mkultra25

I think Ducho's has been closed for over 10 years now. It was about 10 years ago that I went out to the meat market (B&W?) out that way, and I noticed they were no longer there.

Ducho's has only been closed since February 2003 - the last year or so they were open, the expense of running the restaurant was apparently getting out of hand compared to the business they were doing, so Mr. Ducho decided to retire. The building was sold to some folks that converted it into a church.

Ducho's used to front right onto N. Shepherd, at Heidrich St., but at some point in the past they relocated to the building behind the one that currently faces Shepherd. This is why their large neon sign was right at Shepherd and Heidrich - it used to be in the parking lot of the original location. You may have been remembering the original location when you thought they were gone, but I thought the move happened longer than 10 years ago.

I really miss Ducho's - I used to go there with my parents when I was a kid, and many years later I rediscovered it after a very long absence. For the next couple of years until it closed, my wife and I ate there semi-regularly, and even reintroduced my parents to it as well. Can't begrudge Mr. Ducho's decision to close, though; he had a great run for 38 years, and I have to admit that in the restaurant's twilight days I rarely saw anything like the crowds I remember packed in there in the late 60s/early 70s - more often it would be just us and maybe a couple of other tables of diners.

Interesting trivia: "Ducho" is pronounced "DOO-ho", with a silent "c". Wonder how many people have pronounced it "DOO-cho" or "DUTCH-oh" over the years?

couldn't they just up the ticket prices and/or revamp the schedule and movies. provide better parking... I LIKE the idea that it is a theater, I think this many of us are in an uproar more about loosing the theater versus the building itself. just putting another restaurant or retail space in there will still result in us loosing a theater and a destination.

Theaters make almost all of their money from concessions. Typically, the percentage of the box office that they get to keep vs. what's handed over to the studio is calculated on a sliding scale that's heavily weighted toward the studio in the first week of release. For example, in that first week the studio may get 90% of the box office take, and the theater 10%, then in the second week the ratio is adjusted to 80/20, and so on. In the modern era where everything is focused on a big opening weekend rather than a slow, word-of-mouth buildup over several months, this system is artificially skewed toward the studios at the expense of the theaters. It's one of the key reasons the exhibition industry is in trouble (almost every major chain has entered bankruptcy over the past ten years).

This is how it works for big Hollywood films and the large theater chains, at any rate - there may be some variance when it comes to indy films and Landmark, but the bottom line is that theaters are typically operating on very thin margins to begin with. My guess is it would not take very much of a rent hike on Weingarten's part to render the RO economically unfeasible. And I agree with the previously-posted sentiments that they'll just gaze skyward and intone the mantra of the hardcore free-marketeers, that the theater's demise is regrettable but it was simply the will of "the market". And another irreplaceable local institution will vanish, thanks to a hard blow from Adam Smith's invisible hand.

I remember that house on Fannin. It is hard to see in the photos, but it had a distinctive "witch's hat" roof over the turret. It is always odd to see houses like this remaining from when that was Houston's most exclusive neighborhood.

Wasn't this the house that was informally known, at least in later years, as the "Witch's Hat House"? There's an entry for it at the National Register of Historic Places:

Paul, Allen, House (added 1998 - Building - #80004127)

Also known as Witch's Hat House

2201 Fannin St., Houston

Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering

Architect, builder, or engineer: Dickey,George

Architectural Style: Shingle Style, Queen Anne

Area of Significance: Architecture

Period of Significance: 1900-1924

Owner: Private

Historic Function: Domestic

Historic Sub-function: Single Dwelling

Current Function: Commerce/Trade

I seem to recall that it was eventually razed, but the distinctive "Witch's Hat" was saved by a place in Montrose whose name escapes me which dealt in architectural ornament reclaimed from demolished buildings. There were some articles in the local press about it at the time, but I couldn't find any of them via a quick web search.

I would LOVE to see the article! I wish I could still afford to live in the area (regardless, I'm glad to be in Oak Forest! No yards my size in Montrose.) . By the time I was in a position to buy a house, they were way out of my budget. I still remember the collective "ARRRGGGHHH!!" that went around the neighborhood in 1990 when the afore-mentioned house on the corner of Greeley & Colquitt and garage apartment went for SIXTY-FIVE THOUSAND if I remember correctly because the estate wanted to sell it quickly! No one knew about it until a contract was already on it - sigh.

Ouch! Between 1983 and 1994, I lived in several different places that were all within a few blocks of the intersection of Montrose and Alabama. I often wish I'd been in a position to buy a house there back then. I remember leasing a nice 2BR bungalow on Graustark in 1985 or so for only $550/month - the same place now would easily lease for 3-4 times that, and the property value has almost certainly undergone a similar increase.

