Stuart's Club Grill Drive-In Restaurant At 3401 North Main St.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Another of my stops today was at the Casa Grande restaurant on North Main just south of I-45. I had no plans to eat there, but wanted to take a photo of one of my old haunts. This used to be Stuart

[Heights2Bastrop]

The last time I was there was in high school, and we stopped in for a Coke, and I got an order of fries. They were curly fries, and they were very greasy, and they were very good!

What a great photo, Subdude. Once again you have come through with the goods!

[57Tbird]

There was an article in the October issue of Texas Highways on the origin of drive-in's in Texas. It noted that Pig Stands were the first when they came on the scene in Dallas in 1921. They soon spread to several locations around Texas, including Houston. It mentioned that the first "good food" drive-in was opened in Houston by J.D. Sivil in 1938. It went on to discuss the further evolution of other drive-in's in Texas. I thought it unusual that Prince's or Stuart's was not mentioned in the article. There was a picture of a matchbook that caught my attention. I noted the address and thought it looked familiar. I went back and found this picture that was posted last year by Subdude. Note the address here and on the matchbook below. Interesting!

Edited September 15, 2006 by 57Tbird

[jm1fd]

Ain't that interesting to know?

Quite interesting. It always amazes me the great tidbits that are buried in the threads here.

[WestUNative]

Great job, Filio, for the update. Percy was so notorious for confiscating little old widow's homes to get their errant sons sprung, we didn't stop to think just how filthy (pun intended) rich he would have been at the end. The question on everyone's minds was what kind of enormous price Candace Mossler paid. Oh, yes, I remember you journalistic guys asking, but no one was disclosing. Hmm, or maybe you do know?

Eww. I hate to think we added to his coffers by patronizing Stuart's. I believe I mentioned in another thread the night we were dining at The Bismark and Percy strutted in with 2 bimbos and sat at the table next to ours. He was so obnoxious and bombastic and especially crude, we slurped down our meal and got the hell out. I couldn't stand being in the same room as he.

Now the only question, Filio, is who got all the loot?

[57Tbird]

When famous Houston lawyer Percy Foreman died in the late 1980s, the people in charge of probating his estate were stunned to learn the extent to which Foreman used "barter" throughout his long legal career. It was local legend that if you didn't have the "cash" to pay Foreman, he would accept whatever you had. Stocks, bonds, jewelry, property, you name it. If it had value, Foreman took it as payment of his fee. He was once asked if he ever felt bad about putting guilty people back on the street, and his response was "Hell no! If they're guilty my fee will be their punishment."

If you hired Foreman to defend you, one thing was certain. Whether he got you off or not, he would end up with all your money and all your worldly possessions.

His estate attorney found safe deposit boxes in banks all over the city stuffed full of stocks, bonds, jewels, property deeds, valuable coin collections, you name it, all worth millions. He rented warehouses for the automobiles, furs, and other items with which cash-poor miscreants paid their bills. He once even accepted four circus elephants as payment for services rendered.

At one time he was the largest individual landowner in Harris County, holding title to more than forty homes, dozens of commercial buildings and at least several square blocks of downtown Houston. Among his many properties were all the land and buildings in the triangle formed by South Main, OST and Kirby, in which the old Stuart's Drive-In was the most prominent lessee.

Ain't that interesting to know?

Filio... If there's ever a Houston history trivia quiz competition, I want to be on your team. I had forgotten about that bit of Percy Foreman lore. You're exactly right in what he accepted for his legal sevices.

[FilioScotia]

Great job, Filio, for the update. Percy was so notorious for confiscating little old widow's homes to get their errant sons sprung, we didn't stop to think just how filthy (pun intended) rich he would have been at the end. The question on everyone's minds was what kind of enormous price Candace Mossler paid. Oh, yes, I remember you journalistic guys asking, but no one was disclosing. Hmm, or maybe you do know?

Eww. I hate to think we added to his coffers by patronizing Stuart's. I believe I mentioned in another thread the night we were dining at The Bismark and Percy strutted in with 2 bimbos and sat at the table next to ours. He was so obnoxious and bombastic and especially crude, we slurped down our meal and got the hell out. I couldn't stand being in the same room as he.

Now the only question, Filio, is who got all the loot?

