Main Street 1990s

[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

[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'.