I occasionally miss living in Montrose, but it's not too far away if I want to go do something there, and the lot my house is on now would probably have four townhouses on it in Montrose.

Think about that statement for a second. The type of person that could afford to purchase the organ and have the organ refurbished and then pay for the cost of freight on the organ, and have the organ reassembled in their house, isn't living in a 1800sqft. Ranch style in the 'burbs. This is the type of person that owns a few developments in the 'burbs, and his or her house has an 1800 sq.ft. room in their house just for the organ to be placed in.

I love HAIF, always find some funny stuff on here.

1800 sq ft is a tad on the small side, if you're talking about the really big theater organs. The best example is probably Jasper Sanfilippo's 5/80 WurliTzer: 8000 pipes in five rooms behind a four-story-high curtain. In his house, or, more appropriately, mansion. What's even more staggering is that it's only one of several organs in the house!

You can see pics and read more about of the Sanfilippo "Victorian Palace" and the 5/80 WurliTzer here and here.

When we were kids our parents would take us to the top to the observatory. It had a cool machine that would mold a replica of the Humble Building with a slot on the top for a piggy bank. I think it cost 25 cents. My mom saved everything but I have yet to find it in any of her things.

[just a small point of useless trivia]

Wow, glad to see someone else remembers these. I recently poked around the net a bit and discovered that these injection-molding machines were actually called Mold-A-Rama, and quite a few of them were installed around the country in various locations, pumping out all sorts of little plastic replicas (mostly of animals and dinosaurs).

The machines looked like this:

A couple of interesting sites with lots of info and history about Mold-A-Rama are Mark McDermot's Mold-A-Rama page and Moldaramaville; there are others that are easily found by Googling "Mold-A-Rama".

The Humble Building mold was apparently one of the rarest ones, as you won't find it mentioned on many lists of Mold-A-Rama molds. I wish I still had the one I got when I was a little kid, but it was lost long ago. There's a pic of one at a recent eBay auction, but that one is brown; I distinctly remember the one I had as being plain white plastic. Probably just a different batch of plastic that was used in the machine, as I gather that it was easy to vary the color of the molds that way.

Furrs Cafeteria, Wyatts Cafeteria, Picadilly Cafeteria, Allbritton Cafeteria.

Guess the cafeteria market kind of died out, huh? Even Luby's has closed many of their locations.

Piccadilly isn't completely defunct, although they have closed some locations - the Northwest Mall location is closed, but the one at Northline is still open and seems to do quite a bit of business.

There used to be a Furr's in Deauville Plaza (I-45 and Dyna), but I'm not sure if they're still open.

I still can't get over the closure of Luby's #1 on Buffalo Speedway - given their location, I can't believe they weren't doing well. It used to be a regular stop for us when we lived a few blocks away from it. Some things are better and some are worse since Pappas acquired Luby's, but on the whole I think I preferred the old Luby's.

As for W.W. Thorne... is the guy still alive? The Harris County Appraisal District still lists him as the owner of his house, but I figure the guy's gotta be close to 90.

Very much alive, healthy and active. He's in his early 80s and still lives in Hidden Valley. My dad talks to him fairly regularly as they've both served for years in the neighborhood civic club.

Aldine/Airline Area Primer

Start dates for various places within the photo... or, make that WILL BE in the photo (feel free to add or correct)

Supermarkets

Lucky 7 - 1956?

Kroger #85 - 1966 (remodeled and renamed #159 in 1974)

Piggly Wiggly/Rice/Price Fighter - 1969

Safeway (I-45 & W Gulf Bank) - 1972

Safeway/Fiesta (Airline & West) - 1973

Randalls - 1975

Whoops, I need to read for content more carefully - I glossed over your mention of the Kroger when I posted my earlier question about Piggly Wiggly being the first supermarket in the area. Now that you mention it, I do recall the Kroger and the Piggly Wiggly coexisting at the same time, but my memory's obviously a bit fuzzy as I was only two years old when the Kroger was built.

Where was the Lucky 7? The only one in the area I can think of was on Airline at Carby Rd - it's now the Airline Grocery, and you can barely make out what remains of the old Lucky 7 sign. My aunt used to live right down the street from there, on Carby Rd - she owned a nice-sized chunk of land there, some of which she eventually sold to the people who started the trailer park that's still there.

Yes, that is Hidden Valley Drive dead-ending into 75 and Sunnywood is the north/south street paralleling it. That's Hidden Valley Section 1 and construction started in 1958.

My parents live in the section yet to be constructed in the photo, west of Sunnywood and north of Hidden Valley Drive.

