J. Jamail & Bro. Grocery Store At 2802 Main St.

[Highrise Tower]

June 16, 1927.

Was this the same family that ran Jim Jamail And Sons Food Market At 3114 Kirby? Maybe their decedents because wasn't there a 50 year gap between the stores? This was the original Jamails then!

Spring Vegetables Every Day in the Year
J. Jamail & Bro.
with the A.B.C. Store
2802 Main Street
No Matter Where It Grows We Have It
Phone Hadley 1597.

After doing some more research, they had 4 stores in total:

1905 - Houston City Market

1927 - 2802 Main

1946 - Shepherd

1967 - Kirby

Nageeb “Jim” Jamail, the founding father of the store, began selling produce to the carriage trade from the stalls of Houston’s old City Market in 1905, a time when Houston City Hall was on the second floor of the market. He made his reputation selling the freshest, choicest produce at fair, if not inexpensive, prices. Before World War I, he had expanded his business to include leasing produce stands in the new chain stores. Then, in 1946, when his three sons Joe, Albert, and Harry came home from the war they opened a store on Montrose, which offered a little friendly competition to some of their relatives, the Jamail Brothers Food Market on Shepherd. By 1959, their own growth and that of Houston (Southwest Freeway was plotted to run right through their doors) forced them to move. They then built the Kirby Drive building, which they enlarged in 1967, and are in the process of enlarging again.

Bellaire resident Joe Jamail, 93, has vivid memories of the Jamail family grocery business: