PapillionWyngs

According to my 83 year old mother, it was on Montrose Blvd.

Can't someone help me research this????? It was a beautiful mansion. Seriously. Someone? Somewhere?

Thanks so much for the information and help.

According to my 83 year old mother, it was on Montrose Blvd.

How about

Please forgive the length of this post..

You guys are bringing back incredible memories. I found this forum searching "Westbury Square", hoping for a nostalgic look at the square. We moved in August 1957 onto Arboles Dr., fourth house from Atwell, five minutes walk from the square. I was four. We lived across the street from Candy Thackeray and her parents, Carolyn and Charlie, and the Hineses lived next door to them. On the corner of Atwell and Arboles was an accountant named George Fleet, who lived there with his wife Grace and their two kids Georgie and Cynthia. I remember a girl my age on Atwell named Mary Lippa. Heaven only knows what happened to all these people. The parents would be dead by now, but the kids would still be around somewhere, in their 50's and 60's.

We got there when it was brand new; in fact, the whole neighborhood was brand new. Houses under construction were everywhere. The square had just been constructed, but little of what is now standing had been put up yet except the one remaining corridor, which only is about a 5th of the whole thing. I remember the arch [that is standing] when it was being built a couple of years later, because we used to jump off the top of the building into the construction sand piles. As kids, from about 1959 on, we were constantly on and around the square. We RULED that place on our Schwinn Sting Rays in the early 60's ; times were soo different..We roamed the candle shop, Mario's Italian retaurant, Rumpleheimer's, the bookstore across from it, the Gay Dot party shop [back when 'gay' meant 'happy, festive'], Cargo Houston, etc. The merchants would bring everything outside once or twice a year and have a big outdoor sale. The square was packed, full of life.

West Bellfort only went a little past Hillcroft and ended in a huge field. It didn't go through to Fondren. I too remember the ruins of the monorail at fondren and main. West Airport went to Hillcroft and turned into a dirt road, but you could get through to Fondren there if you zigzagged a bit. We would walk that way to main street, just past fondren, and get fireworks, and have firework "battles" in Christman tree forts between the houses between Christmas and New years day; no one ever complained..

You could hear the stock cars racing at Meyer Speedway [main street]at night, and you knew it was 11 Pm when the train went through..

First grade for me was at Parker elementary, but by the time I got to second grade, they had built Andy Anderson Elementary, so I went there from 2nd-sixth grades. Anderson had an annual Halloween Carnival that is so vivid in my memory. Every class prepared for it, and we all looked forward to it. When Halloween came around, the whole place would pack out with dressed up kids and parents, and we'd go from classroom to classroom, one with a cakewalk, the next with a 'spookhouse', the next with a make-up table, etc..what a blast..We played in the construction as they built Westbury high, and there were fields all around, where we played, way up in homemade tree houses, shooting our 10 cent 7-11 slingshots at bottles 30 feet below, and collecting dewberries, where the post office is now and across the street from Westbury High. The pool that is now at Ludington and Chimney Rock was then a complex of 5 pools, called the Westbury swim club, and you had to be a member to swim there.

At this point, none of the curved building that would house Mr.Fantasy and all the apartments behind there [on the southwest and southeast side of the fountain]had been built yet. That was all just a big open field, out to chimney rock, although the parking lot adjacent to Burdine was there. Cargo Houston was there too, but the rest was not up yet. After a short time there was a series of little booths that the merchants would use during the outdoor sales. On the other side of Rumpleheimer's, the area that one of you mentioned where we'd all ride bikes, little dirt trails, was there right up until the end, just as it had been in the beginning. I think that is where they had planned the lake.. on the other side of it was what is now the dollar store; then it was a supermarket, and an ice cream shop was on the corner of that building too. The bank looks exactly the same. The barber shop is still there (!!!) whoa..Although it faced the other direction, it was all the same to us, part of the square in a way.

They had a German polka band a few times in the evenings, by the fountain, back in 61-62 or thereabouts, and this is where I got close to my first drum set player. Watched him all night. Became one, later.. Thanks dude, whoever you were..

People lived in the apartments above the shops, and I remember one time that someone had a heart attack and died, and fell over the edge, landing on the sidewalk below. They closed off that little section for a couple of hours. That happened in the corridor that is still standing.

As it got to be the late sixties and into 1970 and 1971, the open field south of the fountain was filled in with apartments, and the curved building aroung the south side of the fountain went up, and things began to change, but still in a good way, an evolution. Cargo Houston got much bigger. Mr. Fantasy , the clothes store, was run by a guy named Dan Mitchell who had been the drummer for the Moving Sidewalks, Billy Gibbons' pre-ZZ Top band, and my friend Monty Pierce used to work there. This was when the pizza parlor had bands, and there was a furniture shop where the arch is still standing, run by George Martin and his dad. They used to live above the shop and build the furniture right there on the spot.

I left in fall 1972 to go to college in Denton, my mom died and my dad moved, and I lost touch with the Square for some years. When my oldest daughter was born, about 1989, we went back and everything was still intact, although it was like a ghost town, and I eagerly showed my son (7 at the time) around the old square. I still held out hope for its eventual revival. I went back again not too long ago, though, with my youngest daughter, and saw what the home depot corporate folks had done..scoundrels.. I sat in the parking lot and cried like a baby. All that history..gone..I live in DFW today and there are neighborhoods like that here too..

