brucesw

I was thinking a list of places to pay COH water bills since it's a Public Works document? But then why list Galveston and Lake Jackson locations?

I went to Zinnante's just once; Robb Walsh wrote it up in the Press, praising the meatball sub as I recall. I had never been aware of it and went to try it out. It was closed in less than a year. The power of the Press? That is now My Pita which seems to have frequent ownership changes.

That's sure not very far away. But looking at it on street view it looks like it's not much bigger than a convenience store so I guess it doesn't qualify as a 'supermarket' for the purposes of defining a food desert. Maybe they can adjust their merchandise line to compete. Pyburn's on S. Fondren is too far from me to be a regular stop but I go from time to time for items only they carry. Biggest negative for me is the produce selection is limited and not very good looking.

An article on Jim Vuong, owner, with his family, of the Pyburn's and Jim's Supermarket on Yellowstone and total of eleven stores mentioned in the other thread. The only other store named is Bi-Rite on the east side, the first venture. All the stores operate with their original names.

I think a some of the Indian grocery stores are chains but many are independently owned. Likewise Pakistani grocery stores. Belden's in Meyerland. Phoenicia - 2 locations. I wonder about Hong Kong Market in Hong Kong City Mall. Pyburn's - the original in Almeda has been around for probably 50 years but four years ago they opened a second location in Fondren Southwest and they're set to open another in a food desert. I don't know what all the stores are this Vuong owns but one is Jim's Supermarket on Yellowstone. Pyburn's is known for their meat department. Sometimes I think there are more butchers milling around behind the counter waiting on someone to serve than there are customers in the whole store.

Great sleuthing, gnu. Now somebody post another one.

Well there are worse ways to waste time. I accessed the collection again through a different link and this time saw a number of photographs I'm sure I never saw before, specifically, color pictures of the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas and many shots of aircraft and ground operations at Hobby, both commercial and private, at the end. Parenthetically I also spotted a couple of aerial shots of the old San Jacinto Inn which I had either missed or not snapped to before. Most importantly in this browse thru, I realized the OP photo came at the end of a series of shots identified as being along Market Street and 'our' main road looks a lot like the other shots of Market Street in those photos. So I took to Historic Aerials and thought I found something very promising where Normandy intersects Market, on the south side of the street. Unfortunately the watermark obscures the area and the Google Earth image is badly overexposed and undecipherable and besides that, Sheffield cuts through on a diagonal and would be visible behind Mary's and I realized from subsequent year images that the secondary road is actually a railroad. So right now I'm stumped but I think more looks along Market Street are warranted. Also, I only went as far east as where Market intersected Texas 73, which was the route I-10 East took over ca. 1961, and I think Market extends beyond that on the other side. Also, I think we need to consider that the labels and groupings were probably selected by the archivist and not Browning and the designation 'rural' may be misleading. That gas station appears to have 4 pumps; most very small town/wide spot in the road/rural gas stations in that era as best I remember would have only 2 pumps.

I mentioned above that I scrolled through the collection at HPL; as far as I saw, this shot of this site stood alone. A few pictures have dates on them but many do not. I have no idea what airport he was using. One thing I forgot to mention before, besides the shots of downtown, Rice and West U and all the industrial aerial shots, there were several pictures of the San Jacinto Monument and the surrounding area and some long shots showed the monument in the background. Overwhelmingly, when this guy was taking shots of industrial installations, he was in the ship channel area. It might be possible to examine some of those long shots and spot this site, if anybody else wants to take a shot at it. I think this was photo # 94 out of 117? but I'm not sure they're in any sort of chronological order.

Yes, I posted a link to a color photo of one of those Humble signs with red background above. I had also mentioned that Humble stations sold Atlas tires and your photo shows that, which makes me wonder even more why there appears to be a Goodyear sign, as someone else suggested. I'm satisfied it's a Humble station but unfortunately that doesn't help at all to locate it.

That makes sense. I don't remember that at all and it has bugged me for a long time. Rice built a much bigger store on Hillcroft, just south of S. Braeswood (address on Hillcroft although it's back behind a strip center) that was a Rice Epicurean and is now a nice Walmart Neighborhood Market. For aggieengineer, it's still a very nice neighborhood. Meyerland, after all. Houses immaculately maintained on the outside, anyway. Interesting boutique businesses - The Russian General Store in the center where the L&C was, probably the biggest selection of salamis in Houston and lots of import goodies, My Pita, a Kosher bakery that makes fantastic pitas, and the New York Coffee and Bagel Shop with probably the best bagels in town.

^ Interesting. That was before I moved to this part of town. Must've been the space on the corner. That was a Blockbuster for a long time, then vacant for a few years and just recently became Flooring for Life. I think I've been around long enough that there was something there before the Blockbuster and after Lewis and Coker but I can't think of what it was right now other than I'm sure it wasn't a grocery. Not to hijack the thread but do you recall what was in the strip center on the SW corner of S. Braeswood and Chimney Rock where there is a small, dumpy HEB now? Must've been a grocery, 5 & 10 or hardware in that space.

