Jump to content

gonzo1976

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    408

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by gonzo1976

  1. gonzo1976
    One that's tall enough to be viewed from all directions. It would be pretty pointless to put it on a downtown building that's been dwarfed by other skyscrapers.
  2. gonzo1976
    Ha! No. Judging by the glow on the other buildings, it looks like it might have been during one of those downtown laser/light shows they used to have a few years back.
  3. gonzo1976
    Nice! I like the bluish color of the skyline.
  4. gonzo1976
    No kidding? I visited the site with the Army Corp of Engineers six years ago. It was surreal. We had to walk through some vegetation to get to this clearing which seemed extremely out of place. The cemetery was surrounded by a tall fence on the edge of this open area and you needed a key to get inside. Once inside, there wasn't much to see. Most of the headstones had vanished and a few markers were all that remained. I have to dig out this rather lengthy story I wrote about the people there sometime.
  5. gonzo1976
    Nay. I just have that day's Houston Post.
  6. gonzo1976
    I've seen a few. My favorites: "Like a Sphinx rising from the ashes..." Did you hear the one about the dog infected with rabbis? "...tastes great with a fine marina sauce." (From a story about pasta.) Yes, I work at a newspaper.
  7. gonzo1976
    Both JDHs were run by a city-county agreement. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm working off the top of my head here!) Both sort of served as the city's charity hospital for the indigent who needed emergency care. Later, the second JDH was known for its maternity ward. If you want to learn more about the second JDH, I suggest getting your hands on "The Hospital" by Jan de Hartog. He worked at JDH as an orderly in the early 1960s and went on to write about the horrid conditions at the hospital. His work was partly responsible for the creation of the Harris County Hospital District we have today.
  8. gonzo1976
    Possibly. Page 107 of "Houston: A History and Guide" says that "on May 13, 1907, a 'new moving picture show,' the Orpheum Theater, opened at 418 Travis Street, and soon an ordinance was enacted forbidding Sunday shows." It's entirely possible that theaters that normally staged plays or vaudeville shows might have showed a film every now and then. The book says that by 1911, the city had four theaters. It doesn't say whether they were motion picture theaters, but my guess is that many of the theaters back then showed a blend of stage productions and motion pictures.
  9. gonzo1976
    My grandmother used to live in a somewhat similar house off Godwin, near Austin High School. The neighborhood wasn't very safe in my opinion, but I wonder if the area has undergone some sort of revitalization in the last 10 years.
  10. gonzo1976
    Yep! On a side note, after the assassination a lot of theaters in town started reshowing "PT 109."
  11. gonzo1976
    The Alray Theater was located at 5006 Fulton, about a block or two north of Cavalcade. On the day JFK died, the theater was showing the Oscar award-winning "Divorce Italian Style."
  12. gonzo1976
    Looks like a quiet night in Houston.
  13. gonzo1976
    Here's a scan I made from a copy of a 1900 map.
  14. gonzo1976
    Wasn't one of those apartment complexes the old Lantern Village Apartments? I remember in the early 1980s it seemed like a good place to call home. I think its selling point was that every apartment came with a VCR! Anyway, wasn't it off Gulfton?
  15. gonzo1976
    I recently put up a blog item about books focusing on Houston History. Most of them can be found at any bookstore in town. http://bayoucityhistory.blogspot.com/2006/...art-1-of-2.html The link provided earlier in this thread goes to one of the best books about Houston history. Copies can be somewhat hard to come by because it's out of print, but you'll find one on eBay or Amazon every so often. While not the best, Marguerite Johnston's "Houston: The Unknown City" is widely available at most bookstores, too.
  16. gonzo1976
    I did not say that. I said titles like fattest city (much like other negative titles as "murder capital" and "most polluted") tend to stick to a city. I'm not saying the city deserves the title. In fact, it's a silly ranking. But winning the title four times in the last five years does not help the city's stature. No other city has received that title as often as Houston has. I've traveled the nation, too, and people I've spoken with associate that title with the city more than anything that's happened in Houston in recent history (though Enron comes close).
  17. gonzo1976
    I've lived away from Houston for five years now and when the city was saddled with the "Fattest City" title, it was probably the worst PR the city could have received. It doesn't matter that the city lost the title or that it was years ago, a title like that (much like most polluted, murder capital) tends to stick. Heck, I think someone recently made a documentary about Houston being the fattest city. It doesn't help when that gets repeat airings on TV.
  18. gonzo1976
    Ask some people outside of Texas (or the South) and most people associate Dallas with the TV show or JFK's assassination. Some associate Atlanta with MLK, "Gone with the Wind," Gen. Sherman or the Olympics (and the bombing). Unfortunately, most people I know associate Houston as being the fattest city, the pollution or the Astrodome. Everyone's heard of the Astrodome, at least. But all three have traffic issues, in my opinon.
  19. gonzo1976
    There's also a photo postcard of the building for sale right now on eBay.
  20. gonzo1976
    I remember: U-Totem -- came just before Stop 'N' Go Globe -- There was one off Shepherd where the flea market is now Britt's (?) -- That five and dime in Northline Mall Sound Warehouse Wyatt's Cafeteria Remember when Sears used to sell popcorn and candy? I seem to remember Foley's doing the same thing, too.
  21. gonzo1976
    Great pictures. I liked the ones of the Williams (Transco) Tower. I truly believe that what Houston lacks in natural beauty, it makes up for in architecture.
  22. gonzo1976
    I'm glad they did something with the building. Having seen the interior, it would have been a shame if they tore it down.
  23. gonzo1976
    It was located at Main and McKinney. Eventually, I think it became McKinney Place. I don't have pics of it, but I'm sure others do and could mention what happened to it. I know Woolworth's closed sometime in the late 1990s. My mother used to work at the Walgreens up the street in the 1990s. She said the upstair bathrooms still had markings for blacks and whites.
  24. gonzo1976
    There's a guy on eBay who sells panoramic shots of Houston dating back to 1909. I'm not sure where he got the source pictures from, but it's interesting to see, nonetheless. In my opinion, the Houston skyline wasn't much to look at back then. You had some individual jewels (Gulf & Esperson buildings), but that was about it. Things changed when the new Texaco Heritage Plaza building opened in the 1980s. I think it really defined the Houston skyline at the time. Heck, the whole skyline made a great backdrop for Jean-Michel Jarre! John
  25. gonzo1976
    A sad end to a building that's been around for more than 60 years! If I'm not mistaken, I think its original purpose was to serve as a hotel for travelers using the old Southern Pacific Depot.
×
×
  • Create New...