FilioScotia

I'm not 100 percent sure of this, but I believe his family's house is still standing in a neighborhood not far 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.

Any guesses as to when it was taken? I'm going to guess sometime around 1940, give or take.

I grew up in Pasadena in the 50s, and I remember that little air strip on Allen Genoa. I recall it was used mostly by crop duster pilots who were still flying those old open cockpit biplanes. Here's a great Houston aviation trivia question. Does anybody here remember the time a National Airlines Boeing 727 landed at the tiny Dow Airport in in Lake Jackson? It really happened in July of 1972, when two guys hijacked the plane at LaGuardia Airport in NYC and tried to force a flight to Cuba. For reasons I forget, the pilot flew to Houston, but instead of landing, he flew over IAH and put the plane down on a short runway at the county airport in Lake Jackson. He used every ounce of reversed thrust he had and every inch of that 5000 foot runway, but there they were, on the ground, at the mercy of a couple of crazy hijackers. FBI, Texas Rangers, DPS and every county mounty barney fife and deppity dawg within 50 miles surrounded the place. It ended after several hours when the hijackers realized they and that plane weren't going anywhere and just gave up. The passengers were put on buses for the ride to Houston. Then came the problem of what to do with the plane. That tiny airport was not built with big planes in mind, and there was brief talk about taking the plane apart and trucking the pieces back to the Boeing factory in Seattle. The pilot said if they lightened it as much as possible, he could fly it out. So they stripped the interior down to the bare metal. Seats, overheads, wall paneling, carpeting, everything went, including the galley and the sink. They put in just enough fuel to take off and fly from Lake Jackson to IAH, and with just one person on board, the pilot, that plane did the best short runway takeoff a jet that big ever did. He scraped the tree tops at the end of the runway but he made it and did a perfect landing at IAH about 20 minutes later. The control center cleared the air space for miles around so the pilot could get there in a straight line at minimum altitude. Lake Jackson old timers still talk about that day. The most excitement they ever had down there. It's also remembered for being the day KHOU TV reporter Jessica Savitch attracted the networks' attention with her coverage of the end of the hijacking. Not very long after that, she moved up to an anchor job at the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, and the rest is history. More trivia. When Savitch left KHOU, Linda Ellerbee was hired to replace her. How Ellerbee came to be available is also the stuff of legend in Texas media lore. She had just been fired from her overnight job at the Associated Press Dallas Bureau. Seems she wrote a letter to an old boyfriend on the A-P's new word processing computer, and forgot to delete it. The next morning that letter went out to several hundred A-P subscriber radio and TV stations in five states. Nobody would have paid any attention to it if she hadn't made some personal and sarcastic observations about her bosses at the A-P. They weren't amused, and she was fired. A couple of months later she applied for Jessica Savitch's job at KHOU, and she got the job largely because of all the notoriety she caused with that letter on the A-P computer. The rest is history. Whew! It's amazing how remembering the Genoa airstrip triggered that flow of memories.

Hearing 3 or 4 alarms go out always attracts the media's attention, who jump in the news trucks thinking "oh boy we're gonna get pictures of a giant fire." Maybe, but not always. No matter how big or small the fire, it's SOP to sound extra alarms at fires in high-rises, apartment complexes and hotels. The fire itself may turn out to be fairly small and easy to put out, but they need extra people to go floor to floor knocking on doors to get people out. That's why they had a couple of hundred firefighters at the fire in Houston Center overnight. They had to check every office on every floor for people working late or overnight.

One reason was the fact that Houston already had an "international" airport. Hobby was called Houston International Airport before they named it for the former Governor. City officials felt that the new and bigger airport needed a "bigger" name. Ergo Houston Intercontinental was born. It's better than that godawful original name they stuck on that airport in Dallas. It was named Dallas-Fort Worth Inter-Regional Airport. Remember that one?

