Firebird65

Yeah, it was before mine too. I looked it up at the public library as part of my research on the football team. As for AHS being called Alamo HS, not sure where you got that but the current school has always been called Aldine High. The original campus, built in 1936 at Aldine Westfield and Aldine Bender, was also called Marrs High School, named for former Texas state superintendent of schools Starlin Marion Newberry Marrs. Not sure of what the connection was between Marrs and AISD was, especially since he died four years before the school was built, but he must have impressed someone. Going through newspapers from 1936 to 1954, I've found no record of the school ever being referred to as Marrs High by anyone other than AISD. All news reports, be they general news or sports stories, always call it Aldine High. Still, I have noticed that other schools were referred to by just the town's name in the news but also had different official names. Port Arthur Jefferson High was always just called Port Arthur until a second campus was built. Baytown Lee was called just Baytown in the news until Sterling came along. And the original Conroe High was officially called David Crockett HS by the Conroe ISD although I never saw any mention of that in either the Post, Chronicle or Conroe Courier.

Yes, I've seen that same map and the airport does appear to be where the current Aldine High School is. According to the November 26, 1954 Houston Post story about the old Aldine High burning down, AISD was appearently already in negotiations to buy this site when the old high school was destroyed Thanksgiving Eve. Here's the quote: "The district is now completing negotiations for a 40-acre site for a senior high school building. The bond money is in the district treasury, but, since it is earmarked for the high school site purchase, the money can not be diverted to other purposes." Now, that was less than 24 hours after the fire and on a holiday. No way thet could have found a site so quickly. So it would appear AISD was going to buy the Gulf Coast Airport site and build a second high school there but when the original Aldine High was destroyed, it became a replacement school rather than a second campus. As for your earlier question regarding what was originally on the site of the I-45 Drive-In (now McClendon Towne Center), the answer was there was nothing there. It was a vacant field save for a Mobil gas station at the corner of I-45 and West Road, where the Whataburger now stands.

Northline Terrace Primer The Northline Terrace neighborhood sits on land that was at least partially owned by Tommy Okabayashi. Okabayashi established a farm in either 1932 or 1945 at 351 West Gulf Bank Road. (Still need to find exact date - haven't made it to the Harris County Tax Office yet!) In 1962, a bridge over Halls Bayou was built, extending W Mount Houston Road from U.S. 75 (the North Freeway was under construction) to Airline Drive, taking over portions of the already existing Mosher Lane. In 1964, another bridge was built over Halls Bayou, joining segments of Hacker Road from West Road to Canino. The Road was renamed Sweetwater Lane. Sometime in the early 1960s (probably 1962 or 1963), Okabayashi sold part of his land. In 1964, the Oak Glen Building Company started development of Northline Terrace Section 1 on 111 acres of land stretching basically from 1-45 east to Cheswick and from W Gulf Bank Road north to Halls Bayou. The 66-acre Section 2 and 9-acre Section 3 were developed in 1965. Section 2 stretches from Cheswick east to Rockcliff and from W Gulf Bank Road to Halls Bayou, save for the 9100 block of Rockcliff. Section 3 is the 9100 of Rockcliff. Suburban Homes built most of the homes in Section 1 east of Sweetwater (formerly Hacker) and all of the homes in Section 2. Other companies built the homes west of Sweetwater and several of the homes in Section 3 on Rockcliff (which is why they are different from the others). Sections 1-3 closed out in 1966 at a total of 186 acres. Northline Terrace Section 4 started development in 1966 south of W Gulf Bank on 42 acres stretching from W Gulf Bank south to Arrowdale. The 26-acre Section 5 opened in 1968 and went from Arrowdale south to Canino. Most of the homes in Northline Terrace range in size from roughly 900 square foot to about 1100 square foot. All homes were originally single story homes of ranch style construction. Several have been expanded over the years to up to 1400 square feet and many have added multi-story additions. Homes in Sections 1-3 had open ditches in their front yards and asphalt streets. Over the years, many have had these filled in. Homes in Sections 4-5 have covered drainage and concrete, curbed streets. All students in Sections 1-3 and those in Section 4 north of W Hartwick attend Aldine ISD schools and Aldine Senior High. Those living south of W Hartwick attend Houston ISD schools and are zoned for Sam Houston High. While once almost exclusively white lower middle class, the area is now overwhelmingly Hispanic. Many of the original businesses and churches in the area have closed and have become something else, generally supporting a Spanish-speaking clientele. Only the portion west of Sweetwater is in the city of Houston limits, having been annexed in 1978. The remaining portion is in unincorporated Harris County and falls under the recently formed Airline Improvement District. The neighborhood therfore is not served by city of Houston water, sewer or garbage collection and must rely on private companies for these. Water and sewer is provided by the Sunbelt Freshwater Supply District. The Airline Improvement District, formed in 2005, supposedly aims to improve basic services such as water, serwer and public safety as these areas have proved a challenge as the neighborhood and surrounding community's demographics have changed. Another challenge has been increased flooding along Halls Bayou, despite several drainage "improvements" in the area. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison innundated Northline Terrace, causing many homes along Halls Bayou to flood from Beaver Bend to Rainy River. Even today, each time it rains, the intersections of I-45 at W Gulf Bank and W Mount Houston flood with increased regularity, even ending up in recent national news stories as photos of people wading through these flooded street appeared on CNN.com. Please feel free to expand this should you have additional information.

