isuredid

Then there's OST. Turns out it was built as a two lane realignment of US 90A in 1935 as the "OST Cutoff". When was it built to its current six lane configuration? I'm looking for photos of OST in its original and current configuration through the years. Also, when was the Griggs Rd./England St. overpass built over OST? Someone in my family told me it was the early 70's, and that there used to be bad accidents there when it was first built. I'm more inclined to think it was built in more like late 50's/early 60's going by guardrail and road sign designs. I grew up in that general area and we drove on OST and Griggs all the time back in the early 60s. I was 5 in 1960, and from memory that overpass has always looked like it does now.

Joan Hill (not a great photo)

When I first started working in a restaurant at 14 you had to provide a "health card" to be able to work in that industry. I can't remember for certain if getting a chest xray was part of the health card requirements.

"mckissack continuously built the orange show from the mid-fifties until he died" I don't think so. He might have been assembling the materials since the mid-fifties, but I don't think he even owned that property until the mid-late-sixties. I remember that as an empty field before he started erecting his vision. I think in 1967 it was still just an empty field.

I think the bowling alley at Gulfgate was discussed in a thread on Gulfgate. I went there many times as a kid and it was indeed, in the basement on the side of the mall facing the I-45. I would call that the North side. That bowling alley was where I was first introduced to pinball. I used to go there to get their french fries. They would hand cut a whole potato, fry it up and serve it on a paper plate with a bottle of catsup. Yum! Now I, like the previous posts, have subverted the original discussion....so...back to the bowling alley by the Galleria

I think she got married in 1974 and is still married to the same man and still living in Houston. I would venture to speculate that she doesn't look quite the same almost 40 years later, but I don't know her personally so I can't state that as fact

I grew up close to Orange Show. I went to Jackson Junior High and Austin High School. My mom's route for taking us to school went down Munger to the Gulf Freeway past the Orange show, so I watched it being built from it's inception and beginnings as walls of cinder blocks. As a 15-17 year old (1970-72) I also rode my bicycle down Munger on the way to a friend's house. I stopped a few times to talk to Mr. McKissak. I don't remember him saying anything about Oranges at the time. From what I remember, he thought he was building an amusement park type attraction. I think the Orange thing must have come later. I was certainly surprised when the place gained such popularity.

When they were repaving all of the downtown streets a few years back, they took the streets down to the original level, which was suprisingly far below the current street. On Travis I spotted wooden beams once they got down to the old level. At first I thought I was seeing evidence of the old wooden streets until I saw the spacing and realized I was looking at the RR ties for the old streetcar lines. They had taken up the rails, but left the ties. Some of the streets still had the brick pavers underneath and those they piled up on pallets and hauled away to be stored somewhere. Maybe someone knows where?

Warren's Inn on Old Market Square did not exist as such until the mid-to-late 1970s. Before that it Les Quatres Saisons restaurant and before that a toy store. The building was built in the late 1850s by Louisa and Christian Bethje and the land had been owned by Louisa's previous husband, Joseph Sandman. What I have seen in print stated that the building was built in 1868, but Louisa died in 1867 and I know she had the building erected. Her deceased husband's wood framed house was on the lot (purchased in 1840) until 1857 when Louisa had it removed, ostensibly to build the brick building which became Warren's Inn. I believe that building was the oldest commercial building in Houston before it was destroyed in the middle of the night in 1988. Rudyard's has to qualify as one of the longest running bars with the same name, although the original location was on Kipling (get it...Rudyard's on Kipling?) across from the Alabama Theater (Bookstop) and it has changed owners. Rudyard's was the Urban Animal neighborhood bar. Warren's the Urban Animal skate night bar. I remember Dan Mattutat carrying kegs of beer up and down the stairs at La Carafe on skates.

I think several of the streets were wooden plank....not just the sidewalks...I read several stories about wagon wrecks because of loose or missing planks in the street. Washington Road was a plank road when it was paved.

I took this picture of a farmhouse at Almeda-Genoa and Old 288 because I figured it would soon share the same fate. It's always a good policy with any structure you enjoy in Houston to take a photograph of it because, chances are, at some point in your lifetime, the photo will be all you have to remind you of what was once there.