I was doing research through old newspapers last night at U.H. and came across ads for McMahon Chevrolet, which opened in January 1971 at Hidden Valley and I-45. You might be interested in knowing that the Texaco station at that same corner and the Shell at West Mount Houston and I-45 (both incorporating Hidden Valley in their names) were built in 1963 along with the freeway. The now-closed Kroger was built in 1966 and remodeled in 1974. The Hidden Valley Shopping Center apparently was built in 1969 and consisted of a Madsen-Dugan Pharmacy, a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, a TG&Y and later a Weiners.

I remember that Texaco station well. Mr. Futrell, the owner, lived a few houses down the street from us when I was growing up. Also spent a lot of time in the stores in the Hidden Valley Shopping Center as a kid. The Dugan's Drugs had a great lunch counter with a grill and soda fountain. Wasn't Piggly Wiggly the first supermarket to be built in that area? The closest one I can remember before that was an A&P in Northtown Plaza at 45 and Tidwell.

I've got lots more if you're interested, including info on roads stores, etc., and I'd love to hear anything you've got on the area. As I've said, I'm doing a history on the area. Actually it's a history of the Aldine Mustangs football team and I'm incorporating facts about how the area has grown and changed to add some flavor to it.

It's pretty rare to run across anyone who even knows where Hidden Valley is, let alone anything about the history of the area. If you're doing a history of the Mustangs, have you talked to W. W. Thorne himself? He'd probably be interested in something like this, and was certainly "present at the creation", as it were, of a lot of the things under discussion in this thread.

I grew up right smack-dab in the middle of that picture!

Mark, I came across that photo of old U.S. 75 in Houston Freeways and it inspired me to write a history of the area, which I'm working on right now as I post this. I stop in here occasionally to see if anyone has posted anything to help in my research. Was I happy to see this post!

To the left of the future I-45 you can see the beginnings of Hidden Valley. I grew up just to the right of the future I-45 in northline Terrace, which in the 1959 photo is an open field.

Toward the top of the photo you can see the new Aldine High School, which was built at Airline and West Road in 1956 after the original school (on Aldine Westfield and Aldine Bender) burned down on Thanksgiving Eve 1954.

Towards the bottom middle of the photo along what was then North Shepherd Drive (U.S. 75) there are three gasoline storage tanks, which is Exxon's (then Humble's) North Houston Products Terminal. I am trying to find out when these were built. If anyone knows, by all means, let me know.

I'd love to start a thread about the history of the area in the photo, but so far, it seems the board is mostly made up of people who grew up in Sharpstown or along South Main. As best as I can determine, I'm the only person on here who grew up in this area.

Anyone out there who wants to talk about the Aldine/Airline area?

That is an amazing photo - I grew up right in the middle of it as well, in Hidden Valley, and my parents still live there. I assume that's Hidden Valley Drive along the north boundary of that first group of houses built in the neighborhood (dead-ending into US 75 as it heads east), and Sunnywood heading north from there parallel to 75 before crossing what would be SH 249.

When I tell people that are more recent arrivals to that area that it used to be practically out in the country, they find it hard to believe given the massive development that's taken place since then. Unfortunately, flood control improvements haven't kept pace with development, which is why you can count on seeing a shot of the intersection of 249 and 45 under several feet of water on the evening news every time there's significant rainfall in the area.

Coincidentally, I remembered a previous thread here about that Sears last night when I was driving by it. I got to wondering what, if anything, would be left of the original facade if all the metal cladding were stripped off.

I'm inclined to believe the cladding went up in the late 60s, in the absence of any other evidence save the Cite article. To my eyes it looks more like something of that era than something that would've been done 10-15 years earlier.

Yep, speaking of token gestures. I thought that sign was not original to the Village Theater, but I'll check it out.

It's not. It's a replica that was built to look like the original marquee. I couldn't find a picture of it online anywhere, but if you compare it with a picture of the original marquee, it's fairly obvious that the proportions and some of the details are different. I believe that there was originally some talk of using of the original marquee when the Village Arcade was being planned, but for whatever reason (previously undetected structural problems due to its age?), it never happened.

I emailed the following:

ir@weingarten.com

[...]

I emailed Brook at Weingarten and it bounced back. Hope she did not get fired on Friday.

FWIW, Weingarten's website lists Brook's email address as bwootton@weingarten.com - my guess is that ir@weingarten.com was a generic investor relations address that may be out of date if it's bouncing.

I just spotted this obituary in the Chronicle this morning, and thought of this thread. I assume it's the same Ted Kipperman.

Also stumbled upon this page containing a transcript and a RealAudio file of an All Things Considered segment from 1993 on Kipperman's Pawnshop.