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What is the construction going on south of the existing shorter hospital building next to this site? Does it have anything to do with this Methodist expansion? I like the flow of the planned buildings.

That would be St Luke's on going deconstruction of their orginal 1954 buiding. Thay have started and stopped this project several times in the past years. Now that they have a new owner they may get the thing finally deomolished.

What happened to the Diablos?

Looking at the details around each garage door in the photos it appears that the doors were added. There were probably two open air carports orginally. The seperate layout for each is unual though, even for a mid centery mod design.

I never liked shopping at Randall's in the past because it consciously did not sell beer or wine for years. It was almost like the owners were trying to force their morality on the shopping public. I even remember one of the companies that I worked for back then made sure to hand out "Randalls" gift cards at christmas time to it's employees, thinking that they were doing us some kind of favor by not allowing us to spend the card on beer! I would always give my gift card away anyway, usually to one of the apprentices'.

So for that reason alone I never made Randalls one of my grocery shopping choices.  

However, I did go to the one in Galveston yesterday to get soft drinks, and their prices were competive. The store was clean, fully stocked with all of the choices that Kroger or HEB have. Not sure why they are having trouble these days because this store looked fine to me.

I know a little history about the Grand Parkway route through Galveston County. It had always been north of FM 517 and crossing I-45 at 646 and then continuing along FM 646 to terminate at S 146. Some group in Texas City encouraged the GP association to move the route south of FM 517 in the late 1990's crossing I-45 at FM 1764 and continuing on into Texas City. Once residents of west Galveston County found out about this, we officals in Santa Fe and Galveston County Judge Yarbrough invited the GP association to a town meeting. The meeting was rough, but the consensus was, that the GP association would move the route back north with a crossing of I-45 at FM 646 or even further north at S 96 (League City Parkway). Galveston County has always been for the completion of the the GP and even donated design funds to the GP association to encourage this southern section of being moved up in the planning stages.  

I enjoyed the videos of all the cars driving through smog. I also like that this idea was dreamed up decades ago when we didn't know what we know today about traffic, pollution, urban growth, mass transit, etc. This video shows that the Grand Parkway is an antiquated and old solution, being pushed by good ole boys, and that it tackles a 21st century problem with ideas from the 20th.

Bite me!

I'm just glad our early city planners had the foresight to conceive such a plan and stick with it. The roadway should have been completed years ago, however they should have kept to the original concept with parkways and open landscapes along the way, not just a tollway for the commuter traffic.

I would be suprised if this ever gets built. There was a proposal for a similar amusement park one exit down (next to the Gulf Greyhound Racetrack). It never happened, just a sign on the property for several years. 

Notice the pink porta potty in post #23's pictures. Ladies used to have to share with the guys back in my days in construction. 

Cussing, foul language, and smoking were normal activities on construction sites of yesteryear. Things have improved so much in recent years.

I had the pleasure of being acquanted with one of the first responder fire fighters of the 1947 Texas City Disaster. He had just left the fire after being there for several hours and was headed home to refresh when the second explosion occured. By the time he got back to the scene, the guys he had been working alongside of were all gone. There was no sign of them. They said that their remains were blown miles away.

Jack would go on to marry the widow of one of those deceased fire fighters (all volunteers he said). Jack himself passed away just a few yeas ago. It was an honor to know this guy and to hear a first hand accounting of the event.

But back to the flood protection levee, yes it was built in response to the damage done by Hurricane Carla (1961). The federal funding was championed by local congressmen Clark Thompson and Jack Brooks. This was back in the day when federal spending was considered a good thing!

Texas City has a levee system that protects it's petrochemical industry, along with the adjacent residential and commercial area. It has worked twice since it was completed, once in 1983 (Alicia) and then again in 2008 (Ike).

City Hall and it's reflection pool.

Also Sears on South Main. (Currently covered up with metal siding)

Concord, I love that photo of the airport terminal. Awesome shot!

The playing feild at the Astrodome is about 30 ft below grade, so that is why it doesn't have such a commanding presence standing next to Reliant.