My posting is number 414 in this thread, and I'm not about to scroll through 6 pages of posts to see if these two places have already been mentioned. So, at the risk of repeating someone, does anybody remember Bill Bennett's Steakhouse in the Sky? It was on the top floor of the Saint Joseph's Professional Building tower, on the other side of Pierce from St. Joseph's Hospital. I don't think the Pierce elevated had been built yet. In the early and mid 60s when I and my college buddies were rampaging around it was one very great place for dinner, breakfast, and late night stops and drinks on the way home from a show or whatever. The professional building is still there but the restaurant has been gone for a very long time. When One Shell Plaza opened sometime around 1970 -- don't know the exact year -- it had a great restaurant and club on the 50th floor. It was called The Top, and it took up the entire floor. Among other niceties, it had a long continuous row of tables stretching around the club at the outside windows, going all the way around the building. What a view! Especially at sunset and at night. It was a great place for early dinner and drinks before a concert, opera or play, or drinks afterward, but it's not hard to see why it failed. To get to it you had to find a place to park nearby in downtown, take one elevator halfway up and change to another elevator to get the rest of the way up. And then do all that in reverse when you left. Ease of access was not one of its selling points, and a lot of people decided it wasn't worth the hassle. You really had to "want" to go there. I think that's probably the reason restaurants catering to the public on the top floors of downtown buildings have a history of not doing well, at least in Houston. I'm not including the private Petroleum Club at the Exxon Building in that generalization.

So many possible jokes and puns. So little time.

Thank yuh. Thank yuh ver'much.

What's the address of that house? Approximate if you don't know the exact number. Or how far from the nearest intersection of what and what? Just curious.

And call it The HAIFbrauhaus.

You didn't cause any trouble. Nobody here "caused" any trouble. Everything that's been written and posted here was done with the best of intentions, and no one is faulting anyone for anything. The discussion of the West mansion has been going on for months. It started long before one of our members went inside it and took some photos of the interior. Most HAIF'ers are fine folks, including the photographer, and it just didn't occur to her and most of us, at the time, that displaying those photos might not have been the best idea, because of what kind of ideas they might inspire in people with dishonorable intentions. But once those concerns were raised, HAIF'ers responded immediately and reacted appropriately. They confirmed my belief that within these cyber-portals are some of the finest people in this town. So let's not let this get us down. If anything we should feel glad that the HAIF has played a role in helping to save the West mansion from demolition, and perhaps in protecting it from thieves.

The number 156 has some significance. It's been speculated for years that Dummar got it from the media's reporting that Hughes' estate was worth 1.56 Billion dollars. 156 million is ten percent of that. But, as you say, why ten percent? Why not five percent? Or 20 percent? Or even 25 percent? Hell, even one percent would have been 15.6 million, which a judge might have found mildly credible. But nooooooo. Melvin Dummass had to have an incredible ten percent.

I said a long time ago in the 70s when I was covering the Houston end of all those legal goings-on that Melvin Dummar should change his name to Melvin Dummass. This guy is really pathetic. He made those mind numbingly stupid attempts to get some of Hughes' money in the 70s with the story of giving Hughes a ride in the desert, the clearly fake promissory note for 156 million dollars, and the equally fake will with his fingerprints all over it, but the courts saw through him and ruled against him at every turn. Now here in 2007 another court has ruled against him, saying this matter was settled a long time ago. I have to wonder where he found the lawyer willing to take this idiotic claim. The funny thing is that his story of giving Hughes a ride in the desert and taking him to his hotel in Las Vegas could well be true. Hughes was an obsessively strange man known for doing strange things and turning up in strange places at strange times. It's Dummar's claim that Hughes promised him 156 million dollars out of gratitude that had the judges rolling in the aisles. But, then again.........

I really didn't set out to be a grinch in this story. The West mansion is beautiful outside and in, and I like Prisclynn's pictures as much as anybody, but I just couldn't stop thinking how easy it would be for thieves to see the photos and get the idea to strip the place clean. I think it's wonderful that we can all talk about places like the West mansion here on the HAIF, and it's great that we can share photos, but I think we should be careful about what sort of photos we post here. As you state, publicity is good, but sometimes it can work against a place like the West mansion. Photos of the outside are one thing, but photos of the interior -- well meaning but illicit photos I might add -- are something else again. The good news is that the recent publicity about possible demolition probably did spur a developer to step up and buy it, with plans to preserve it and make it part of a larger project, and we can all be grateful for that. I think the HAIF played a role in that. It's really amazing that the mansion has sat there vacant all these years without being vandalized, but that can't last forever. I hope it will be secured and protected as soon as possible. I think a call to somebody in Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston office might do the trick. The sale is only pending, not complete. Mazel tov prisclynn.