You need to be a little more specific. Which "loot" are you talking about? If you're talking about the Stuart's Drivein on Foreman's property, Percy was just the landlord. The money you spent at Stuart's just helped Stuart pay the rent.

I don't think his practice of accepting property as payment can be characterized as "confiscating little old widows' homes". Foreman was the most famous defense attorney of his time, and he didn't come cheap. If you wanted him to represent you, you had to "pay the piper", as they say. Who knows how many people signed their house over to him? It's probable that some widows did, but nobody made them hire Foreman.

On the subject of Candace Mossler, she wasn't the one who was prosecuted for her husband's murder. It was her nephew and lover Mel Powers, but you can rest assured Candace paid Foreman's fee, which had to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don't forget that in those days 100 thousand dollars was worth what a million dollars is worth today.

[acamarillo]

I remember going to Stuarts on N. Main near the present location of 45n. It had an air conditioning system where they would run a duct to your car window while you ate in the car. Never saw that anywhere else and i don't think it lasted too long thre - it wasn't very efficient. The building is still there, it's now a Mexican restaurant.

[Specwriter]

I remember as a child seeing the sign for Stuart's on North Main each time we traveled north on I45. It seemed very large and has always stuck in my memory.

[devonhart]

The Nortons of Houston appeared in Look magazine. Anybody ever witness this?

[Purpledevil]

Wow, this certainly predates me. I can't remember any of the north side drive-ins having these. Heck, it was a big deal when some of them started acquiring FM transmitters to replace the little box you used to have to listen to, but AC? Uh-uh.

Great pic devon!

[Purpledevil]

Oh Lord, I had a brain hiccup when I posted earlier. This is a drive-in, not a drive-in theater, obviously with the covering overhead. Believe I'll shut up and bow out in utter embarrassment of my gaffe. :|

[august948]

I notice ole dad's getting the ac put in his window.  The kid's will just have to make do with the open window.

[Purpledevil]

Lmao, too true! What's worse is that Cadillac they are sitting in likely had air conditioning of its own. It was available then, but maybe ol' dad didn't spring for it.

Cheapskate...lol.

[Specwriter]

Lmao, too true! What's worse is that Cadillac they are sitting in likely had air conditioning of its own. It was available then, but maybe ol' dad didn't spring for it.

Cheapskate...lol.

 

In the 1950s air conditioning was probably the single most expensive option available on an automobile and it was very expensive; often as much as 10% or more of the total price of the car.

 

[Subdude]

This was the Stuart's Drive-In on North Main near I45.  I believe the building might still be standing.

 

 

 

[JLWM8609]

In the 1950s air conditioning was probably the single most expensive option available on an automobile and it was very expensive; often as much as 10% or more of the total price of the car.

 

 

Perhaps it had air conditioning and the owner didn't want to turn it on because he was too frugal, like the scene in "Driving Miss Daisy."

[Purpledevil]

This was the Stuart's Drive-In on North Main near I45. I believe the building might still be standing.

Been remodeled extensively, but it still stands. The old Stuart's sign was still in original, minus some neon, form up until around a decade ago, when it was painted over with the new name. Can't think of the name of it, but I think it's a Mexican sports bar now. Every time I'd go under Main on 45, there'd be Stuart, holding his hamburger. Sure hated to see that one altered.

[brucesw]

In the right rear corner of the cabin you can see the clear plastic a/c duct coming up out of the rear window shelf.  The blower was mounted in the (humongous) trunk.  This duct position would indicate factory-installed air, at least it did in the 54 Olds 98 which my family had.  The duct fed into the ceiling of the cabin and individual outlets over each door.  The outlets consisted of a a grill and a rotatable nozzle to direct a stream of air at your face or away, etc. 

 

Dealer installed air, in the Olds, anyway, would have entailed two plastic ducts, placed closer together toward the center of the rear window shelf, open-ended, blasting a/c into the cabin over the heads of the rear seat passengers.

 

I cannot clearly remember what the unit looked like in the front seat but I don't think there were any a/c vents on or under the dash just fresh air, and the under-dash console was not that big; I seldom sat in the front seat of that car.

 

Presumably the differences between the Caddy and Olds factory or dealer installed air would have been only cosmetic.

 

I have not been able to  find a picture of the cabin vents over the doors but in this pic of a 54 Olds (ours was green and white) you can make out the a/c fresh air intake scoops on the rear fender, just ahead of the tail lights, where fins would subsequently sprout.

