plumber2

That hotel that you stayed at on your first trip to Galveston in 1975 was probably the former Jack Tar Hotel. It was known as the Islander Beach by then and for several years before it closed. When new it was once the swankiest place on the Gulf Coast, built by William Moody III as a protest of sorts to his family, which owned the Buccaneer, and Jean Lafitte hotels. His father and his brother's widow were at odds with him back then. His sister in-law then built the Sea Horse motel down the street on the seawall, to compete with him. The Sea Horse was a huge two story semi circular affair with Gulf facing rooms, that attracted guests from all over and competed directly with the Jack Tar. Galveston benefited greatly from this family feud back in those days. Both places started to wane in popularity however, and then the Moody's sold off most of their hotel properties in the 1960's and later on, but still hang on to a few noteworthy examples like the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, and the Driscoll in Austin.

Plus this is not Memorial Drive. I suspect this shot is near the starting point of Allen Parkway. Memorial Drive would be a few blocks north of this point.

ChrisABC13, seeing that photo snapped a few of my memory cells. I remember traveling out Fondren Rd with my mom, after a music lesson off Bissonett in Robindell around 1963 or 64. She was trying to take a short cut to Arcola to go to some catholic church meeting. We came upon that monorail structure and stopped to look at it. I was about 8 or 9 years old. She would not let me get out of the car to investigate, because she was late for that meeting. Plus she said there were probably snakes and things out there. 

By the time I was able to get someone to drive me back out there, it was all gone. 

Kelly's in LaMarque on the Gulf Freeway was originally a Sambo's

The Orlando's that owned this store actually lived in Tanglewood.  I went to school with one of the Orlando sons. 

I HATE Toll Roads. (Just in case I haven't mentioned that enough on this site.)

Sunny 123, That's the most bizarre posting of bs I have read on this site in a long time. Just what kind of medication are you on, or maybe off of?

On 4/10/2019 at 7:33 PM, IronTiger said:

That looks right. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/maps/images/map0435.jpg

 

I knew that there was a spur that went to the Sears warehouse on Montrose, and finally disconnected in the early 2000s (late enough that Memorial Heights Drive and Washington was built with a crossing in mind), but not that it went through to Westheimer and beyond. Grant Street was built over the right of way where it curved southeast but it looks like by the mid-1940s the right of way had been built over completely.

Of course this railroad line had long been removed through the neighborhood by then, it's just that the city didn't care to remove the tracks in the pavement at this location where it crossed Westheimer. Sure they paved over it, and built curbs, sidewalks and such, but they left the rails embedded in the street for decades, causing it to be a bone rattler like so many other poorly maintained crossings back then.

This was also true for the line that went down Greenbriar to Rice University (which curiously does not show up on the attached map). That long abandoned line had rails in the cross street intersections way up in into the 1980's.

Yeah, I remember using this walkway once in the early 60's, I presume to attend the Fatstock Show with my parents and family. I never noticed the moving sidewalk though. I guess it had been removed or floored over by then. I was born in 1955, so I had to have been under the age of 10, as the rodeo moved to the Astrodome in 1965. Of course the coliseum was used for other events up until the very end, however better parking underground was provided on the east side of the bayou by then (underneath Tranquility Park and the Albert Thomas Convention Center). Nobody parked in this west lot much after then except for daytime office workers looking for a cheap lot!

That brochure is for the "Hardy Toll Road", which came later that the Beltway "Sam Houston Tollway" system. Just sayin! 

I remember a poorly maintained abandoned train track crossing on Westheimer about in front of what is present day Katz restaurant. It was horrible, and probably broke many a shock absorber. Why the city didn't just pull up the old tracks embedded in the pavement instead of just continually paving over it,  I'll never know? It's been gone for years now, but I remember it still being there as a young driver as late as 1970. However I'm sure the GMC Dreamliners handled it much better than the Grumman's would have. Those Dreamliners were solid!

Before the Shepherd 10 Business Park was built, the site was used for low income housing. There were several two story structures, of the post WWII barracks style construction. I'm sure the lower Heights residents were glad to see them go at the time. Now we a ready for the next use of this land. MKT looks like a good fit for this site, however it appears hard to get in and out of.