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) Neighborhoods Donnybrook Place - 1940? Blue Bell Place - 1940? Airline Farms - 1942 Hidden Valley - 1958 North Shepherd Plaza - 1960 Northline Terrace - 1964 Imperial Valley - 1966 Greenridge North - 1968 Schools Aldine High School - 1956 (moved from Aldine Westfield at Aldine Bender) Aldine Ninth Grade Center - 1999 Stovall Junior High School - 1964? Hidden Valley Elementary School (now Goodman) - 1964 Inez Carroll Elementary (Raymac) - ? Thompson Elementary - ? Bussey Elementary - 2003 Carroll Academy - 2003 Businesses Car Dealerships McMahon Chevrolet - 1971 (now Landmark) Goodson Pontiac - 1971 (now Mac Haik Dodge) Archer AMC - 1973? Gullo-Haas Toyota - ? Lone Star Ford - 1973? North Freeway Datsun - 1974 Leland Lincoln Mercury - ? Greenspoint Dodge - 1979? 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 Strip Shopping Centers (Main Tenant) W Mt Houston and I-45 (UToteM) - 1965? W Gulf Bank and Cheswick (UToteM) - 1966 SE corner of W Gulf Bank and I-45 (Ricardos Rest) - 1967 W Gulf Bank and Cobbleshire - 1968 Hidden Valley (Piggly Wiggly) - 1969 Airline and Goodson - 1972 Greenridge Plaza (Safeway) - 1973 Corum North (Randalls) - 1975 Airline at Buckboard - 1977 Northridge? - 1979 (at I-45 and Aldine Bender. Got the correct name in a notebook somewhere!) McClendon Towne Crossing (Fry's) - 1993 Greens Crossing (Wal-Mart) - 1996 (expansion from 1989) Gas Stations Pearson's Gulf (Airline and W Mount Houston) - 1948? Hidden Valley Shell - 1963 Hidden Valley Texaco - 1963 Grantham Texaco - 1968 Exxon (W Gulf Bank and I-45) - ? (not the Mobil) Exxon (W Mt Houston and I-45) - ? Mobil (W Mt Houston and I-45) ? (Not the one there now). West Road Shell - 1971? Sigmor (W Gulf Bank) - 1971 (now Valero) Williams Shell (I-45 and Aldine Bender) 1971? (got the correct date in a notebook somewhere!) Mobil (W Gulf Bank and I-45) - 1995 (Texaco now) Mobil (W Mt Houston and I-45) - 1995 Texaco now) Fast Food Restaurants Dairy Queen (Gulf Bank) - 1969 McDonald's (West Road) - 1973 Burger King (Dyna) - 1974? KFC (W Mt Houston) - 1977 (now Pizza Inn) Whew! That's enough for now. More to come. Please feel free to add places or categories!

Alright! A fellow northsider! 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. There's a story in the Houston Chronicle interviewing former Aldine ISD supertendent W.W. Thorne talking about the area being nothing but a treeless plain when he bought a house there in 1958. The reason he bought there? Basically because there was nothing else around! I have an ad from 1966 touting homes in Hidden Valley Section 5 for $115 a month. Wow! 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'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. Perhaps we should start a new thread? That way others might more easily find it and can join in rather than having it buried as off topic in this unrelated one.

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?

Anybody know when Playland Park opened? Believe it or not, I've got through every thread on HAIF and while I found lots of interesting stories, I never once saw anyone say when it opened. The closest was a post where someone said he lived on the site from 1942 to 1952. Is that when it opened? 1942?