gonzo1976

Let me reassure you that there was no "neat stuff" lost when the City Auditorium was demolished. It was simply a cavernous, all-purpose hall with plain plaster walls and proscenium. The main floor was flat, and seating down there consisted of folding wooden chairs that would occasionally collapse during a performance. A few steps up from the main floor was the "dress circle" which had upholstered seats with broken springs. Above this were the first and second balconies, which were reached by spiral ramps instead of stairs. As a kid, I loved running up and down those things at intermission!

The stage was large and had only basic overhead lighting. Acoustics were terrible, and the sound system was probably pre-WWII. There was no orchestra pit. The street-level lobby always smelled after stale beer.

It also had a rat problem. I need to post something about that, actually.

Glad everyone enjoyed it. I bought it off eBay a few years ago and only recently scanned it as a PDF. I posted it because I hoped researchers and historians would get some use out of it.

Don't most counties put jails in out-of-the-way locations? As in, not the city's main waterfront?

When I lived in Columbia, S.C., the jail was way out in some undeveloped area of the county. In Corpus, the jail is next to the County Courthouse. It's close to downtown, but it's not on Ocean Drive or anything like that.

I guess before building a jail in an out-of-the-way spot, one has to consider the cost of transporting newly arrested inmates to that facility, plus shuttling them back to the Criminal Justice Center for court appearances, etc. Considering the size of Harris County, I'm sure that would eat up a fuel budget in no time.

I believe the visitor center in downtown still may have copies. If not, drop me a private email and I can give you my address.

For what it's worth, I also saw some copies for sale at the Heritage Society museum.

I've seen blueprints of the 1910 courthouse that show what looks like a chess pawn at top. I've also seen county stationery from around 1916 or so that shows a statue at the top.

I couldn't make it. I got home from work at about 1 a.m., and I was just too tired to be there at 6:30 a.m.

I did manage to post highlights from a 1913 Chronicle article about the opening of the Cotton.

Oh, it's out there...

From that photo, I think we can deduce that editor has feet smaller than 60 percent of the male population.

He is also left-handed.

I may show up for the implosion if I can pull myself out of bed that early in the morning.

I'm certain I saw "A Hard Day's Night," "Sirens" and "The Tango Lesson" there. I think I saw "Life is Beautiful" there, too.

Portland Street in the Heights was changed to Tulane Street to avoid confusion with Cortlandt Street.

Anyone know who occupied the Bldg prior to Spaghetti Warehouse chain moving in? Name of merchant or company Bldg. was originally constructed for? Any walk around exterior photos of Bldg. now AND and historical? Entrance to Bldg. on north or south side of street?

Respectfully

Danny

There's a wide shot of that area posted on my blog:

http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/then_now/

If anyone's curious, you can go to the Chronicle lobby and see a rendering as to how it will look.

Very poor restroom facilities.

In the late 1990s the lines for the women's restrooms would become extremely long during intermission. It got to the point where the men's restrooms were closed off to let the women use it so they wouldn't miss the start of the second act. This was usually for Broadway performances because it tended to draw more people than most other shows.

Excellent photos.

arent you in hoodlum heights?

Yep.

I don't see HPD patrol the streets of Woodland Heights that much, though I often see an officer parked at the church lot next to Travis Elem.

Friday's incident, my burglary, the homicide on Merrill (all in the last two months) definitely has me worried. This doesn't include the convenience store shooting across from Fitzgerald's earlier this week.

Friday's incident was supposedly part of a home invasion that occurred on North Main. The resident said his place was invaded twice in the last eight days!

The new facility in The Woodlands will replace Houston's operations, which are located in a leased metal building built in 1967.

[McGraw Hill Construction]

I take it this one will replace the one off Gulfton. I used to work there for a year or two about 7 years ago. Glad to see they're moving out of that aging shed.

Apparently there's some magic post # and if it's you, you win the iPod. So I guess that should encourage all of you to post random unnecessary messages on this forum until we find out who wins!

Count me in then. Wait, does this point count? If so, then I guess I'm in!

I'm not 100 percent sure of this, but I believe his family's house is still standing in a neighborhood not from the Museum of Fine Arts. On South Boulevard I think, in one of those beautiful old neighborhoods with large stately looking homes where Houston's "Old Money" families used to live.

I also think "some" of the old Hughes Tool buildings are still standing on Polk Street on the east side. I've been told that the original office building is still there.

Then again, I could be completely wrong.

Close! The Hughes family home on Yoakum is part of the University of St. Thomas campus.

More info can be found here.

I do something like that on my blog every now and then. Should have more up there in the coming weeks/months.

I gotta second the "Houston: Then & Now" book, too. Worth picking up.

When my Woodland Heights place was broken into last month, it took HPD an hour and a half on a Friday night to show up. Friday night, big city, no one suffering a shotgun wound all sort of adds up to a low priority for HPD.

I bet they didn't take prints or anything like that in your case, either.

If you want, you can contact me personally and we can compare notes between both burglaries.

Yeah, I remember his show. It was pretty much a general interest show, if I recall correctly. I thought it was on in the afternoons on KPRC.

To this day, I can distinctly remember the sound of his voice.

The building at Northline Mall is still there, right? It used to have those neon letters atop the building (so did Britt's, too).

i will be checking it out later (but early) in the morning. if something happens tonight (highly unlikely because of aforementioned noise ordinance) hopefully anyone there from this forum can let us know (or Twitter it?)

I'll drive by sometime around 12:30-12:45 a.m. I'll post if anything is going on.

I'll probably drive by then to see what's going on, too.