The photos are great Pris, but, speaking just for myself, I really wish you hadn't done this. I don't think it's a terrific idea for the world to know how easy it was for you to get into the West mansion. That story is now "out there" on the Internet, complete with photographic evidence. I hope others with motives that are, shall we say, not as pure as yours, won't see it and decide to go in and take some of the expensive antique fixtures and sell them on the antiques black market. Things like that really do happen, and there really is a black market for architectural antiques from famous old houses, buildings and even old graveyards. The Fayette County Judge told me last year that in recent years they've been forced to beef up sheriff's department patrols around the famous Painted Churches that dot the countryside in that area. He said several of the beautiful old churches have been broken into and many 19th century paintings and statues have been stolen. They caught three guys in the act one day a couple of years ago in the Dubina community near Weimar. A deputy drove up and caught them loading a U-Haul truck with stuff from the church. The judge said he thinks it may be due in part to all the publicity the Painted Churches get in newspapers and on television around the state. Publicity is a double edged sword. Let us hope the same doesn't happen at the West mansion, and that the new owners will take steps to secure the place, and soon.

Flat broke? Are you kidding? Hughes was worth billions. He never had any kids anyone knows about, and he also never made out a will anybody could find. That's why there was such a hellacious court fight over his estate and his corporations after he died, and that fight is still going on. Check out the movie Melvin and Howard. It's the story of a Utah low-life who claims he gave Hughes a ride in the Nevada desert one day in 1967. His name was Melvin Dummar, and he went to court claiming the grateful Hughes promised to leave him more than 150 million dollars in his will. He even produced a promissory note he said was signed by Hughes. The courts ruled the note a fake and threw the claim out, but THIS STORY IS NOT OVER. More than 30 years later, Dummar is still trying to get his hands on that money. Absolutely true. Check out this story on MSNBC from just a few months ago. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15538092/ The very determined Dummar also left a faked Hughes will on a desk in the main offices of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City a few weeks after Hughes died. When it was found, Dummar claimed he knew nothing about it -- until his fingerprint was found on the envelope. His fingerprint also was found on a library book about forged Hughes documents, which happened to include samples of Hughes' handwriting. A court ruled that Hughes had died without leaving a will, and his estate was divided among a number of relatives. But now here comes Dummar again, with a new lawsuit claiming he was cheated out of money that was rightfully his. I haven't been able to find out how the judge ruled, or if he's ruled at all. Stay tuned.

Hughes is buried alongside his parents in a small family plot in Glenwood Cemetery. For a few years after he died, the plot was open and unfenced, but the unending tide of inconsiderate sightseers walking all over it forced the cemetery to install the iron fence with locked gate. As you can see in the above photos, the plot is on one of the roads leading through Glenwood, his grave is clearly marked, and it's easy to find if you know where to look. As for Hughes and Houston, even though he was born and raised here he never cared enough about Houston to keep living here when he had a choice and the wherewithal to leave. When he inherited his father's oil field equipment company and fortune he got out as fast as he could. He left immediately for Hollywood so he could start spending his money romancing movie stars and making movies. Politics had nothing to do with it. Hughes Tool pretty much supported him for the rest of his life, paying for his movies, his aviation exploits and innovations, and his famously expensive life style. Even though Houston always regarded him as a "favorite son", he never "really" came back in the sense of maintaining any sense of residency. For Hughes, it was a case of being "from" Houston, not "of" Houston. Ironically, his aides were trying desperately to get him back to Houston when he died.

What you say is correct, but at the risk of being labeled "terminally anal", Camp Logan wasn't the site of the actual rioting. The riots happened in two places, both several miles outside the camp, when a crowd of black soldiers started moving toward downtown. Here's how one local history website describes it. "The acts of violence took place in two locations along Buffalo Bayou. The first was the suburban residential community of Brunner, located on the north side of Buffalo Bayou and centered at the intersection of Washington Avenue and the modern Shepherd Drive. The second scene of rioting took place on the south side of Buffalo Bayou along San Felipe Road, now known as West Dallas Avenue, in a residential area of the Fourth Ward known as the San Felipe District." You can read the whole story of the riots, and check out a map showing the route the rioting soldiers took and how the events progressed at http://www.hal-pc.org/~lfa/BB55.html Oh yes. My thanks to nm5k for posting this incredible set of photos. They're great. It's like looking backward in time.