With all due respect, the person above who suggested that a TARGET would help does not realize the sense of class and vitality that the square engendered in its day. Maybe you just had to be there. No soulless Target could ever hope to do it. It can never be like it was. Not even close. Compared to a Target it was like magic.

The only way it could ever be redone would be to raze the Home Depot and redo the whole thing, and we all know that isn't likely..mom and pop shops are all being replaced by walmarts and targets and home depots now anyway.. no going back..earth incorporated..all hail the mighty dollar..

ah well.. I'd love to hear more, and I hope more old homies find this forum and post.. sorry for rambling..

regards

eric stuer

stu at rhythmweb

http://rhythmweb.com

I absoluteled LOVED Westbury Square in the early to mid seventies. There was a place where you could get a cheese and fruit tray, and another place that sold "natural" makeup and perfume. I remember (I think) the candle shop and the glass blowing place. I went there with my boyfriend and other friends - even took my Mom once, I was so impressed with it!

Miss it!

So all I found was this bit:

Link

"The asylum was a large uninhabited home, a long dorm set up out back and a couple of other small houses. It was just down the street from the Church (walking distance). I believe it became a police dog training spot in the past 20 years, but is probably high end condos now. Sort of the Webster, Gray, Bagby area."

Also

Link 2

"Clinic is now St. Thomas University main building."

But the St. Thomas website says the main building (Link-Lee Manison) has a different history, and the AIA guide confirms this.

Thanks so much for the information and help.

I never thought i would ever hear of anyone that had or have fond memories of a nut house

Well, I wasn't the one in it, and it was/is a beautiful structure.

Well, I Googled it again to see what I'd get, and I got very little...just parts of some CV's where people had worked there. I must admit that I am very disappointed. This was a beautiful mansion, and I was sure that someone, somewhere would remember it. The staircase had the original red carpet on it and was blocked off. You had to use the elevator to get upstairs.

Does anyone know how I can find any information on it? I'd be happy to dig online or in person. I'd like to see pictures if any existed.

Thanks for your help.

Its a memory of my childhood that I just want to see again.

Still doing EXTENSIVE research. It could possible have been the Link-Lee Mansion that houses the University of St. Thomas. Does anyone know about that structure?

I know that it was converted from a mansion and was in Montrose. My Aunt was a visitor there many times. I absolutely LOVED the antebellum stair case. Surely someone else remembers this. IF not, I will feel older than my 50 years! Lifetime Houstonian!

Well, I Googled it again to see what I'd get, and I got very little...just parts of some CV's where people had worked there. I must admit that I am very disappointed. This was a beautiful mansion, and I was sure that someone, somewhere would remember it. The staircase had the original red carpet on it and was blocked off. You had to use the elevator to get upstairs.

Does anyone know how I can find any information on it? I'd be happy to dig online or in person. I'd like to see pictures if any existed.

Thanks for your help.

Its a memory of my childhood that I just want to see again.

I know that it was converted from a mansion and was in Montrose. My Aunt was a visitor there many times. I absolutely LOVED the antebellum stair case. Surely someone else remembers this. IF not, I will feel older than my 50 years! Lifetime Houstonian!

Man it really trips me out how many of yall are from southeast, I feel like I'm hearin family members talk when I read yalls posts. I'm 3rd generation southeast myself. My grandparents lived in the magnolia/manchester area and my parents were from right there off broadway by milby, sellers bros., ingrando park, etc. Am I the only one who swam at glenbrook public pool, and jumped off the dreaded "hightower"? When I was up there as a kid I used to look out in the distance and see the skyline and think, "man I wanna live there one day, and now I do so ha, take that "your supposed to stay in the hood" mentality! Does anyone remember a place called "the mark" across the street from milby in the early 80's during the explosion of breakdancing? It was an arcade and a place to battle (breakdance "fight"). Supertrack closed???? Wow that's the end of an era.

I lived in Park Place for 26 years. Went to Houston Christian School, Park Place Elementary, Deady Jr. High, Milby Sr. High and U of H. Boy - Glenbrook pool brings back memories. That high tower was/is HIGH!

Can anyone help me remember a "fancy" restaurant somewhere near the medical center.

maybe off OST and Greenbriar. not exactly sure.

I remember going there with my parents in the early 70's

had a name like the Cellar or similar. It could have been the Cellar Door (see above) but i am not sure about the Goode company location.

I think it had those one-way tire spikes in the parking lot, where you can't go out the in driveway etc.

That might be why it stood out to me as a kid.

Could it be Christie's? It was a fancy seafood restaurant in the Medical Center area.

I'll try to think of some more. Kapahan's wasn't quite there, but it definitely was FANCY.

What about these?

Cellar Door (now Goode Co)

Velvet Turtle (my favorite - saw it mentioned, but thought of it again)

Farrell's

Shoney's

Don's Seafood

Alfred's (mentioned but LOVED)

Hillmans (Kemah)

Hill's Seafood (Galveston)

And a question - started University of Houston in 1973. There was a burger place across the street from the main campus that you would place your order by phone and they brought it to you. The little character looked a lot like the guy on the Pringle's can.

And a second question - does anyone but me remember the bowling alley and other things on the third floor of the original Galleria? Does that club on the top floor of the oldest hotel still exist? They made Hurricanes that would knock out a prize fighter!