try to kick this off myself by going through some older family photo albums to see if there are any photos of interest. If there are, I'll digitize them by any means necessary and attach them to the thread. I encourage you to do the same!

Ben

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I thought of this while driving on "Upper Kirby" over the weekend, as I was explaining to my girlfriend (who recently moved to Houston) what Kirby looked like in the late 80s/early 90s. I've lived here since 1987, so I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, as I tried to explain the 80s/early 90s scene to her, I could hardly remember it myself! I think it would be nearly unrecognizable to see a 30 year old photo of it.

Ben

I wish I had some photos of Upper Kirby. That area was a bit dodgier at the time. I remember the north side of Alabama between Greenbriar and Revere had a collection of pretty scary apartments.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I wish I had some photos of Upper Kirby. That area was a bit dodgier at the time. I remember the north side of Alabama between Greenbriar and Revere had a collection of pretty scary apartments.

and by dodgy , you mean affordable right?

Kirby was just fine during those times safetywise, and had alot more character too!

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  • 3 months later...

Wow. Houston was hit that badly by the oil crash? http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/blink.png

That's a tale I'd like to hear more about--I mean, it seems that the 1970s and 1980s there was explosive growth, but it did more than just stop?

Was Houston hit badly by the oil crash?!? It was national news back in the eighties when Houston went from boom to bust overnight. The real estate market came to a complete standstill and was still recovering in the late 90's. I'm sure you can find plenty of stories out there about what it was like.

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I was just a child at the time, but I remember the oil crash of 1986 very well. Whole subdivisions in some areas practically became ghost towns as people were packing up and moving out of Houston. The population still grew from 1980 to 1990, but it slowed substantially. While I have no proof they were related; the Greenspoint area seemed to rapidly decline around this time. In fact crime in general rose rapidly in the late 80s in the Houston area. Once great, well established areas never recovered.  Again I don't know if this was the result of the oil crash, but it happened around the same time. My dad did security for Brown and Root and later Allied Industries from the late 70s until 1987. He was laid off from both due to cuts around this time.

 

I've been hearing a lot about how great the economy is in Houston. It was great in the 70s too, but that all changed in the 80s. Don't ever think we are immune from this happening again.

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I was just a child at the time, but I remember the oil crash of 1986 very well. Whole subdivisions in some areas practically became ghost towns as people were packing up and moving out of Houston. The population still grew from 1980 to 1990, but it slowed substantially. While I have no proof they were related; the Greenspoint area seemed to rapidly decline around this time. In fact crime in general rose rapidly in the late 80s in the Houston area. Once great, well established areas never recovered.  Again I don't know if this was the result of the oil crash, but it happened around the same time. My dad did security for Brown and Root and later Allied Industries from the late 70s until 1987. He was laid off from both due to cuts around this time.

 

I've been hearing a lot about how great the economy is in Houston. It was great in the 70s too, but that all changed in the 80s. Don't ever think we are immune from this happening again.

 

A lot of former upscale/suburban areas (Aldine/Greenspoint, Alief, Sharpstown, Gulfton) declined rapidly in the late 80s, It was a perfect storm of the oil bust, annexation, foreclosures and plummeting apartment rents.

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The bust was bad.  I was a kid then, too, and it at school it seemed like there were 2 groups of kids - those whose dad had been laid off, and those whose dad was about to be laid off. Mine survived round after round of layoffs at Shell, took a huge pay cut and called himself lucky. 

 

We used to drive up to the Spaghetti Warehouse sometimes for dinner, and I remember thinking how sad and empty downtown looked.  We used to go look at fish in the bayou near Allen's Landing, but it got too creepy and our parents wouldn't let us go down there anymore.

 

Went away for school, kicked around in Austin for a few years after that, and came back to Houston in the early 2000s... it was a little embarrassing to have to ask somebody what "Midtown" was.  I don't love everything that's been built here in the last 15 or so years, but Houston feels more like home now than it ever did.  So, I think we're doing something right.

 

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  • 8 months later...

With my new Houston Library Card and my ability to remotely access Houston Chronicle archives, I've found out all sorts of neat things that don't exist anymore in Houston, such as that two-level McDonald's in Uptown, Fiesta, the life and death of AppleTree...well, those are mostly stores and stuff because that's what I've tended to look up, and the fact that most of my 1990s Houston nostalgia is only from freeways (sad, ain't it?)