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.

How ironic. My dad owned a '49 Rocket 88. He loved that car so much and bragged on it so much, our neighbor, who'd always driven Fords, bought a '51 98, and loved it, kept it until he died and took immaculate care of it. But it never occurred to me that was an Olds, possibly because I don't think I ever saw an Olds with the visor - lots of Chrysler products and lots of Chevys, but never an Olds that I can remember. Now that you point it out, I see it; the side windows are also telling to me. Thanks, for that and the Studebaker. I don't have Google Earth Desktop but I looked at Historic Aerials. I see nothing there at all in 53 or 57, just empty fields. I've also come to wonder if Bissonnet would have been anything more than a narrow, two-lane blacktop like Boone Loop is now that far out in the early 50s. 90-A would have been the main highway to towns in Fort Bend. And now I have to take something back. Linky If I ever saw one of those before, I've completely forgotten it. I also spent some time looking at gas station signage in that era and the only brands I can find that used an oval shape were Humble/Esso/Enco and Amoco/Standard and the latter would have had a torch through the middle protruding up above. So, I guess that's a Humble station after all.

When I posted that comment I had been staring at a closeup of the culvert across the road for a long time, trying to see what I could make of it. If I had pulled back and looked at the whole archive picture, I would have seen the comment was irrelevant to this particular locale, whether or not it's true of any of the roads being considered.

Interesting speculation, to say the least. I've driven Boone Loop Road a few times, the L-shaped portion, to avoid a traffic tie-up at Wilcrest and Bissonnet which also was heavily infested with panhandlers for a long time. I braved Friday afternoon drive-time traffic (and the sun directly in my face) to take a fresh look and drive the other portion of the Loop. Nothing identifiable remains along Bissonnet, it's all very much more recent construction, strips centers and, of course, a CVS. Boone Loop Road is a narrow, two lane road. On the map it looks as though the distance between the two parallel roads is too great but in person, it's probably just about right. If there is a problem, it's with the east-west length of the Loop Road; It seems to me, after driving it just once, that we should be seeing some of the L-leg of the loop in the archive picture. I will try to make it back over the weekend with a camera. There is one house on the secondary road, back behind a tall fence, that I want to get a better look at. I don't think it's one of the houses in the archive picture but it's worth a closer look. If not, then it would probably be accurate to say that absolutely none of the structures in the archive picture has survived 60 or so years, and that makes me wonder. Present day Wilcrest would probably run right between the gas station and the long white building or maybe right where the gas station sat. I spent some time this afternoon browsing the R.L. Browning collection online, 117 pictures and I believe I looked at them all, hoping for some companion shots that might show us another angle or wide view, to no avail. I wasn't making a list but some general observations: He took multiple shots of all his subjects. This picture may be the only one in the collection that stands by itself. All the photos I looked at were aerial shots. He took many photos of downtown Houston, Rice and Rice Field, as he called it, and a few of West University. He took many shots of industrial installations, perhaps more than all others combined, and I think it's fair to say they were all identified as being in the ship channel area; certainly the majority of them were. If this picture is in far SW rural Houston, it's unique.

Hah! Studebakers weren't very common around Lake Jackson. The rear sure looked Studebakerish to me but I couldn't place the grill. Re: the railroad - none of the roads being mentioned were as wide back then as now -- the rr's wouldn't have been so close. If that's Westheimer/1093, nothing remains of any of those structures I'd say. The span of the rear window on the white car is very unusual for a 1940s auto but I have found several that come close - the 49 Merc, Olds, Buick and Pontiac. Windshield visors weren't unheard of on any of them. Another possible location - FM 529/Spencer Rd on the NW side, still has some light industrial along it like that.

I'm saying the white car by the long building was a Chrysler product partly because of the windshield visor, which was very common on Chrysler cars in the 40s and early 50s. Dodge and Plymouth adopted that boxier style body in 1949 but the rear window spanning the width of the car suggests a later date. Chryslers and Desotos would have had longer hoods and trunks. I'm by no means 100% convinced, though. And the lighter car on the highway is really puzzling. Studebaker? The rear fender should help identify it but I can't place it. I agree with NenaE on the service station. I don't know when Humble dropped that name and took on Esso around here but that and Enco all had the same color scheme on the signs. FWIW, as best I can remember, the pumps at Humble/Esso/Enco stations were always red; there's a silver (?) pump at that station. Also I think Humble, et. al., had their own brand of tires, Atlas???, so there wouldn't have been a Goodyear sign. Amoco was also branded as Standard in that era but both signs should have had a torch on the top so that may rule that out. Depending on the time of year, the shadows do not necessarily indicate a due east/west orientation. Current 90 E goes up McCarty; was that the pre-I-10 route? Could be portions of 225 or 90-A on the southwest side. If the latter, the railroad must be just out of view at the bottom of the picture. How about Market St., or Clinton Drive?