 

This is what the Caddy's intake scoops would have looked like, I think.

 

So this Daddy could not only afford to buy a new Caddy with factory air but also take his family out for a night on the town.  Interesting that he's drinking a bottled drink instead of a fountain drink.

 

Wasn't there a Stuart's on Main near Sears?

 

ETA:  Not to sidetrack the thread but note the 'autotronic eye' in the left corner of the Old's dash, a device wihich sensed on coming headlights and dimmed yours automatically and was a real riot when you came upon an intersection with flashing lights.

Edited July 25, 2014 by brucesw

[august948]

Could that be a bottle of Miller High Life dad's drinking?

 

[GEM]

[Specwriter]

Good catch with the clear plastic ducts, bruce. I did not see them until I enlarged the image.

[Subdude]

Could that be a bottle of Miller High Life dad's drinking?

 

 

 

That's hilarious the guy is drinking a beer at the wheel.  Can you imagine nowadays?  

 

 

Looks like a 1953 Cadillac with the plastic AC ducts. 

[Earlydays]

The father was not "cheap"....I'm sure the practice was to turn-off your engine at drive-ins...... 

[brucesw]

I don't know if Caddy got rid of the plastic ducts in 54 but my memory is that GM introduced the wraparound windshield in 54 on Olds, Caddy and Buick (Chevy and Pontiac didn't get it until 55).  That does look like a wraparound windshield but otherwise I agree the body looks more like a 53 model.  The 54 Caddy should have had lines very similar to the 54 Olds.

 

I guess I haven't eaten at a drive-in like that in decades; I forgot some of them served beer.  Come to think of it, I don't think I've had beer in a clear glass bottle in a long time, either.

[mkultra25]

Been remodeled extensively, but it still stands. The old Stuart's sign was still in original, minus some neon, form up until around a decade ago, when it was painted over with the new name. Can't think of the name of it, but I think it's a Mexican sports bar now. 

 

Casa Grande. I keep intending to eat there to satisfy my curiosity if anything identifiable as being from Stuart's is still present. Last time I was there, I was a little kid and it was still Stuart's. We'd pulled off of 45 to take refuge from a massive downpour, as the water was starting to rise on the feeders as well as the low-lying areas of the freeway itself. 

 

[marmer]

There's a little dip in the rear door chrome under the window that was introduced in the '54.  The '53 has a perfectly straight chrome strip under the window.   Excellent catch on the AC duct.

[Ross]

That's hilarious the guy is drinking a beer at the wheel.  Can you imagine nowadays?  

 

 

Looks like a 1953 Cadillac with the plastic AC ducts. 

 

The Texas open container law went into effect in 2001. I remember seeing folks driving with beer in hand from the time I started driving in 1974 until the law was passed. After the law, it took a few years for people to fully comply.

 

[Michelle C]

When I was about twelve years of age I was at that very same drive in one cold rainy night with my older cousin and her husband and another married couple that were friends of theirs. My cousin had a 55 Oldsmobile with electric windows. They decided to let all the windows up and have a smoke out. With all four of them puffing and no way to let out the smoke I was choking and coughing, they finally decided to let the windows down, I hung my entire upper body our of the car to get some fresh air. I think they were trying to give me a hint not to ask to go with them the next time. BTW, my cousin quit smoking about twenty years ago but now suffers from COPD. I guess she should have quit sooner.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Michelle C

[Purpledevil]

Blame it on my 60s birth, but while I was reading, I was thinking "what the hell were your cousin and her friends doing smoking grass in front of a 12 year old?"

Your definition of having "a smoke out" and mine are quite different, lol.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Purpledevil

[Michelle C]

Nope. They were not smoking grass, only the store bought stuff.

[Specwriter]

Blame it on my 60s birth, but while I was reading, I was thinking "what the hell were your cousin and her friends doing smoking grass in front of a 12 year old?"

Your definition of having "a smoke out" and mine are quite different, lol.

 

Makes me think of that scene in the Cheech and Chong movie. 

[SpaceGhost]

So a picture popped up on reddit claiming to be a Drive-In from Houston in 1957. As with most things on the internet, I have no idea if this is true or not. I need some help identifying if this drive in is actually from Houston. Supposedly the pipes blew A/C into your car.

 

Anyone recognize it?