Someone recently told me that the original slab on grade houses in Braeswood and Meyerland (and among other period neighborhoods) are now refereed to as "cottages". And I always thought those houses were top notch when I was growing up. Now they are all reduced to near tear downs, a nuisance or an encumbrance to the lots that they sit on.

That picture on HAR is misleading. I guess it's the lighting and professional staging.

I was once had been friends with a family that lived in Cedar Lawn back in the 1960's and 70's I visited them often back then. We crawled all over this yard and others in the  neighborhood, including the Francis Moody mansion across the street. The Maceo home looked pretty run down even back then. We would sometimes hang out over the fence in the backyard of a house backing up to 45th St. and through water balloons at passing cars ("targets" as we called them.) If we got pursued (which was the purpose), we'd run and seek refuge behind the Maceo wall or the Moody wall. One of the neighborhood boys that would sometimes be with us lived in the house adjacent to the Maceo home which occupied the only other lot on that pie shaped block. Once the police got called. We took refuge in this boy's house, and his mother covered for us, stating that we had been inside and upstairs the whole evening. Gotta love her! 

I remember going on a class field trip right after Jones Hall opened to hear a concert (probably in 1966). The teachers made us kids stand in single file lines once inside as we made our way to our upper level seats. The corridor and stairs were carpeted (red if I remember right). Us boys would scuff our shoes (penny loafers of course) on the carpet  and then touch the person in front of us on the neck (likely a girl) and shock the hell out of them. We were quickly admonished by our teachers (nuns of course!).

Jack Roach Ford moved to a new building on the SW Freeway sometime during the late 60's, possibly early 1970. I remember being fascinated by rooftop parking lot, with a drive ramp on the back side. The building is still there, now being occupied by Noel furniture.

A relative of mine just retired from Shell. He started in that building on OST as data center clerk. He moved up the ranks and was transferred to the Shell Woodcreek facility were he stayed until retirement. He told me Shell was a good company to work for and has no regrets. Not may people get to stay with one employer for their whole career anymore.

He concurs that Shell had a big footprint in the area, developing several pieces of property. He stated employees were encouraged/incentivised) to live in some these properties. He told me he looked into an apartment off of Holly Hall and Almeda, but was turned off by the deep shag carpets so popular back in the day.

The retail building across the street from St Pius High School on Shepherd at Donovan was a Globe Shopping City. I know for sure because looking at my old Marian High School yearbook from 1971, the building marquee shows up in the distance in a stadium photo shot of a football game between the two schools. 

I was born in Houston and grew up here. I remember going to Hobby (Houston International) back then to drop off family and friends. Broadway on both sides south of Sims Bayou was wide open vacant space. I always thought it was so the pilots could see the airport up ahead. Ha!

Note: There was a monorail in place at Hobby for a short time that was supposed to take passengers out to the surface parking lot (no garage back then). There was even a rendering of it on the front of the Yellow Pages one year during that time period. I'm not sure if it ever functioned. Older discussions on this site gives a better description of the monorail and it's final disposition. It would have been a kids dream (and some adults) to have seen it travel all the way up Broadway on to other destinations. Buck Rogers type stuff.

Residential

Beto has that Kennedy style appeal going for him. He's probably got a better chance of beating Ted than either Joaquin or Julian. I wish him luck as he's not accepting any PAC money for his campaign.

I'd rather see one of the Castro brother's take on Abbott for Governor or that rat fink Dan Patrick for Lt Governor, or even wait and take on Cornyn later on.

I foresee the end of slab on grade housing in Houston soon. New homes (as well as commercial buildings) will need to be elevated (even in non flood areas) to allow water to flow in and around them to alleviate the type of flooding we are seeing these days. Flooding will continue to happen with greater intensity for all of the reasons that you have just stated above.

2 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

 

I remember hearing about this before as well, but don't recall any of the details beyond thinking "so *that's* where they got the street name from" at the time.

The other one at the end of Golf Drive was what my dad referred to as the Heights Golf Course. He claimed to have caddied there for extra money when he was a kid. It apparently closed sometime around WWII and then it became developed as Sheperd Park Forest later on.

I've also heard that the current Pine Forest Country Club on Clay Road is going to close. The members have sold the property to developers.

History has a way of repeating itself. Us native Houstonians have been witness to it more often than we'd like. 

I stand corrected (Genoa-Red Bluff!)

You might want to ask NeneE. She's our best resource on all things "east end".