I made this thread for discussion of Houston in the 1990s, although photos/ads would be great.

A number of things from the 1990s in Houston have all been but forgotten...remember Wolfe Nursery? No?

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We moved to Houston in Sept 1999...here's a few things that I can remember that existed at the very end of the decade but are no longer with us or were brand new when we arrived.

 

First to mind is the Hong Kong Supermarket Mall.  Opened November or December of '99.  They put up Christmas decorations for the grand openning.  Took them about 10 years to finally take the decorations down.

 

Sushi Miyagi at the corner of Richmond and Sage.  Good and cheap sushi.  Closed in the early '00's. 

 

The Westpark tollway was still a rail line.  I recall seeing short trains a couple of times before they started construction.

 

Viet Hoa Supermarket on the Beltway at Beechnut was still a Kmart.  As was the Burlington Coat Factory at Hwy 6 and Westheimer.  The Builder's Square next to it was already shuttered at that point.  In the parking lot there was a Service Merchandise.

 

West Oaks Mall was still a real mall then, with the typical department stores and chain retailers. Early 00's remodel didn't work out so well.  Now it's got one foot in the grave and the other foot is attempting to reform into outdoor oriented retail.  We'll see how long that lasts.

 

City Centre, Sugarland Town Center, The Woodlands Town Center and the like were still in the future.  Town & Country Mall was still kicking, though it was well on the way to a deadmalls.com listing.  Sadly, it reminds me somewhat of how West Oaks has been fairing recently.  Maybe they'll demolish the rest of WO and do something new.

 

Andrau Airpark had just started to be redeveloped into Royal Oaks.  There were woods still at the corner of Kirkwood and Westheimer (now an HEB, Walmar, and Lowes).  For quite a while you could see the remains of a road going back into what used to be the airfield.  I think there was a little church there too, but am not quite sure.  West of that on Westheimer, but before Dairy Ashford, I recall seeing a few cows grazing on fenced in plots.

 

There were two dollar theaters on Westheimer.  One, across the parking lot from Phoenicia, had movies for 50 cents on Tuesdays.  That is closed now but the other at Synott and Westheimer is still going strong.  I'm not even sure where the next nearest dollar theater would be.

 

The Astrodome was still in use and Reliant hadn't been started yet.

 

I-10 was it's pre-reconstruction self.  There used to be a place on or near one of the overpasses where the road shifted and if you were going too fast and not paying attention you could suddenly end up in the next lane over.  Glad they straightened that out.

 

The Bellaire chinatown was big, but not nearly as big as it is today.  Downtown still had a semblance of a chinatown as did midtown, though both were already in decline.  I miss Fu Kim restaurant and it's dim sum.

 

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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.
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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.

It briefly became a Houston Garden Centers location, which was the last use of the property. I read somewhere that it was created from leftover dirt from 1970s constructions projects.

We would roll up the car windows and lock the doors when we drove through the Heights area.

Whoa. I knew The Heights was not a great place prior to gentrification, but that's really telling. Might have to do with the MKT railroad. My dad spent a few years in The Heights when my grandfather moved there sometime in the 1960s, and at that point, The Heights would've been still affordable to live in on a blue collar salary.

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Tremendous list, 9075. The one memory on my 90's list, would be the closure of the last drive-in theater in Houston, the I-45, in 1992. I grew up in several of the drive-ins here, specifically the Airline & Shepherd, and then the I-45 when it opened in 82.

Oh, IronTiger, I could tell you some stories about the Heights. I grew up there in the 70s and early 80s. What the Heights is now, isn't even close. I went through there the other day and saw they tore down most of Baptist Temple. Made my heart sink, as there will never be chimings bells coming from the tower anymore at noon on 20th and Yale. It just isn't home anymore. It just isn't the Heights anymore.

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 Heh, I'm just going to go all over the place with this topic. I'll come at this as someone who was a kid for the decade and lived on the southwest side of the metro.

 

A number of things from the 1990s in Houston have all been but forgotten...remember Wolfe Nursery? No?

 

I do. My grandparents and my mom went to one that was located on Murphy Road near 90-A in Stafford a bunch back in the early and mid 90s. Always thought it was a pretty neat place. Not sure when it was demolished though. That particular intersection had a few other businesses no longer there including Furrow, across the road and Toddle House which was on the other side of the tracks.

