etheriemma

This home by Wylie Vale, located at 5650 Meadow Lake Ln. in Houston, is scheduled to be demolished very soon.  The home was built in 1953 and was  2,347 Sq Ft, with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.

The photo above came from the CinemaTreasure.org web site.  Go to the link below to read more about the Delman Theater and its history.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3294

Railroad History Program

As part of the Bellaire City Library’s Summer Reading Club activities, a Houston author and railroad history expert will present a special Saturday family program on July 27 from 3-4 p.m. Doug Weiskopf, historian of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Railway Historical Association will discuss local rail development as presented in his book Rails Around Houston.  Whether interested in big engines or small models, this program will appeal to all.

Weiskopf was born in Jacinto City and graduated from Baylor University. His interest in local history served him well in his position of Senior Library Services Specialist in the Texas Room of the Houston Public Library. Today he keeps in touch with all levels of railroad enthusiasm and enthusiasts by working part-time at Papa Ben’s Train Place on Bellaire Blvd. 

The Railroad History program will be given at the Bellaire City Library, 5111 Jessamine. For more info call Terri Mote, Reference Librarian, at (713) 662-8166.

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

The only KMart photos I have are of the S. Gessner KMart in 1979 (because I worked there at the time).  

Sorry...no Super KMart shots!  It's a shame that the KMart chain moved out of Texas.  I always liked shopping there.

http://www.khou.com/news/khou-112099049.html

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.

I have a ton of pictures from before they were demolished but would love to see yours is there anyway you can post them? Thanks!!

The photos were taken with a digital camera so the shots are on backup disks which I have to locate first.  I'll post some of the images after I locate them.

It would be great if you could post some photos of the front of the Gramercy Apartments.  That's what people really remember -- the views of the complex as they drove down Montrose and looked over at the apartments.  It's easy to create photo albums using the imgur.com (free photo hosting) web site.

Thanks for the link to the archive!  

It would be awesome if they would put the local Houston papers after 1945 online.  After WW2 is when many new subdivisions were created.

Hey Matt, didn't have your email, but I found a great article about the property. It was designed by F. Stanley Piper and was originally called the Gramercy Gables Apartments. Here is a link:http://www.houstonpress.com/2000-06-01/news/gramercy-gets-fingered/

Thanks for the link to the article.  Now I know which apartment complex the OP was asking about in the first post.  The original Gramercy Place Apartments (located at 4801 Montrose @ Banks St.) were very charming and I always admired them as I passed by on Montrose.

I managed to take some photos of some of the rear units back when the complex was being demolished, but sadly I never got a photo of the front of the aparments (as you viewed them from Montrose).

I took some photos of the old apartments located at Gramercy St @ Stella Link right before the buildings were torn down.  There were originally 12 apartment units there.   Later on, 12 new townhomes were built on that lot.

I also took some photos of the apartments on Bellefontaine, just on the other side of Stella Link.  Those old apartments have all been torn down now and new townhomes built there.

Thank you Devonhart for posting that clip.  Brought back memories.

In the early 1980s, friends and I (all students from Rice University) used to go see films at this theater.  It had expanded to six screens and was renamed The Shamrock Six, although the theater was already going to seed by that time and so people nicknamed it "The Sham-schlock Six" and later "The Armpit Six" because the facility got so run-down.  

I remember seeing the bad film "Supergirl" there in 1984 in a nearly empty theater (with a couple of groups of kids talking loudly in the back rows).  The theater was in awful shape.  One of my more horrible movie-going experiences.

_{I was reading a HAIF forum thread about Westbury Square and one the first page, a HAIF member named "Stu" posted an aerial shot of the Meyerland area in 1960 that showed the Meyer Speedway under construction.  The photo's description by "Stu" read:}

_{Here is a 1960 photo that MK made reference to in an earlier post of his about the location of an old airfield in Westbury. This came from a website about old air fields in the Houston area. This is of an area of Westbury South, where I bought my first house in 1961. You're looking south in the picture with South Main (Hwy 90A) running east-west across the top. Chimney Rock is the north-south street to the far left. Landsdowne (street my house was on) is the next street to the right running parallel to Chimney Rock. That's Meyer Speedway under construction at the top. W. Airport is in the middle of the photo, starting at the little curve in Chimney Rock. No Hillcroft yet.}

There used to be a Weingarten's located at 1500 Richmond Ave. (see photo above).  The Menil Collection purchased the property and kept the outer shell of the original Weingarten's store (which had a lot of nice decorative motifs along the top of the building), and remodeled the property into the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall.
 
Here's a short history of the building:  http://www.hamiltonshirts.com/blog/2010/06/28/dan-flavin

You can see interior shots of the Flavin artworks (made of colored lights) here:  http://menil.org/visit/flavin.php
 

In 1978, I worked in the photography department of the Kmart located at 59 @ S. Gessner.  I once caught a guy using a stolen credit card but the store manager was hesitant to arrest him so the creep ran out the front doors.  Sadly, I didn't get a reward.  

In the mid-70s, I worked in several departments at the S.A.G.E. department store at W. Belt @ Katy Freeway.  If anyone remembers, S.A.G.E. was the first department store to figure out a way to skirt the Texas Blue Laws and at the time, was the ONLY store fully open on Sundays, selling anything you wanted.  S.A.G.E. was crazy-busy on Sundays!

S.A.G.E. was also noteworthy in that each department was separately-owned by different companies, so customers had to pay for all items from each department in THAT department.  Each department had its own registers with clerks/managers who only worked in that department.  Which was a huge pain in the butt for customers who didn't understand how the S.A.G.E. system worked.  