[gmac]

 

[mollusk]

I've seen this picture before; IIRC it was labeled as being taken at a Prince's (which would make Nortons of Houston the family in the Caddy).

 

The clear plastic tubes at the corners of the back window are also a/c ducts - most of the car systems of the '50s had the evaporator in the trunk.

[dbigtex56]

Cadillac, shmaddillac. I prefer the '56 Chevy parked just beyond it.

[dbigtex56]

2 hours ago, blue92 said:

But the 1st to use those tubes was a drive in movie theater.  

Slightly off topic - I lived in the North during the era of the drive-in theater, so never saw the a/c tube system. However, many had electric heaters on cords that could be threaded through the window on cool summer nights. The South is really better for drive-ins, not only because of the climate, but because sunset arrives so much later in the North; usually it would be around 9PM before it was dark enough for the movie to be visible. And heater or no heater, winters were impossible. During the off season, theaters would invariably post this sign:
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON
    REASON?  FREEEZIN'!

Edited May 7, 2018 by dbigtex56

[mkultra25]

3 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Slightly off topic - I lived in the North during the era of the drive-in theater, so never saw the a/c tube system. However, many had electric heaters on cords that could be threaded through the window on cool summer nights. The South is really better for drive-ins, not only because of the climate, but because sunset arrives so much later in the North; usually it would be around 9PM before it was dark enough for the movie to be visible. And heater or no heater, winters were impossible. During the off season, theaters would invariably post this sign:
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON
    REASON?  FREEEZIN'!

 

Not exactly the North (the Paonia was in Colorado), but close enough climate-wise to justify the same signage:

 

[blue92]

So what's the connection with the Dallas stores?

[brucesw]

I don't know anything about Dallas.  There is an Antoine's there that some listings spell as Antone's, maybe a copy cat?  One of the articles above mentions the Antone's Famous group distributing the sandwiches as far away as Nashville so there may have been some in Dallas.

[JohnyWalter]

Good review !

[Earlydays]

On 5/13/2018 at 5:13 PM, brucesw said:

I don't know anything about Dallas.  There is an Antoine's there that some listings spell as Antone's, maybe a copy cat?  One of the articles above mentions the Antone's Famous group distributing the sandwiches as far away as Nashville so there may have been some in Dallas.

Used to go to the Dallas store for years and their sandwiches tasted exactly the same as the ones in Houston. It was spelled Antone's and also run by a Lebanese family.

[Subdude]

I think this was discussed once and posters tracked it down to the Prince's Hamburgers on North Main.

 

[houwest]

It wasn't a Princes but it was on N.Main, just west of the Hollywood Cemetery.  I think it was a Baileys but could have been a Stuarts..

 

[mkultra25]

58 minutes ago, houwest said:

It wasn't a Princes but it was on N.Main, just west of the Hollywood Cemetery.  I think it was a Baileys but could have been a Stuarts..

 

 

That one was definitely a Stuart's. It survived with the original structures largely intact and operated as a Mexican restaurant, Casa Grande, for some years until they finally closed and everything was bulldozed several years ago in preparation for a redevelopment that has yet to occur.

 

http://swamplot.com/the-casa-grande-takedown-has-begun/2015-06-22/

[Specwriter]

3 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

 

That one was definitely a Stuart's. It survived with the original structures largely intact and operated as a Mexican restaurant, Casa Grande, for some years until they finally closed and everything was bulldozed several years ago in preparation for a redevelopment that has yet to occur.

 

I remember as a child seeing the very large Stuart's sign from the North Freeway as we traveled home from downtown. It made me a bit nervous.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Specwriter

[IronTiger]

11 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

 

That one was definitely a Stuart's. It survived with the original structures largely intact and operated as a Mexican restaurant, Casa Grande, for some years until they finally closed and everything was bulldozed several years ago in preparation for a redevelopment that has yet to occur.

 

http://swamplot.com/the-casa-grande-takedown-has-begun/2015-06-22/

Casa Grande seems to have heavily modified the structure, and even the canopies that fronted North Main don't seem original. Google Earth aerials from the 1940s up to the 1970s show a more distinctive chevron-shape, it wasn't until the 1990s until the canopies were rebuilt (along with the original kitchen building being heavily modified and expanded), with them directly off of North Main. Of course, give how garbage quality the old aerials are, I wouldn't take that as full truth.