sabasushi

Awesome...thanks! About Jamail's market...is that now the PetCo store? I've wondered about the history of that building since it clearly isn't new. Several months ago when Petco was remodelling a part of the store, the floor was torn up, and I could see old-fashioned linoleum tiles, the kind with the marbling pattern, underneath. Anyway, I looked up the store on http://www.historicaerials.com, and yep, there it was in the photos from 1957 trhough 1981. Already gone by 2002, replaced by that apartment complex. A rectangular building, apparently two stories tall or so (judging from the depth of the shadow) with a parking lot to the south. I don't think I can post a pic here due to copyright infringement, but you can look it up by going to the site, entering the address "2100 S Shepherd Dr, Houston, TX 77019" and selecting the year 1964. (I recommend 1964, as that has the best photographic quality.) Does anyone, by any chance, have an old photo of the store? Heck, I'd love to see any old photos of South Shephard Drive since I'm practically on that street everyday. :-)

Ah, okay...thanks. Yep, I know where that is, as I live not too far there. Time to call up http://www.historicaerials.com/ :-)

Any idea where this River Oaks building was (if it's still there at all)?

Interesting. Since I work at home, I just keep the AC low around 78. However, opening windows in high humidity isn't a viable option -- for one thing, it's a little hard to type with the keyboard sticking to your hands. :-) But having said that, turning off AC for many skyscrapers and certain types of buildings isn't practical, since windows can't be opened, and some rooms are all glass (greenhouse effect), so...

My husband and I are looking into changing our formal dining room into an office -- basically, that would involve adding a door, just to keep our cats out. But here's a little problem: the doorway between the living room and the dining room isn't a perfect rectangle -- there are projections near the top, along with an arched top. Plus it's a bit wide, so a standard door wouldn't fit. We really don't want to ruin the architectural detail -- besides, you'd have to demo the wall and re-build the wall just to put a door in, which is overkill. (Besides, we'd want to change the office back to formal dining room if we decide to put the house on market.) Any ideas on how to close off the dining room, just to keep the cats out? Privacy and soundproofing aren't issues. Lockable swing doors are one idea...any others? (Note: pet gates aren't an option -- besides being ugly and a pain to operate, they're designed more for dogs than for cats.)

What's that saying again? "Lies, darned lies and statstics" or something like that. :-) This reminds me of a survey of US zoos from several years ago. Oklahoma City's zoo made the top list, which puzzled many people, because since it wasn't all that bad, it wasn't exactly world-class. Then it turned out that the survey ranked the zoos on the NUMBER of RESTROOMS in each park. Yet another good reason to take ranked lists with a grain of salt.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm so bummed that Ike didn't finish the job. (Getting rid of all the siding, that is) :-)

I know this isn't nice of me to say this, but when I looked at that photo of hte old Sears, my thought was, "Darn it, Ike didn't finish stripping the rest of the ugly metal panelling off the Sears building." :-)

Be sure to try their crawfish bread -- it's awesome. It's basically like garlic bread, but with some crawfish ettouffe baked on it. It's a bit messy as it sounds, but yummy!

Since I drive by this shopping center (more like a bunch of strip malls, really) at Shephard and Richmond all the time, I have to ask about it. Does that place ever have a name? Does anyone know anything about the place's history? When I looked it up on HCAD (the address is 3800 Farnham St in case anyone wants to look it up), I saw that various buildings there were built between 1955 and 1965 so it definitely isn't a new place. On a related topic since this is in the same area, I happened to look at the HCAD record for 3801 Farnham St and saw the building there was built in 1935. When I cross-referenced the address, it turns out that 59 Diner is at the same address. That surprised me, as the building didn't look old at all. Does anyone know anything about the building? I knew that the restaurant used to be called Phil's restaurant before it became 59 Diner, but that's all I know about it. Oh, and if anyone has old photos of either area, I'd love to see 'em.

Was this hotdog place a drive-in? The reason I'm asking is that I noticed that there was a window on the west side (facing the Montrose street) of the building that looked as if it was used as a drive-in window at one point.

Yeah, but it's not exactly 95 degrees all year long...only in mid-to-late summer. :-) And don't forget that some of the cities with high walkable scores like New York City have REAL winters, the kind that runs *months* (not just January like here in Texas) and frequently FREEZING. One thing the Walk Score site doesn't take into factor is the affordity -- if they did, cities like NYC and San Francisco will really plummet down the list faster than a piano falling out of a 20th floor window. :-) On an aside: people here mentioned the outdated directiory information like stores now closed. It looks like Walk Score uses Google Maps for their application, and probably uses the same business directory that Google Maps use. If you've ever searched Google Maps for businesses, you almost always have to call these businesses to see if they're still in business. I guess Google Maps uses old data (as opposed to real-time data) to save money.

