IronTiger Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 So, browsing around Google Earth the other day (I think I was trying to locate the location of the "mystery photo" to no avail) I found another mystery I wanted to ask. It's these apartments, near MacGregor and 288. I want to say that they were projects of some sort, though they had an awfully short life--by 1978 the ones that weren't demolished for 288 (the 1950s aerial has modern-day roads overlayed on it to help you figure out where this is) were being torn down (you can see the partial demolition on Google Earth), and by the 1980s, they were completely gone. The large footprint and the short life suggests they were projects of some sort, but it still intrigued me nonetheless--can someone help me out? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 (edited) They were gone by the time I was born, but I know for sure that they weren't projects. My parents remember the apartments and the last ones were gone by the early 80s. The site is now occupied by the Harris County Psychiatric Center, DeBakey HS, The Rise School, and a YMCA. The streets, which were laid out in the late 40s or early 50s, are named after W. Leland Anderson and H. Mark Crosswell Jr., and show up named as such on an old City of Houston street map that I have from 1971. Anderson was one of the first Directors of the TMC, and was President of the TMC from 1953 to 1976. A biography of his grandaughter, Dr. Mary Es Beaver, mentions that Anderson acquired land that created the TMC. The TMC acquired 25 acres of land at S. MacGregor and 288 shortly after Anderson's retirement and named it the W. Leland Anderson campus. H. Mark Crosswell, for whom the other street is named for, was a developer, a former Port of Houston Commissioner, and also a member of the Board of Directors of the TMC. It's interesting that these streets bore the names of men associated with the TMC nearly 25 years before the TMC acquired the property. I suspect that the site that Anderson acquired for TMC expansion may have been this site, and Crosswell's developer status may have helped develop apartments on the land which had streets named after the men. The apartments might have been built as a land bank for eventual TMC use. Edited October 19, 2014 by JLWM8609 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucesw Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 I agree. They were considered very desirable residences; my brother and his wife lived there just after marrying in the early 60s. As I recall, on the exterior they resembled the apartments that were torn down for the Montrose HEB. I'm sure we've discussed them before on HAIF but I can't for the life of me remember the name to search for. They'd probably be in one of the threads on Riverside Terrace which was where wealthy Jewish families (Weingarten, Battlesteins, Sakowitz) lived since they couldn't buy in River Oaks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 I tried looking for mention of the apartments in a few of the Riverside Terrace threads without any avail. I found mention of some RT homes being chopped up into apartments and some homes north of the bayou torn down for low income apartments, but none of those. The apartments themselves didn't replace anything. As an aside, there were also apartments across from the Nabisco plant on what is now part of GSC that didn't last too long either (gone by the late 1970s). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highrise Tower Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 This was the Town & Country Apartments located at 2504 S. MacGregor Way. From the newspaper The Jewish Herald-Voice February 9, 1950: Getting Married? If So . . . Come Out To Town & Country Apartments and select your apartment before they re all occupied 2504 S. MacGregor Phone JU-2401. Nearly 20 years later on January 5, 1967 the multifamily complex changed hands? and was called Field Town Apartments. From the newspaper Rice Thresher: Field Town Apartments, 2504 South MacGregor, 10%. There was an on-site daycare center called Little Britches Day Nursery School that had a Shenandoah address. I'm not sure if the huge complex had two addresses, or if the day nursey had a separate building with a different address. The advertisement clearly says "In the Town and Country Apartments." The nursery was owned by Mrs. Saraethel Balke and she had a previous located at 1601-3 Wheeler Street. August 28, 1958 from the newspaper The Jewish Herald-Voice: Little Britches Day Nursery School In the Town and Country Apartments 3111 Shenandoah - Call JA-a-8923 or OR 4-0130 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earlydays Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 Town & Country Apartments were really nice, we lived there in 1958. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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