 

Then again, this was back when there wasn't nearly as much going on at the intersection, yet there would be a pretty nice bottleneck if there were a train passing through at almost any time of day.

 

I was really just growing up then - had (and still have) a big interest in weather, so here are some of those thoughts.

 

I do remember a bit about the 1992 Tornadoes that went across town. It was the first time I really paid attention to severe weather. Was fascinated since it was the first time I'd ever seen the sky become green. The storms themselves went around our town, but I'm pretty sure our school did some fundraisers for the families in Channelview. Astounding that the event wasn't the media fiasco it would be today.

 

The really big weather event I remember was the flooding in October 1994. They actually cancelled school for several days straight since the Brazos was starting to not just rise, but back into several areas it hadn't been known to in the past. We, of course, never saw more than the regular puddles and maybe a bit of flash flooding that drained off within an hour. More than that, I remember when the San Jacinto River caught fire. That was a trip watching it on TV, seeing the flames move toward the slicks of oil and chemicals and then a big flare up! Blew my young mind back then.

 

It did snow in the early 90s. I think it was 1993, since I was in second grade and they all had us get construction paper and run outside to catch the snowflakes. Didn't last too long, of course. I think it may have snowed later in the decade elsewhere around town, but not where I grew up. We had a couple of pretty good ice storms as well - one in maybe early 1994 and another in early 97. Guessing those dates, but all I remember was being able to stay home from school and going outside and seeing the icicles on EVERYTHING. more so with the former.

 

West Oaks was THE mall for the first half of the decade, for where I lived, and my parents would take me there on Saturdays and we'd go to a bunch of places there. We only went to Westwood a few times before we decided it had really gone down the crapper. As for West Oaks - always liked the clock in the middle as well as the Birraporretti's where we'd have lunch sometimes. At times we'd go to the General Cinema 3 Theater in the strip center across 6 for a movie. I remember taking a few of their directories back in the 90s and held onto them for a while. Not sure if I still have them in storage.

 

Then First Colony Mall opened. The mall that my mom said had been planned since the ancient 70's was a reality. From there the intersection of 6 and 59 became the retail heart of Fort Bend County and the retail and residential gaps between Williams Way on the east side of Richmond to that intersection began to fill in... quickly. Mervyn's California even sent out promotional videos in the mail announcing their grand opening. May still have it around.

 

Everyone was into the Rockets, of course, after the championships. I grew up watching them on TV & listening to Gene Peterson on the radio with my brothers so I even knew what bandwagon fans were back then. What was funny was how fast the tents hawking anything that had to do with the Rockets popped up, especially after the second title. Actually got my shirt (the one that was everywhere) from one of those guys. Not overpriced, surprisingly enough, even though you know that dude just blew a wad on 'em from Academy or Oshman's or wherever trying to turn a profit. Still have it tucked away in my drawer of now 'vintage' clothing.

 

My parents subscribed to the Chronicle & one of my aunts that we saw regularly took the Post. On weekends we'd pick up their papers and add them to the collection we'd recycle for the school I was attending. Always liked reading the Post more than the Chronicle. Better writing, features and inserts on the whole. Didn't say I was a normal kid. On one of my old VHS tapes, I recall seeing Channel 2 did a whole special about the final day of the Post's operations the day it closed down in April 1995 - this was after the sale to Post-Newsweek from the Hobby's H&C Communications. Never understood why it was the big deal it was until later.

 

Was extremely fortunate though that the Fort Bend County library I went to regularly had, and still does have hardbound index archives and microfilm of each edition of The Houston Post from 1980 until the early 90s, if not the end. I've used them for a fair amount of my research into previous posts on 80's & early 90's era projects and can conclude that most of today's local business writers who focus on real estate (let us name no one) don't hold a candle to Carl Hooper, IMHO.

 

The Power of Houston - especially the first one. Definitely remember Project Bandaloop performing maneuvers vertically up the side of One Shell Plaza and led up to the huge fireworks & laser show that outdid Rendez-vous Houston. Seriously, a playlist that (from what I remember) had The Rolling Stones, Brooks & Dunn, Kirk Franklin, Selena, Earth Wind & Fire and Capella amongst others. Eclectic, and still one of the best things I've ever seen anywhere.