The bottom word on the sign could be courts but the top word appears to have too many letters; perhaps Modern Courts? I think a couple of the cars date from the early 50s, particularly the white car parked beside the long building which I'd guess is an early 50s Chrysler product such as a Dodge or Plymouth and the lighter colored car on the highway. The service station sign casts an oval shadow, suggesting Humble, but the sign itself appears to be too dark. The background should be white on a Humble sign, with blue border, red letters. Maybe Amoco? Were there any Amoco stations around back then? It's only the service station driveway that ends at Mary's, not the highway. That's a pretty wide roadway, unlike the other road in the top of the picture, suggesting this is a major thoroughfare, not just a country lane. I'm having no luck deciphering the sign in front of the long building, nor the sign on the other side of the highway. What are those mounds out behind the cafe and service station? Piles of dirt or hay?

I believe that was Meyer Brothers. Women’s and children’s clothing, no men’s? Then it was an antique store before being taken over by Half Price. The Jones Apothecary was right at Rice and Morningside as I recall, NW corner. They also had a location on Montrose, between Richmond and 59. Prescriptions and OTC drugs only, I think, no sundries, cosmetics, soda fountain, etc. The original location of House of Coffee Beans, 1973, was on Rice, between Rice Food and Kirby. Two store fronts, one housed the shop, the other their huge roaster in a picture window. That was the first Houston boutique coffee roastery, I think. The roasting facilities were moved to 610 S decades ago, the store about 15 years ago to a downsized space on Bissonnet. I think they cited rising rents as the reason for the latter move. I’ve been buying beans and coffee paraphernalia there since the mid 70s and still like some of their blends. A price list from the 70 shows the address as 2520 Rice. There was a meat locker on Kelvin, south of Rice, east side of the street, about where Evoke is now. A co-worker and I bought a side of beef there ca. 71, had it cut and wrapped to our specifications and rented a locker. I ate a lot of beef that year, got sick and tired of it. After we ate it all up, neither one of us wanted to do it again. KAUM had a screening at the Village Theatre, ca. 1971 I can’t remember the film for sure but it either had something to do with being shot in Houston or aimed at our audience. IIRC, the Houston premier of The Exorcist was at the Village, December, 1973. There was a hippie clothing store, SE corner of Kelvin and Times - bell bottom pants, tie-dye, high heel shoes for men, that sort of stuff. I want to say it was an original location of the Gap when it was just starting out before they yuppified but I’m not sure; maybe it just that they were put out of business by the Gap. There was a bead shop in that block of Times, too. ETA: It comes to me out of the haze that the name of the clothing store was Warp and Woof. The first Gap was in the Galleria and was a quite different store. It will always be just The Village to me, not Rice Village. That’s the way it was advertised, on radio and in print.

I lived a block and a half from there in the early 70s when I first came to town. I remember the toilets and lavatories on display in the picture windows, for those who wanted to go window shopping for toilets and lavatories. I Love the open windows above the canopy for ventilation. A & P -wow. Grocery stores were so much smaller back then. That's not all that big a building. Did Mading's have three entrances so close together or was Rettig's a separate business? I wonder if the presence of the architect's sign and the debris off to the right indicates it was a very new building when this picture was taken?

^ I'll have to defer to others who were there more often. It's been 40 years and I was only there 2-3 times at the most. The more I thought about it the more I thought it was a bigger space than Jenni's. I wasn't aware the place had lasted into the 80s and 90s.

In a strip center on the SE corner of Shepherd and Alabama - looks like the center may still be there. As I remember, it was where Jenni's is. Right next door, out of the picture to the right, was one of the early locations of Frenchy's. I remember The Record Rack well though I only went a couple of times. I got all the free records I could handle through my job. Met the owner, chatted with him about new releases and what was selling but didn't remember his name.

I did a lot of research there ca. 5 years ago or so accessing issues from the late 1950s - early 1960s on microfilm. If they no longer have them it would be interesting to know why.

Pasadena Public Library has a pretty complete run of the Citizen on micro. Sterling Library in Baytown has a very complete run of the Goose Creek/Baytown Sun. Newspapers.com has a good collection of small town newspapers from around Texas online but not Pasadena - depends on what you're looking for whether it would have been mentioned in other papers in the area.

I've been contacted by a researcher seeking some background info on a KCOH deejay from the late 50s - early 60s era using the name Dr. Jazzmo. His real name was James Marshall from what I understand and he also later worked on XERF, the 250,000 watt border blaster out of Del Rio, where his show was on the air just ahead of Wolfman Jack. Any info on his origins, subsequent history and whereabouts now will be appreciated. This is for a history of XERF.