I believe the original street paving material was wood plank. This was better than mud, but not very practical because the planks would come loose or people would steal them. which left gaps in which wagon wheels or horses hooves could get caught and break. In the newspaper during W.R. Baker's mayorship I saw request for bids in the paper for streetpaving. The request for bids stipulated the materials which were acceptable for use in the bid. The paving could either be done with brick, asphalt, or wood. If the bidder chose to use wood it stipulated the size of the blocks and mentioned that it must be heart pine or heart cypress. Somewhere you might be able to find who was granted the bids for which streets. It may have even been posted in a later paper, but I doubt you can find which individuals did the actual work. There are quite a few brick sidewalks in the Old Sixth Ward. This has led many to conjecture that the city used to build brick sidewalks, but in the 1890s it was mentioned in the paper that indivudual homeowners were responsible for building the brick sidewalks in the Sixth Ward and the editor was encouraging others in the neighborhood to do the same.

2. Over by Telephone Road and Winkler as Telephone curves going east once stood another huge mansion very similar as the Plantation home also with curved drive. Was in the high Gothic-Victorian style 2 stories with a servants quarters on the side and horse stable. All that remains is the old palm trees that lined the circular drive. Nothing has ever replaced it to this day. Makes you wonder who and why it met such a fate? What kind of people lived there? Why such a palatial home? What kind of people visited, dignitaries? Are you sure this was not at Telephone and Wheeler instead of Telephone and Winkler? I know about the house at Telephone and Wheeler with the circular drive and Palm trees. It is next to the Houston Parks and Recreation building.

1. Was at Wayside near Lawndale across the street from the Gus Wortham Golf Course. Where there is now an overcrowded, jammed Fiesta market and adjacent strip mall once stood a Plantation-like mansion with tall elegant columns painted white with a huge fountain in the front of the curved/circular expansive driveway. You could imagine Scarlett O'Hara rushing down the grand staircase to meet Rhett. Had tall oak trees lining the drive. Bulldozed around 1975 for this ugly over-developed heap. To make matters worse they crammed an elementary school in there. Pure insanity. This was definitely the Sims Mansion. We used to run around there at night when I was in high school. From what I remember it had a basement too. I believe the mansion was called Wayside and was a social gathering place in it's heyday.

The restaurant was called Circus

Milk and eggs of course, and some local grocery stores would take your orders over the phone and deliver the groceries to your door. Didn't Randall's try this again recently with Internet order grocery delivery? Pharmacies used to also deliver to your door.

Red Lion is correct and don't forget Valian's Italian Restaurant. It feels as though some day the only thing left of old Houston will be maps and deed records of where things used to be.

I am trying to picture a route from West University to the East End. None of the ways I can think of would lead through Midtown except along Main Street over to Polk Harrisburg, Navigation,Gulf Freeway,etc. I think the most direct way from West U to East End would be Holcolmbe-OST-Wayside (all the same street more or less). How old is your father or during what time period would he have been a kid?

Jaws - 1975 - I remember disco was coming on...Van McCoy---"The Hustle" on the radio...10 CC..."I'm Not In Love"... Captain and Tenille - "Love Will Keep Us Together" - I took a road trip during that summer so I listened to a lot of radio on the drive.

I looked at Harris County Appraisal District Records. The Hilton Corporation owned that land until 1985, which is the same year they sold the Shamrock Hotel to the Texas Medical Center. I wonder if that land was part of the original Glenn McCarthy purchase. The Texas Medical Center probably decided they would rather have a parking lot than a theater. I never was a fan of the Shamrock Theater anyway, although I did see many films there. I was more bummed out about the hotel. Just by chance I happened to be at Glenwood Cemetery during the Glenn McCarthy funeral so I walked on over for the short graveside ceremony. The original Jett Rink

Here is an even more obscure Theater. The Park III Cinema which was in the Kroger strip center on W. Gray. Very small theaters with very few seats. They showed mostly Repertory films before the R.O. took over that function. I remember a long run of Fritz the Cat at that theater in about 1972.

I think you are giving the theater 2 more screens than they actually had. The Shamrock may have been the first theater to have more than two screens. I remember the theater. It didn't take it long to go down hill. Now the space is a parking lot for the Medical Center.

The gate is the same as what I remember from the late 1960s. I used to ride or drive to Surfside or Quintana a couple times a week along that road in the summers. I don't remember the gate looking any different then, so it is hard to guess when it was originally installed. "Wave of the Gulf" by Jessa A. Ziegler mentions that granite marker and that book was published in 1938. My guess for the granite marker is that it was installed in the 1930s when recreational driving became popular.