How big are the windows? Are they regular size? Or small and narrow? Many 19th and early 20th century buildings had basements with ceilings that were slightly above street level, to accommodate transom type windows near the ceiling, that could be opened for ventilation. That's also why old buildings and houses also had transoms over the interior doors -- for ventilation. In days of old, all houses and buildings were built with ventilation in mind. It's how they survived before air conditioning was invented.

If you check about five postings back, you'll find one with my name - Filioscotia -- on it that boxes in the quote from northbeaumont that appears in the first posting at the top of this thread. Then I say "Say what? etc". I'm getting confused, but that's a permanent condition with me. There's always a light on for me down at the Home for the Bewildered.

You're right. It IS weird. I cut and pasted that quote out of the first posting in this thread, which was made by "northbeaumont". I have no idea how your signature got attached to it when I replied to it. But my point is the same.

Say what? Did you know that bowling is the most popular sport in the United States? All the other sports played in this country combined, amateur and professional, don't come close to matching bowling in the numbers of people participating. Bowlers outnumber them all. Bowling lanes are everywhere. You just haven't been noticing them.

LOLL no he didn't set them by hand. They were called "pin-spotters", and they used a big triangular shaped rack with holes big enough for the pins. The rack was lowered to the floor, and the holes would widen just enough to leave the pins standing when the rack was raised out of sight. Most alleys had two sets of pins for each lane, which allowed the spotter to stay a little ahead of the game. He had one set in the rack ready to put down as soon as the other set was knocked over and he could clear them out of the way. Today's automatic pin-spotting machinery still does it the same way. A fresh set of pins comes down instantly after the first set is cleared. The machinery then sorts the downed pins and slides them upright into the rack to get ready to go down again. On a busy night the pin-spotters of old worked their butts off, and yes they also had to roll the ball back to the bowler. That was usually done first, followed by resetting the pins. Depending on how fast the pin-spotters could do their thing, games could move right along almost as fast as they do today. You could always tell when the spotters were getting tired though. The games really slowed down.

I think the Pasadena that people of my generation remember is already gone. Just a few weeks ago, I took a drive through the old part of Pasadena to see what my old neighborhoods look like now. I grew up there in the 50s and 60s, and lived at several addresses till I graduated from PHS in 1961. Our first Pasadena address was on Park Lane in the Gardens. Later on, we lived on Lawrence Street, also in the Gardens, on Pomeroy St. on the north side, just a few doors down from the Pomeroy family, and on Camille, two doors off Harris in the old Revlon Terrace neighborhood. All those areas were nice places to live -- back then. It was depressing to see what is now happening in those areas. Everything north of 225, especially that little area around Pomeroy Street looks like "Little Nuevo Laredo". The Gardens were on the way down when I lived there in the 50s and it's just awful to see them now. Some of the people there have some pride and are taking care of their homes, but most of the houses are slums. There's no other way to say it. Most of Revlon Terrrace appears to be holding up better than the Gardens. In fact, it wouldn't bother me to live there now. I didn't go through Red Bluff Terrace, or any area south of Southmore, so I don't know what those parts of town look like now. The old "original" Pasadena, the area bounded on the north by 225, on the west by Shaver, by Southmore on the south, and on the east by Tatar, excuse me, Pasadena Blvd, used to be one of the nicest areas in the whole east part of the county. It was built in the years before WWII, and it was noted for its lovely tree-lined streets, well maintained cottage style houses and green lawns. Not any more. Anyone who remembers what it looked like as recently as 30 years ago would weep if they could see it now. It's clear that the people who once lived there and took pride in their lovely suburban neighborhood don't live there anymore. Many have moved south to the annexed areas south of Spencer Highway and Fairmont Parkway. I won't be making any more trips back to Pasadena. It's just too depressing.