 

I know I'm missing a lot. I also know that I'm rambling... Oh well. I can try and fill in some blanks.

Edited by ChannelTwoNews
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Was extremely fortunate though that the Fort Bend County library I went to regularly had, and still does have hardbound index archives and microfilm of each edition of The Houston Post from 1980 until the early 90s, if not the end. I've used them for a fair amount of my research into previous posts on 80's & early 90's era projects and can conclude that most of today's local business writers who focus on real estate (let us name no one) don't hold a candle to Carl Hooper, IMHO.

I'm pretty sure that the local university library has Post microfilms as well, though they're not very well indexed. It's a shame that's it not available on the Internet anymore. I think I read somewhere on this forum that the 1990s is when Astroworld really started to deteriorate, and by the time they tended to correct the problem in the early 2000s, it was too late.

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I don't know that I'd say Astroworld really deteriorated. The 90's saw the installation of a couple of new coasters like the Taz's Texas Twister and Serial Thriller. Of course, I think it was in the early 90's that the horribly ridiculous Mayan Mind Bender debuted. We stood in line for 2 1/2 hours for that thing, and it was the first and last time I ever rode it.

The park had its ups and down like any business. Some people consider the takeover by Six Flags as the turning point in Astroworld's ultimate demise. Some say it was Reliant Stadium's fault by wanting to take the parking area away for use by the Complex. Regardless of opinion, the park was never going to be anything more than what it was. It couldn't expand the park, due to the roads that surrounded it, and kept tearing down rides and replacing them with modern steel roller coasters.

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I don't know that I'd say Astroworld really deteriorated. The 90's saw the installation of a couple of new coasters like the Taz's Texas Twister and Serial Thriller. Of course, I think it was in the early 90's that the horribly ridiculous Mayan Mind Bender debuted. We stood in line for 2 1/2 hours for that thing, and it was the first and last time I ever rode it.

The park had its ups and down like any business. Some people consider the takeover by Six Flags as the turning point in Astroworld's ultimate demise. Some say it was Reliant Stadium's fault by wanting to take the parking area away for use by the Complex. Regardless of opinion, the park was never going to be anything more than what it was. It couldn't expand the park, due to the roads that surrounded it, and kept tearing down rides and replacing them with modern steel roller coasters.

What I read was that Astroworld's affordable admission basically gave parents with unruly kids a "babysitter" and thugs would hang out there. I mean, this happened just three months before closing.

Another thing I remember is that in the Houston Museum of Nat. Science, the McDonald's was still there, but they offered an expanded menu including themed meal sets (I remember some sort of planet-themed combos, and they also had "shaved ice", which were just snowcones)

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Lol, HTX! I know what you mean. Lord, I graduated in 84 so this is certainly not ancient history that we're talking about.

As far as thugs, I guess it depends on through whose eyes your looking I guess. I remember walking through Astroworld and getting those "get a job" looks from the older patrons. Funny thing was, I actually had a good job that just doesn't mind an employee with long hair and a few tattoos. I don't remember any visits to Astroworld being overrun by thugs and misfits. Felt safe enough to take my then 10 year old for the last two weekends of operation.

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It briefly became a Houston Garden Centers location, which was the last use of the property. I read somewhere that it was created from leftover dirt from 1970s constructions projects.

Whoa. I knew The Heights was not a great place prior to gentrification, but that's really telling. Might have to do with the MKT railroad. My dad spent a few years in The Heights when my grandfather moved there sometime in the 1960s, and at that point, The Heights would've been still affordable to live in on a blue collar salary.

 

This is from a Houston Press article last month about the Heights....

 

 

It's a far different place from when I bought there back in 1996. At that time, there was still regular gunfire nearby. I saw a car chase right on my block complete with one car blowing out the back window of the other with a shotgun in a drug deal gone bad. About 2 a.m. one New Year's Eve, I heard the familiar sound of a machine gun -- yes, fully auto and everything -- being fired off just down the street.

