Zenjive

When I was a kid, late 70s, early 80s, I had heard stories of a planned airport for short-takeoff craft that was planned to be on the south side of 59 at Greenway Plaza, between 59 and Westpark. I think the plan originated in the 60s, but never came to, probably due to obvious safety and noise issues. Had anyone else heard of this? I did a cursory google search and came up empty handed.

Frio is basically an alley, and is driveable, at least in my little car. We drove down it coming from Glendale Cemetery, it goes past the back side of the building, the front faces the island. Thanks for the info, everyone!

In old Harrisburg, there is an abandoned building that looks like an old school or office, probably 1940s. It's at 8200 Cypress, at the bridge to get to Brady's Island. I haven't been able to get much info online. Does anyone know anything about it?

I'm not sure who it would be owned by, other than maybe the city. It's rather difficult to get to, canoe and waders are in order. I used to go to a club on Franklin (Cabaret Voltaire/Scream) that had an outside area that was basically under the Franklin bridge and the crypt is just a few feet away. At the time, I had no idea it was there.

Check out historicaerials.com. It has more dates to fill in what google earth is missing. It irritates me that google earth has nothing from 1953 to 1978 for most of Houston, so this is a good alternative. The only drawback is that it plasters a big watermark on the images. Unfortunately, it looks like it is missing the dates you're looking for, between 81 and 95. I grew up in Sharpstown, not too far from Boone. We used to ride our bmx bikes to a dirtbike track near there, off Wilcrest and Boone Loop. The track was bulldozed in the late 80's, I think, and is still an open field. The area between the school and Bissonnet was open field for a long time. I think there was a marshy pond area that would form during rains.

Was it Don Carlos?

Does anyone know what Diho Square at Ranchester and Bellaire was named before it was Diho Square? Did it even have a name before it was Diho? This would be back when Lewis & Coker and La Rosa, etc were still there. Someone in the Sharpstown facebook group is asking to settle a family discussion and now it's bothering me, haha. Thanks!

Does anyone remember The Rustic Oak? There is currently another restaurant by the same name in midtown, apparently unrelated. The old one was in a large, late 60s / early 70s era house, in the southern quadrant of the SW freeway/Beltway 8 interchange. I think the address was technically on Thurleigh street at Dover. Thurleigh ran parallel to Keegan's bayou a short way, between Dover and Bedford, but now has the Beltway crossing and covering most of it. The restaurant was kind of a fancy and expensive place, reservation only, I believe, and had a nice comfortable atmosphere. I had only been two or three times, but I can still taste the filet minon! I think they closed in the early 2000's... maybe later, not sure. The house is still there and doesn't appear to be abandoned.

The Texas Historical Comission atlas website shows a cemetery at the end of Redhaw: Hillendahl-Eggling. I'm assuming the graves have been moved?

I don't know if this should be a new post or not, but does anyone remember people painting fire hydrants in unique and funny ways in the 70's? I'm not sure if this was just in Sharpstown or all over town. I remember almost all of the hydrants in our part of the neighborhood had been painted in one way or another. One really elaborate one was painted to look like a dalmation in a firefighter uniform. Many were patriotic, I think this may have started in summer of 1976. But by 1980 or so, they'd all been re-painted and standardized by the city.

I vaguely remember going here once to get an atari cartridge we couldn't find anywhere else. I think the spot the store was in is still a game store, Game Stop or something. On the edge of the food court.

There used to be an industrial complex on the north side of I-10 between Bunker Hill and Blalock. In the mid to late 80's it was abandoned and was an interesting place to go as a teen. A post-apocalyptic wonderland! I had been there a few times and the friends that told me about it called it "Hurricane" or "Hurricane Fence Co". I don't know if that is the actual name of the business or if someone just happened to see that on a fence on the property. According to historicaerials.com, it was in business by 1957 and demolished some time between 1995 and 2002. There is now a Costco, Lowe's and Best Buy on the land. Does anyone happen to have any more info on this place? Attached are images of the site from present day and 1989

I used to go to the Ranchester and Bellaire L&C with my mom in the 70's. I think it closed in the early to mid 80's. I went inside a few years ago. It's totally different except towards the back, it still sort of has the old interior deco. I think I saw a couple of the old chilled display racks.

I grew up in Sharpstown in the 70's and 80's. My parents lived in one of the townhomes on Gessner just before moving to one of the homes in the far west end of Sharpstown, CCT3. I remember before Corporate drive and the apartments were built, civilization (in my little kid mind) ended at Eichler. Beyond that was bike trails and then the cow pasture that is now Art Storey park, then Alief beyond. We explored Brays Bayou from Bellaire to 59. There used to be a partially burned wooden bridge over a small creek that emptied into Brays just across from Art Storey park, in the Chambers elementary ball field. That bridge was probably 1910 or earlier and I think it was connected to a road that came down from Alief. Old USGS maps imply it. I found an old map of Ft Bend that shows two parcels of land listed as "Leo Roark" right on the edge of Harris county, right over western Sharpstown and the Westwood area. Look due north of the large William Stafford league: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth493129/ I assume this is where Roark road (which was along 8 from 59 to Harwin) got its name. Leo Roark was the son of one of Austin's original colonists: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro03 I've seen mentioned on this forum that in recent times that ranch was owned by Bob Everett Smith: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsm57 At Roark (now 8) and Bellaire there used to be 4 or 5 metal buildings and a small short street of to the side of the main. When the buildings were gone, people used the old road bed as a runway for RC planes. Back to Gessner.... there was a tire store at Bellaire, on the sw corner. It's still some sort of tire shop. I don't know if it was a Firestone, but it had a Firestone sign, which I think is still there, but painted over. There's a large tractor tire, painted yellow, on the curb. Further down Gessner at the Bissonnet fire station, just north of the Bissonnet interesction is a low spot in the road. This was the natural path of Brays bayou, but sometime in the 50's or 60's, it was re routed to cross Gessner further down at Braeswood. I guess they didn't fill the old channel well enough and subsidence has taken over. One of my favorite things growing up was being able to take our bikes into Westwood mall on Sundays when everything was closed. The main mall area would still be open. We could ride about two crazy fast laps before the security guard got off his butt and chased us off.

Does anyone remember El Yucatan on Hwy 6, about a block or two south of I-10? It was just south of Grisby on the west side of 6. It closed around 2002-2004. They had hundreds of photos of Pancho Villa on the walls. Tucked away on one of these walls was a small print of what looked like somebody in a panda suit "wrestling" with a nun in a sort of nature scene. It was quite magnificent! I really wish I had a camera phone back then, because I have yet to find this image anywhere on the internet.