gonzo1976

I'm in full agreement with those who say it's wrong and silly to change names on buildings and other landmarks just because they're no longer politically correct with one group or another, in this case African-Americans.

I have a big problem with renaming landmarks that were originally named for someone to begin with. Wasn't there an instance a few years back (Dunlavy Park maybe?) where they wanted to rename it after someone even though it was named for someone else to begin with?

Ah! Good to see the statue lives on!

And speaking of Confederate war hero Dick Dowling, along with the school named for him, don't forget his statue at the entrance to Hermann Park over on Macgregor.

Does anyone have a picture of this? I'm wondering if this was the same statue that was located on City Hall grounds back when it was located at Market Square.

I think his birthday was celebrated in Houston for a number of years. I'm away from my research materials right now, but I think there was an annual event called Dick Dowling Day. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

what are the chances that much of anyone in houston knows the history of any of those folks anyhow?

Given how history is taught in public schools, I'd say slim. Probably fewer know who Dick Dowling was, even though many have heard of the street.

Anybody got any info on this one? Always been a favorite of mine.

The Houston Architectural Guide (1999) says the HL&P substation was built around 1948.

By the way, the old Houston Post building is across the street.

From Wiki:

SH 19 was one of the original 26 Texas state highways proposed in 1917. The original proposal was for it to run from the Texas/Oklahoma border north of Paris to Houston. By 1922 it had been extended south, with a terminus in Freeport. By 1933, SH 19 was pared back significantly, with the section north of Alba transferred to SH 24 and SH 154. By 1939, the section south of Palestine had been removed, but was extended north back over SH 154 to Sulphur Springs. In 1960, it was extended northward to its original starting point of Paris and again to the south to Huntsville, replacing SH 45.

Texas State Highway 3, or SH 3, runs from Interstate 45 in Houston near William P. Hobby Airport to State Highway 146, 9.9 miles (15.9 km) northwest of Galveston. For most of its length, SH 3 parallels I-45 and runs alongside the former Galveston Henderson And Houston Railroad Company (GH&H) rail lines.

SH 3 was one of the original twenty six state highways proposed in 1917, overlayed on top of the Southern National Highway. From 1919, the routing mostly followed present day United States Highway 90 from Orange to Houston and San Antonio through to Del Rio. The road at this time also had numerous alternate routes simultaneously marked as SH 3, along with occasionally signed SH 3A routes (although most of those routes were given their own numbers by the 1930s).

I would have preferred Hellfighters or Wildcatters.

So he came to Houston, set-up the workshop, and the second it started, the "County Judge" walked in the room, told the participants to "get the hell back to their jobs" and told my grandfather that he had "5 minutes to get the hell out of Houston, and 2 hours to get the hell out of Texas, becuase we're gonna do damn well what we please in this town".

Wow. I wonder if he was referring to Hofheinz.

The first thing I thought when I saw this picture was the Monterey's Tex-Mex farther back. I've been dining there for close to 30 years.

Gotta recommend Rockport and Port Aransas. Nice little seaside towns. Avoid the month of spring break, though.

Not sure if they're still having it or not, but you should make an effort to go to George West Storyfest in Live Oak County.

Interesting.

From the Handbook of Texas:

The city began on August 30, 1836, when Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen ran an advertisement in the Telegraph and Texas Register for the "Town of Houston."

And the city's press release sort of says Houston's 170th birthday is August 23.

The place of my birth!

Mine, too! My dad was also born there.

I like Jesse H. Jones Park.

He has his own performance hall. That's enough, in my opinion.

But, thinking of some business leaders here, how about Howard Hughes Park? Or Red Adair Park?

Maybe it's too soon for a McIngvale Park.

"Rocky" won the Best Picture Oscar for the year I was born.

Hmm...how about something after past political leaders?

Whitmire Park?

Lanier Park?

Bentsen Park?

Maybe it could be named after a region of that part of downtown. Wasn't Quality Hill near that location?

Quality Hill Park?

Hmm. Is this anywhere near Harmaston?

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/HH/hrhku.html

I don't live in Houston or else I would be up for something like that.

Oh, and I just got off work, too.

Since 1996, the building has housed the Texas Embassy Cantina, a popular Tex-Mex restaurant. It's just a short walk from Trafalgar Square.

Check it out. http://www.texasembassy.com/texasmain.htm

Not a bad restaurant. When I went there, I ordered some fajitas. Apparently, the German couple sitting next to me had never seen sizzling fajitas before.

NICE PHOTOS

IT SEEMS LIKE IM THERE

Hah! Same here.

Question. What's going on at the old Humble Building?

Woodlands Mall. Their police look like Canada's mounted patrol.

I mostly recall the constant "dings" sounding about the store, never figured those out.

Now that you mention it, Foley's used to do the same thing. It sort of sounds like the same dings you hear when you're flying in an airplane.

Never did figure out what it had to do with department stores!

The UK's ContactMusic.com did a one-paragraph rewrite of the Alabama/RO situation.

BREAKING NEWS FROM GHPA:

Barnes & Noble confirms plans to close Alabama Theater/Bookstop

Barnes & Noble has confirmed the company intends to close Houston’s Alabama Theater/Bookstop in favor of a “state of the art” facility.

Because the Alabama Bookstop was such a decrepit place to buy books anyway.

Unless I missed it, I didn't see a timetable for all of this.

Close. Try 1973.

They might have something on it on KTRK's web site.

Yep!

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=...&id=3300910

I once interviewed a TDCJ inmate who was in prison for murder. He was taken in about the same time Ronald Clark O'Bryan was arrested (or sent to prison, I can't remember). Either way, he knew him back in the '70s.

He said O'Bryan was often a victim of beatings at the hands of other prisoners. Inmates don't take too kindly to crimes committed against kids and women, from what I was told.