SpaceGhost

The 1407 S Voss Randall's has closed.

Really? Randall's website shows it as a current location.

Hmm I don't but I have an interesting piece of trivia! There is a Randall's on Weslayan @ Bissonnet. Under this Randall's is a basement. Quite a rare sight in Houston. It's been there at least as long as the store has. Which originally opened I believe in the 60's as a Weingartens. The basement was originally where all the offices, employee restrooms, break rooms etc where. Now it's mostly gutted although the bakery and deli are quite small and use the main rooms as storage. The only problem with this is flooding when there are heavy rains.

Thanks...I moved to Houston in 1984 but lived inside the loop until 1988...never really visited the far west side till then.

Haha no problem! To be honest I wasn't even born in 1984. Although this was around the time my parents where looking for property on the west side of town. Most of the info I found was through news paper posts.

I live on the west side and noticed an abandoned railroad grade going north crossing Synott and West Park.  I used the history feature on Google Earth to find a there once was a factory (?) near the corner of Westheimer and Synott that had a siding that ran from Southern Pacific line north to the facility.  I am wondering what that was and why did it need a siding?

The spur went to the Uncle Ben's Factory. The factory was torn down in the 80's Mars the owner of Uncle Ben's retained ownership of the property until 2005 and didn't even place it on the market until 2000 long after new construction on the property had begun.

It should be noted that in my map most sidings, spurs etc. have not yet been added.

Thanks for the link to the news story.  I had wondered what had become of the Homestead Rd. @ Parker Rd. KMart since it was one of the last KMarts to finally close in Houston.

 

I once went to that Homestead Rd. KMart store twenty years ago to buy some curtains.  At that time, the store was a bit run-down but still in pretty good shape.  What was most interesting was that the store still had the original 1970s color theme and decor -- the colors used for fixtures and signs were brown and tangerine-orange -- exactly like the old S. Gessner KMart I had worked at in 1978.  Sadly I never had the time to go back to the Homestead KMart and photograph the interior.

Would you happen to have any interior photos of Houston Kmarts? Specifically Super Kmarts.

I found some apartments that look like they've been torn down. They're near the intersection of Wirt & Kempwood. There's a section of the apartments that's still in use. Based on Google Earth imagery I've found that the apartments where all in use at 1989. The apartments appear to be abandoned by 1995 though. They where torn down between 95 and 06 slowly piece by piece. The apartments foundations, sidewalks, and streets are still there. Does anyone know what these where and why they where abandoned?

Yeah you're kinda barking up the wrong tree here. These forums are for Houston, Tx related discussions. Your best bet is to find a boot or Sakowitz related forum. If this fails maybe contact Sakowitz?

I was able to find these:
Space City News Front Page

A band called Josefus that has a few pics from performances at Milby Park

"I also have fond memories of spending many Sundays at Milby Park where local groups would line up to play. It was like a mini Woodstock every performance. If you remember any more that I'm forgetting, please let me know."

That's all I could find with some light Googling. I'm sure there's more online to be found though.

Thanks editor!

I suggest looking in the archives in the Texas Room of the Houston Public Library.

Thanks! I will check that out. By the way has anyone gotten a chance to download the maps?

"some kinda office building demolished except for a small chunk hanging off near the Antoine end"

I believe this was a strip mall? I think this is where Memorial Grocery was located.

Hate to self bump but does anyone have or know where I could find older railroad maps of Houston. I'm looking specifically for a map of the Texas and Western Narrow Gauge which ran through present day George Bush Park.

Hello all!

I've been working on creating a map of the Abandoned Railroads of Texas. I'm attaching the files so y'all can check it out. You do it by opening the file in Google Earth. If you already have GE installed you should be able to open it by double clicking. Anyways I used Google Earth's historic imaging, Historic Aerials, and a few old maps. I should state that in its current stage the map is far from finished although I'm quickly running out of known railroads to map. If you know of a railroad I've missed please let me know! Also I would love to get some feedback on the maps. They're currently separated by County and if a line passed through multiple counties then the line exists in multiple county folders. As well the Colors currently mean nothing other than separating the lines for ease of editing. Some railroads are drawn in black, those are currently still in use, and are there for reference. Please let me know what you think!

Message to the mods:

I keep getting the error

Error You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file

Could a mod kindly attach the file as I'd rather not upload it to a 3rd party site? It is a .kmz

Edit: I have uploaded the file to my server. You can download it here.

Here this might be of some help. Two maps of Camp Logan

I found this commercial on youtube.

Yeah that's the commercial I mentioned in my original post. Thanks for looking though!

Those are all of the 610 location, I believe.

Yup, and all but 2 I believe are from after Auchan moved out, and FEMA moved in. So everything was gone.

Don't know, but I'm glad they did. It makes a nice bike path.

Well maybe so but it has been there since the 1940's at least. It would be great to have it as a route to I-10.

Does anyone know why/when O'brien Road was closed? I've checked Google Earth and it has been connected to FM 1464 since at least he 1940's. Although this was during/after the reservoir was built so I can't tell whether or not that had anything to do with it being closed. The first image that I can use to prove that it was closed was from 2002. Although that's only going by the gates that the county installed. If anyone has any info they could share that would be great.

Hate to bump this but it's nearly been a week. I just wanted to give this one last shot before giving up.

I have been since closing and unfortunately I can't say that it does anymore. The store is similar in the sense that the gorcery is still on the right side of the building. Although it has been chopped in half. The left side is an abandoned (the last time I checked) furniture store. The from section where the smaller stores/food court where still are in tact although I believe most, if not all of the orignal tenats have moved out. Replaced by low class shops eg: Jewlery cellphone repair and assecories in the Mc. Donalds. Casino bus depots (ugh) in the Taco Bell, and most of the rest is abandoned. The store itself Food Town is no where the size of Auchan's grocery section, all the checking stands have been replaced the seafood and meat departments have been moved to the front of the store. They where all the way at the back IIRC. They also now have Disney charactereds airbrushed all over the walls. The original "high-class" style of decor/signage is gone. The faux roof over the produce section is gone. The chese section is no longer there. It's just a former shell of it self. Also I should state the reason I wish to find pictures is to go and try to recreate a map of the store, then take comparitive pictures of the current stores.

Does anyone happen to have any pictures of Auchan when it was still in operation. I would much prefer pictures of the West Belt location as this is the one I frequented. Although either location is fine. I've done some Googling and really only been able to find a very low-res commercial with a few swooping shots. Any pics you have even if it was after Auchan had closed would be apprciated. Thanks!