cowboybud

On 6/8/2020 at 3:30 PM, Houston19514 said:

 

No, they did not stay the night at the Rice.  They were at the Rice briefly the day before, attendend a luncheon in the ballroom, and then flew to Fort Worth and spent the night in the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth.

Correct, now the Fort Worth Hilton. Stayed there a couple of years ago.

11 hours ago, Blue Dogs said:

I'm assuming CW 39 is staying put in their current location ?

No reason for them to leave...no local news, Nexstar presumably has master control in another location.

It was next to the apartments behind what is now Best Buy/World Market, right? It's now either an empty lot or office building, depending on where exactly it was.

Looks like the DQ is now Discount Taco but what was 9101?

9101 Long Point? To my recollection, it's always been a VFW/Bingo Hall.

 

 

I had some other relatives that lived in Fondren Southwest.  Their neighborhood went from very desirable to a complete dump in a very short period.

 

That happened to a few areas during this time (Greenspoint/Aldine, Alief, Sharpstown). Went from upper middle class to ghetto almost overnight.

Had my first Blizzard at the DQ just south of LP on Bingle. Cool old school DQ with the covered parking in front. Next door was a skate board park. The DQ is something else now and the Young World day care has been razed.

My grandparents lived on Forum Dr., a stone's throw from the DQ. Three houses on that street were torn down, it appears they're building a couple of McMansions there.

I remember that happening, but can't find any details. The site of the office is still vacant.

Tom Landry worked there in the 1950s during the offseason when he was an assistant coach with the NY Giants.

In the early 60's friends and I used to go swimming between here and Conroe, if I am not mistaken it was about where the Woodlands are now. It was a popular swimming spot with sandy beaches. It was on the west side of US 75 now I-45. I remember it was privately owned and you were charged a fee to get in. I think it was owned by a member of the Allan Shivers family. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it now. Any help on the name and exact location would be a great help.

Lakeland? My grandparents owned property there. Believe it or not, the subdivision is still there, it's probably not "private" anymore. The entrance was/is where the BMW dealership is now, south of Tamina.

OK, I've been working on a list of AppleTree stores in the entire chain, and I've published the first edition here. This covers more than half of the chain.

 

What do you think? What's missing?

 

AppleTree stores

15000 block of Bellaire, originally a Weingarten, was briefly an Appletree, now is an "Event Center/Party Hall".

There's a tornado siren in Katy that they test every Friday at noon.

I was just a child at the time, but I remember the oil crash of 1986 very well. Whole subdivisions in some areas practically became ghost towns as people were packing up and moving out of Houston. The population still grew from 1980 to 1990, but it slowed substantially. While I have no proof they were related; the Greenspoint area seemed to rapidly decline around this time. In fact crime in general rose rapidly in the late 80s in the Houston area. Once great, well established areas never recovered.  Again I don't know if this was the result of the oil crash, but it happened around the same time. My dad did security for Brown and Root and later Allied Industries from the late 70s until 1987. He was laid off from both due to cuts around this time.

 

I've been hearing a lot about how great the economy is in Houston. It was great in the 70s too, but that all changed in the 80s. Don't ever think we are immune from this happening again.

A lot of former upscale/suburban areas (Aldine/Greenspoint, Alief, Sharpstown, Gulfton) declined rapidly in the late 80s, It was a perfect storm of the oil bust, annexation, foreclosures and plummeting apartment rents.

I am curious!

Does anyone remember the original fast food restaurant that was in The Galleria parking lot? It had a chuck wagon look and feel. The building is still standing in The Galleria parking lot in the same location.

IIRC it was a Roy Rogers restaurant.

Was there a study before they built those apartments by the malls that died? It was no coincidence that malls with newly built apartment complexes ended up dying due to the fall of the apartments.

Northline, Gulfgate, Greenspoint, Sharpstown, West Oaks...

I remember the Srat Wars themse at Foleys....that was the only reason I wanted to go there before we went inside the actual mall.

I'm sure they think that "oh, this won't be another Greenspoint....these will be *upscale* apartment homes", but then they have to lower rents to get their occupancy up. And a lot of the new-ish homes around there were foreclosed on when the housing market crashed a few years ago.

Apparently not. My senior year (1983-84) the student council bought a juke box for the cafeteria. It played the same three songs over and over and over again: Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top, C'mon Feel The Noize by Quiet Riot and some gawdawful song by Alabama or some other country group I've thankfully blocked out of my mind. Bad memories all. The best thing that ever happened to that juke box was when they hauled it away.

Also:

"A Country Boy Can Survive" - Hank Williams Jr.

"Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran

Oh yeah, I remember that Hickory Farms store. I also remember seeing movies in the theatre in the mall, most memorably The Empire Strikes Back, but also probably ET and Return of the Jedi. Of course, my favorite movie of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark, I saw at the I-45 drive-in (the only movie I ever saw at a drive-in).