Bland Cadillac was in midtown for years. Their showroom was over near the Kirby mansion to the north of Spec's. You could see it from the Pierce Elevated.

So you're avoiding the fact that he didn't tell the truth. Look, I'm an Independent that voted for Obama and I have to admit, this entire rollout has been a complete mess. If he wants to succeed, he needs to turn this around and stop doing this hands off approach to everything. His legacy hangs in the balance right now.

I don't think he realized he was lying to them at the time. I agree, that he needs to fix that part. However, the insurance companies are going to squeal real loud, if he makes them keep unprofitable policies out there while other companies are making gravy off the new folks.

Those final pictures are from Harborside Drive. The wall facing the street was built to hide the central plant, and cooling tower equipment. Before that wall was built in the early 1990's you could still see the section end of the original seawall. It ended at Water St. and went south down 6th St. (present University Blvd) and turned southwest at Broadway. You can still see the top of it along 6th St. as part of the sidewalk, especially in front of Arlan's Market.

I'm going to assume that you deliberately misspelled that as a joke, and I'm assuming you know the title was "The Andromeda Strain." 

 

Since you say you were there with your date, maybe you and she didn't pay much attention to the movie.

 

I mispelled it joking because I didn't know how to spell it then, just like I don't know how to spell it now.

One thing funny about that date I was with: She was pretty shy and quiet back then, but after talking to an old buddy of mine recently, was informed that she has spent some time in jail through the years. Who'd of figured!

Maybe they are just trying to warn us that McAfee's founder being unsafe person to visit.

There was a Diamond Shamrock convenience store at this location for years. A bank branch (Guaranty Federal I think) was next to it, closer to the bayou. Both were torn down after tropical storm Allison. Lands been vacant since then.

Would that be the millions who aren't going to be able to keep the plans they like even though the President promised they would be able to?

 

The insurance companies have been canceling plans and trying to upsell to single payer customers for years. They prey on these types of people. I have a contractor friend that gets crapped on every year. He signs up for coverage only to be told later at renewal time that his type of coverage is no longer available, "but we can offer you this instead". It's the old bait and switch technique.

Yes, ANICO has moved a lot of their headquarter's operations (non executive) to the League City (South Shore Harbour) complex in recent years, so the need for an additional tower is no longer needed. One Moody Plaza  is still an impressive building though. I've always liked the way it was built "off grid" from the street.

Watching construction as a teenager in the late 60's was fascinating. The building has a central core that the rest of the building floats off of. The base and core carries the load of exterior walls.

Just think how different things might have been if Florida had been using more up to date voting equipment in 2000. Really, how long had it been since the rest of the country had ditched punch cards. "Undercount", Overcount", "hanging chad", remember those terms. Al Gore would have taken decisive action against the terrorist hide outs after the Sept 11th attacks, and then we would have been doen with it. No long protracted war in Iraq or Afghanistan. How many billions of dollars and innnocent lives would have been saved for something better.

I still think about this! I don't believe in revisionist history, but I do engage in "what ifs".

The exit to 35 that the 58 Chevy is manueveing through became the exit to 610 West once the South Loop was completed. This was a horrible exit as it doubled back in a horse shoe fashion. You also had to wait on the light to turn right onto the old Holmes Road and eventually enter 610 South on the back side of Gulfgate.This wasn't corrected until the Gulf Freeway was upgraded sometime in the 1980's. The whole enterchange is still not up to current freeway design standards, and if you look closely today you can still spot several sections of orginal roadway still in use. But yes, the photo does bring back memories of a more idyllic time in Texas, especially for those who were born and grew up here.

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ADA Oil was located on Fannin St. just south of Holcombe. It is where the Metro transit center is now. The building was only a couple of stories tall but was designed and structured to be a high rise tower. I think about Bud Adams, and the Oilers every time I walk by the transit center. Also the Oilers had a practice field on the corner of Braeswood and Fannin. It's just an overgrown parking lot now.

So Long Bud!

I don't see the Republicans losing anything over this, especially here in Texas. Sure they may have gotten a little bad press, and some finger pointing, but come election day, whoever's got that little ® by their name wins.