Actually, the service was usually pretty good, so that wasn't the problem. As for bad management, that's a possbility. However, as I've mentioned before, the menu didn't keep up with the times, and everytime I visited the restaurant, most of the cusotmers there would have qualified for senior citzen discounts. At times, I was practically the youngest cusotmer there, and I'm in my early 40's. It wasn't exactly drawing in younger customers, which you'd need to keep the business going, since your old customers would stop coming due to, well, natural reasons. Maybe retro Tex-Mex isn't all that appealing to people under the age of 50. Who knows?

Blame it on that "Wal-Mart" of department stores -- Macy's. Its parent corporation bought out Lord and Taylor circa 2003 (and MANY other department stores all over the country, including Foley's) and closed many Lord and Taylor stores in order to remove competition for Macy's stores. (A sidenote: it turns out that one company bought Lord and Taylor chain from the parent comapny in 2006, and kept or opened many stores in the northeastern US. It'd be nice if one opens up again somewhere in Houston -- it's really annoying that the only department stores these days, not counting upscale ones like Neiman Marcus, are Macy's, Dillard's, JC Penney and Sears.) I used to think that all the Meryn's were gone -- until I saw one in Phoenix, AZ a month ago. That really surprised me. I also found many chains there that I thought were gone, like Marie Callendar's

Hiya, I showed up (though not with bells on :-) ), bought a copy of the book and had it signed. It turns out to be a really wondeful book with tons of color photos -- lots of eye candy for the Art Deco buff. I'm amazed it costs only $25, which is pretty reasonable for that kind of book. Some places I've already known about, since I live in the Montrose area and pass by them all the time, but I'll have to check out the other places. One of the more interesting chapters in the book is "Hidden History" which discusses disguised Art Deco buildings. For example, I had no idea the strip mall at Westheimer and Montrose (the one with Half-Price Books) was originally an Art Deco building. I thought it was built in 80's or something.

Hiya...did someone mention "One's a Meal" here? I was just reading my bank statement that came out today, and I saw an entry for a "One's a Meal" restaurant (!) from last month. Since I didn't remember eating at a resturant of that name, I checked in my checkbook, and guess what? It's the Biba's restaurant, the 24-hour Greek place on West Gray street. Not sure if that is the same restaurant someone was talking about, but the coincidence is certainly interesting.

It's sad to hear that the restaurant has closed, but that's not too surprising -- the main problem was that the menu hasn't kept up with the times. I will say that it's cool, from a historical viewpoint, to see what early Tex-Mex food tasted like. But the problem is, most of their dishes were relatively bland compared to many current Tex-Mex restaurants. The last time I ate there (a few months ago) their salsa wasn't exactly the best, since it seemed to be made with a lot of onion powder -- had it always been that way? Anyhow, I will miss their chile relleno, as it is different than what you see in many restaurants -- it was stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, nuts and raisins.

Looks awesome -- I'll be there with bells on, and I'll buy a copy of the book, too. I presume the book has the old 1940 airport temrinal in it? -- Angeli, "Armchair Architecture Student"

No idea exactly what it is, but since it looked like it might be related to religion, I poked around and found this place named Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace‎ at 3695 Overture Dr. I don't know if that's the right one, since Google Maps shows it a bit more to the north on Overture Dr., but I"d say that's the most likely match, due to the "palace-y" apperance of the front facade.

Ah, okay.....that makes sense. I didn't realize that the area to the west of the "diagonal" area might be older than the "diagonal" area. I was kinda assuming that Montrose was built, progressing in a westernly direction (not sure if that sentence makes sense, but you know what I mean. :-) )

This brings up a question I've been meaning to ask for a while. If you look at what is now Westheimer on the map above, you'll see that it runs west and all of a sudden, it runs diagonally, to southwest. It goes like that for several blocks and then turns west again And it's not just Westheimer -- streets north of Westheimer, going up to just near Gray Street -- also run diagonally. I've always wonder why that area is like that. I don't see any obvious reasons (like bayous, et cetera) that might dictate that kind of layout. Does anyone know?

Okay, this is a dumb question, but with the trunk lid welded closed, how did they retrieve the cash from the car? Via the back seats, if you could access the trunk from there?

Hiya, being a relative newcomer to Houston, I never visited Meyerland until last year. I noticed that JC Penney's building seems old, compared to most of the buildings in that center. Was it part of the old mall back then? Also, I noticed that the shipping bays at one side of the building are at a weird level -- higher than street level. Are these what you talked about above?

This is probably a little out of way, but if you ever get nostaglic about Griff's Hamburgers, you can visit the one still standing in Arvada Old Town, Colorado. :-)

I never visited the old Memorial City mall (I only moved here in 2006). The reason I don't like the mall has nothing to do with the stores -- more to do with the decor. Let me put it this way...it's one of the beige-est places I've seen. Hardly any color -- beige floors, beige walls, et cetera. It's like visiting an apartment for rent, only many times bigger. :-) And the walls are quite high, making you feel like you are shopping in a canyon. Compared to more recent malls like Park Meadows near Denver, Memorial City's design looks a little minimal (and I'm not talking minimial as in the minimalism sense.)