I agree, I don't think any more big closed air conditioned malls will be built in Houston. I think places like City Centre out here where Town and Country used to be, and La Cantera over in San Antonio, are the way things will be from now on.

The economy, Wal-Mart, and online shopping have killed malls around the country. I live near West Oaks and it's pretty much dead except for Macy's and Alamo Drafthouse.

A lot of the now-ghetto apartment buildings in SW Houston were "swinging singles" hotbeds back then. At some point (in the early 80s I think), a law was passed barring "adults only" complexes, putting an end to that scene.

IIRC, the grocery store in the same strip as Furr's Cafeteria at North Freeway between West Dyna and Aldine Bender was a Safeway as well. I don't remember it ever making a transistion to AppleTree, so that may be a mistake. It was either Safeway or Randall's.

It was a Randall's. The Safeway (later Appletree) was at Airline @ West Rd across from Aldine High School. It was a Fiesta last time I was there.

Three I know for sure were built as Safeways are those that were at Airline Drive and West Road (across from Aldine High School), Gulf Bank and Interstate 45 North (was part of a Mazda dealership at one time), and at Bellfort and Telephone Road. I believe the last one is a Fiesta now. None of these though was ever a Weingartens.

The Airline @ West Road location was (may still be) a Fiesta also.

Bellaire @ Winkleman (west of Hwy 6) - was a Weingarten, then an Appletree, was vacant for years, now a "party hall/events center".

Are you referring to the Western Swing?

The other building is (and always has been) a convenience store/gas station. The Jack In The Box is (was? I haven't been in that area in several years) further north on Airline, out of the picture.

I remember Dalt's and Houlihan's that were by the entrance to Joske's at Greenspoint Mall. Dalt's also had a location on Westheimer. Victoria's Station was great by Greenspoint as was Fajitas on Greens Road. Maggie's was on I-45 by Greenspoint as was Scooby Doo's Fun Factory Pizza. Birra Poretti's took their space over later. Foley's had the Greenhouse restaurant and Lord & Taylor had their own. Smuggler's Inn was on the Beltway 8 interchange by Greenspoint Mall. York Steakhouse was good. It was in the Joske's wing of Greenspoint. Duff's Smorgasbord was a change of pace in Humble.

Hard to believe that "Gunspoint" was once a vibrant, semi-upscale area.

I agree. The Sharpstown 8-Plex was built in the actual mall, in a side wing near the mall entrance to Foley's. Possibly underneath the second floor food court.

According to the article in Sunday's Chronicle, this theater will eventually re-open as part of the Plaza Americas remodeling/rebranding.

Ah yes, Cal Worthington Chevrolet. He used to be the king of the bad commercial songs, right up there with that horrible Thunderbolt Engine commercial that they have been using for the past 30 years. That's no joke. 30 years, same commercial. If you don't believe it, really watch it sometime. You can still see the big Sears across Harrisburg from it, and that Sears has been gone for somewhere near a quarter of a century.

I can still here it now, (and sorry if you get this stuck in your head because of me) "If you want a car or truck, go see Cal. If you want to change your luck, go see Cal. If you want a car or truck, and you want to change your luck, if you need to save a buck, go see Cal." He was on the SW Fwy, but for the life of me can't remember exactly where.

Another couple of old dealerships not mentioned were the Hall brothers at 59 Eastex at...Saunders/Jensen? Mike Hall Dodge/Plymouth/Jeep/Eagle and Mort Hall Ford/Lincoln/Mercury. Both demo'ed and the land is now occupied by a Home Depot and strip center. Sam Montgomery Oldsmobile was at the North Fwy at Richey. The car lot is still there, at least all of the concrete is. The buildings are long gone, but the old Sam Montgomery sign remained for many years after it was gone. Tom Peacock, although now a Nissan/Cadillac Dealer was once at Katy Fwy. and Kirkwood. For many years it was Tom Peacock Chevrolet, until he spun it off to his son-in-law Mak Haik. Greenspoint and Northline Dodge, were two more. Greenspoint had been there since at least the 60's as my father's 1968 Plymouth (that I still have today) was purchased from Greenspoint, and had service done to it at Northline Dodge on several occasions. Greenspoint Dodge is now Spyker of Houston, Northline Dodge is now HCC's Mechanic School.

It wouldn't have been called "Greenspoint Dodge" back then, since the "Greenspoint" name wasn't in existence until the mall opened in the mid 70s.

Cal's dealerships on the west coast are still open.

Didn't they finally re-shoot the Thunderbolt commercial a few years ago?

historicaerials.com goes back to the 1960s...there was a subdivision where Greenway Plaza is now.

Speaking of the Gulf Bank area, does anyone know where the old Humble tanks used to be on U.S. 75? I'm working on an upcoming blog post that has a reference to the Humble tanks north of Houston.

I was thinking it's that Exxon facility south of I-45 and Gulf Bank today, but I wasn't sure.

Pretty sure that's what it refers to, as Exxon used to be Humble Oil.