Anyway, I have photographs that I took of both the Kmart and S.A.G.E. that I worked in during that time period.  Eventually, I plan to scan all the photos and then I'll post them online.

My mother has researched old Texas railroads in the past.  I know she has some maps and has done a lot of research at the Texas Room of the old downtown Houston Public Library but that was back in the 1970s-'90s.

Back during the 1970s, we walked through the forest about a mile from the Macedonia Cemetary (near Magnolia, Texas) and found the iron tracks of an old rail line there in the woods.  We were using a map showing the old train line and were trying to find the tracks and we did!

Or a Walmart!

A Walmart'N'Go?

Maybe 45 townhomes next to a 4 lane road is too much. Maybe they should just put a Whole Foods there instead.

There's already a Whole Foods a block away, on the north side of Bellaire Blvd. near Stella Link, with a CVS Pharmacy across the street.  I guess they could put in yet another bank.  Banks are popular in Houston.

I posted this topic in the "Going Up" forum but thought it also belonged here.

Public hearing to be held at the Southside Place City Hall Council Chambers, 6309 Edloe Ave., Southside Place, Texas, on Tuesday, January 29 at 7pm. Southside Place wants to allow 45 new townhomes (3-1/2 stories tall) to be built at 3747 Bellaire Blvd. (the corner of Bellaire Blvd. at Auden/Braes, the former location of Shell Oil Research).  They are seeking to rezone the property from LIM (Low Intensity Mixed Use) to PD (Planned Development) and also would like to break the building height restrictions. Houses and townhomes in that area have been limited to 2-1/2 stories in the past, but the developer (5177 Builders, Ltd., dba Lovett Homes) wants to make these new townhomes 3-1/2 stories high.

People in the area, including the residents of the 3800 block of Gramercy which is located behind the Shell Oil property, have raised a number of concerns. While people welcome the land being redeveloped and new homes being built, they question the number and height of the proposed units. Residents are worried about increased traffic; overcrowding at the two neighborhood schools Mark Twain Elementary and Pershing Middle School; overtaxing of the existing infrastructure (electric, water, sanitary sewer, gas); safety issues (for the Southside Volunteer Fire Dept. and Southside police); not to mention the aesthetic appearance of 3-1/2 story tall buildings crowded next to the busy street of Bellaire Blvd.

There are 12 townhomes and 16 homes on the north side of the 3700 and 3800 blocks of Gramercy St. that are located in the city of Southside Place. Additionally, any children who would live at the new townhomes would be attending Mark Twain Elementary and Pershing Middle School which are located in the Braes Heights subdivision, city of Houston, which everyone south of Bellaire Blvd. uses.  Supposedly, Twain Elementary is already overcrowded.

There are also concerns as to what might happen later on to the middle parcel of land (where the main Shell Oil building and water tower are now located) and the land parcel next to the Old Farm Ditch (which is currently a parking lot and some service buildings).  What happens now with the corner property might very well determine what happens later for the rest of the Shell Oil property.

People who are interested in the future of this property and the neighborhoods of Southside and Braes Heights should attend the meeting.

Why would Southside Place city planning commisioners be concerned about Braes Heights (Gramercy St.) residents concerns? Houston residents don't vote in South Place. Southside Place can do what ever Southside Place residents (voters) allow them to.

There are 12 townhomes and 16 homes on the north side of the 3700 and 3800 blocks of Gramercy St. that are located in the city of Southside Place.  

Additionally, any children who would live at the new townhomes would be attending Mark Twain Elementary and Pershing Middle School which are located in the Braes Heights subdivision, city of Houston, which everyone south of Bellaire Blvd. uses.  Supposedly, Twain Elementary is already overcrowded.

Traffic and safety issues also affect people in the neighborhood, as well as the extra burden to the utilities infrastructure of the entire area.

And so, the proposed townhome development does affect people who live on Gramercy St. as well as the rest of the neighborhood to the south of Southside.  

Public hearing to be held at the Southside Place City Hall Council Chambers, 6309 Edloe Ave., Southside Place, Texas, on Tuesday, January 29 at 7pm.  Southside Place wants allow 45 townhomes (3-1/2 stories tall) to be built at 3747 Bellaire Blvd. (the corner of Bellaire Blvd. at Auden/Braes -- the former location of Shell Oil Research).  They are seeking to rezone the property from LIM (Low Intensity Mixed Use) to PD (Planned Development) and also would like to break the building height restrictions. Houses and townhomes in that area have been limited to 2-1/2 stories in the past, but the developer (5177 Builders, Ltd., dba Lovett Homes) wants to make these new townhomes 3-1/2 stories high.

People in the area, including the residents of the 3800 block of Gramercy which is located behind the Shell Oil property, have raised a number of concerns.  While people welcome the land being developed and new homes being built, they question the number and height of the proposed units. Residents are worried about increased traffic; overcrowding at the two neighborhood schools Mark Twain Elementary and Pershing Middle School; overtaxing of the existing infrastructure (electric, water, sanitary sewer, gas); safety issues (for the Southside Volunteer Fire Dept. and Southside police); not to mention the aesthetic appearance of 3-1/2 story tall buildings crowded next to the busy street of Bellaire Blvd.

There also concerns that as to what might happen later on to the middle parcel of land (where the main Shell Oil building and water tower are now located) and the land parcel next to the Old Farm Ditch (which is currently a parking lot and some service buildings).  What happens now with the corner property might very well determine what happens later for the rest of the Shell Oil property.

People who are interested in the future of this property and the neighborhoods of Southside and Braes Heights should attend the meeting.