 

 

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/12/5_reasons_it_might_be_time_to.php

 

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Some more memories:

  • There was a local cell service provider named "Houston Cellular".
  • Stør Furniture opened on I-10 and later became Ikea.
  • There was a restaurant called Danna's on North Post Oak that was demolished to reconfigure the 610/I-10 interchange.
  • River Oaks Body Shop on Kirby was a restaurant called Frankie Mandola's.
  • Katy Mills Mall opened at the end of the decade.
  • Pin Oak Stables was demolished to make way for Apartments, a store called Incredible Universe, and a Home Depot.  Incredible Universe went under and the building became a satellite campus for HCC.
  • Pharx-More stores.
  • Albertson's entered the local grocery market.
  • There were problems with gangs and the ways they initiated new members.  One gang rented a room in the hotel at BW8 & I-10 and had new members shoot out car windows on the freeway.
  • Marshall Field's left the Houston market.
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A few things I remember from the 90s.

 

Weiner's clothing store.

 

Gulfgate Mall was still alive, but on life support

 

Going to Marshall's and Target on Kleckley across from Almeda Mall

 

Going to Foley's at Almeda Mall

 

Going to Phar-Mor on S. Post Oak at W. Bellfort

 

Feeding the ducks at Meyer Park and at Hermann Park

 

Eating at Piccadilly in Gulfgate after church and going to Hobby Airport afterward and parking at the cul-de-sac on Convair and Lockheed to watch the planes for a few minutes before going home

 

HEB entering the Houston market

 

Downtown streets being torn up due to all the rebuilding projects

 

The expanse of old railroad tracks before Enron Field was built

 

President Clinton's visit to Houston in 1996 for Barbara Jordan's funeral. His motorcade passed our house. My dad took me to EFD to get a glimpse of Air Force 1, and I remember that some shuttle astronauts were arriving back from FL at the same time. I think President Clinton said a few words to congratulate them.

 

My parents used to ride down to Pearland to check out this sleepy new development called Silverlake. It seemed so pastoral before development really kicked into high gear.

 

Pacing the freight train on the MKT while riding on I-10 on the way to San Antonio.

 

I remember we'd pass a go-kart track on US59 at the Westpark curve. I never visited it, but my dad told me that some murders happened there.

 

Malibu Grand Prix on 610 between I-10 and 290.

 

Passing through downtown on a weekend and it looked like a ghost town.

 

The concern over Houston adding a new area code (281).

 

The controversy concerning disturbed graves somewhere along Allen Parkway.

 

More controversy over the proposal of adding TSU to the UH system.

 

A case of meningitis at my elementary school (Red El.) made the local news.

 

In the late 90s, the first lofts opened downtown. I remember hearing adults state things like "who'd want to live downtown?"

 

The mumblings about the proposed light rail line, and adults calling it a trolley.

 

Watching the local news and seeing newscasters and weathermen like Ron Stone, Neil Frank, Marlene McClinton, Steve Smith, Sylvan Rodriguez, Jan Carson, Lloyd Gite, Linda Lorelle, and me being afraid of Alvin Van Black for some reason.

 

The opening of the shiny, brand new Fred Hartman bridge. For a little kid like me, it was cool to go over such a high bridge.

 

The Goodyear blimp base in Spring.

 

Hobby Airport before the new terminal was built seemed so podunk inside.

 

Visiting the observation deck of the Transco Tower

 

Watching Jason's Lyric and recognizing Third Ward and a family friend playing the role of the bus driver.

 

Orbit being the Astros' mascot before their move to Enron Field.

 

Meeting Mattress Mac at Gallery Furniture one night.

 

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Yeah, there were lots of grocery turnovers during the 1990s. H-E-B entered with the seemingly-innocuous Pantry Foods concept, AppleTree spun off from Safeway in '89 but imploded a few years later, the life and death of Food Lion, and the relatively short time of Albertsons.

 

Houston Cellular became Cingular around 2001, which became the "new" AT&T.

 

Wasn't another thing in the 1990s involved the annexation of Kingwood?

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I remember we'd pass a go-kart track on US59 at the Westpark curve. I never visited it, but my dad told me that some murders happened there.

 

Malibu Grand Prix on 610 between I-10 and 290.

 

The track on 59 was a Malibu Grand Prix too. They had three locations in Houston. 

 

http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2012/02/fast-times-at-malibu-grand-prix/#3203101=0

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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

 

 

 

 

 

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I remember there being a rice mill in the shadows of downtown back in the 90s. I think it was on Allen Parkway?

Earlier poster said it was Studemont. I believe the only rice mill left in Houston proper is the Gulf Pacific Co. one on 290, which will almost certainly be torn down for the highway redevelopment. Sigh...no3.gif

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