Multifamily At 214 W. 17th St.

[Rusty_S]

Anyone on here know when the 214 West 17th street apartments were built?  I have a old photo I am trying to date and the apartments are in the background with a scaffolding on the exterior and the window it is placed near appears new as it appears to have a sticker in the middle of the glass.

 

Based off the license plate I can barely make out on the vehicle in the photograph it is white with black text which puts the year of the photo either as 1957, 1959, 1961, or 1963.  The photo is grainy and hard to tell as the vehicle isn't the focus point but to me it looks like there might be black lettering at the bottom of the plate which would apply to 1963 only as the other plates had the year in top right and 1963 is only year with the year bottom middle.

 

In any case I think my best bet is to find what year this apartment was built and I did some digging online and couldn't find anything other than renting.

[Ross]

HCAD says 1960 for build date. That's not always reliable, but it's something.

[Rusty_S]

15 hours ago, Ross said:

HCAD says 1960 for build date. That's not always reliable, but it's something.

 

Well that would make sense.  I did more digging and found out family didn't move into the house where the photo was taken till summer of 1961.  So my reasoning is the photo would have to have been taken in late 1961 as 1963 license plates which were white with black text had the year at the bottom center and the photo doesn't show any indication of that.  I have another photo taken in 1963 as the plate can be seen to state 1963 and it shows the apartments were painted a dark color not a light color like in my other photo.

 

I couldn't figure out why the scaffolding but then I realize late 1961 is when Hurricane Carla hit so the scaffolding could be for repairs after the hurricane or for boarding up the windows before the hurricane hit.  I want to say before the hurricane hit because I don't see them changing the color of the apartments just 3 years after completion.  Unless it was a repaint due to damage from the hurricane.

[Ross]

My granddad and his parents lived down the street a bit from 1911 until 1920, so I've had more interest in that stretch of street than most others.

[Rusty_S]

1 hour ago, Ross said:

My granddad and his parents lived down the street a bit from 1911 until 1920, so I've had more interest in that stretch of street than most others.

 

Nice, my grandparents lived behind the apartments from summer 1961 till my grandmother passed away a few years ago.  House is nothing like it was though.  but I found some old photos of my grandfathers car which I have and I was trying to date the photos as best as I could.  best I could is year wise but the more I look at the plate the more I think there might be something at the bottom center but its hard to tell.  so now I am questioning if the photo was taken in '61 or '63.

 

For me what helps is license plates alternated colors for the different years so that helps narrow the year down but cant narrow it down any more.