plumber2

Took a date there during high school. Saw the Andronomus Strain.

Does the archery club still use this extreme edge of Memorial Park? As a youth I always wanted to walk back in there and explore around but was afraid of getting shot by a stray arrow. Silly how those things stick in your mind.

I heard a radio announcement today that Delmar Gymnasium will be demolished. There is a plan to replace it, by PBK Architects. Will there be any effort to save this structure. Maybe have a bond election to turn it into a convention and exhibition venue? Just kidding!

Seriously though, will this building be missed? Does this slumped back quonset hut pull at anybody's preservation heart?

Someone brought some Dnkin Donuts to the breakroom the other morning, They sucked! No wonder DD left town several years ago.

Too many of us are spoiled by Shipley's I guess.

The Falstaff Brewery building is in really bad shape. There are actually two sections, the older Magnolia Brewing building (early1900's) is on the north side of the property and the later and taller structure on the south end was built by Falstaff in the early 1960's. Magnolia brewed Southern Select beer until it was sold to Falstaff.

I was inside the property with a friend of the owner about 7-8 years ago. It was pretty crapped out inside. Salvagers had taken about everything they could. 

The hospitality room on the roof was all open to the elements, but still had the flagstone terrace and planter boxes intact. (We drank a beer up there).

My guide found a ledger that had hand written notes apparently from the last few weeks of brewing by the brew master, still opened to the last entry in one of the control rooms. Other stuff strewn around in the employee area indicated that things had shut down pretty unexpectedly. Falstaff had been taken over by a Mitt Romney type of investor in the late 70's and by the early 80's the assets were all gone.

Without Rumors what would this be, really? The thing is....so many of them seem to becoming true, lately.

So...it's now 120 stories, musicman? ;-)

Hamilton & Ruiz? Are we talking where Irma's is??

No! Not Irma's

Where will I go for the highest price Mexican food in town? 

There was a compnay years ago called R.H. Tonetti. They did remodel in downtown during the 1980s. Gulf Building, Texaco Building, Houston Club Building, Texas Commerce Bank and so forth. I think I remember doing a job with them in the Chamber of Horrors (Commerce) Building. Very good outfit at the time, union labor, top notch craftsmen.

Don't know if it is the same bunch.

Handy Andy had to have come to the Houston market around 1971 or 72. I remember this becuase I was dating a girl in high school whose family had just moved here from San Antonio. Her and her mother were so excited about the stores coming to Houston, because that was their favorite back home. The store on Gessner was the one they shopped at.

Did you notice that the railing on this bridge is made from drill pipe?

 

The dotcom bust called, they want their everything back. Seriously, what was this supposed to be? A second story with grand stairs, ground floor retail, and what, one maybe two top stories of office?

 

 

I will snap a photo when I'm in Seabrook again for work. Another one is the Container Tower of Jesus on I-45S heading North. Anyone have any odd buildings they are curious about?

 

Found this on Bing, 1210 Bayport. This thing is tiny!

That was called Curley's Corner back in the 70's. He sold bait, fishing license, block ice, beer and of course fishing tackle. Postage stamp size piece of property. It's at the intersection of State Highway 146 and NASA Rd 1.

I would be interested in finding that out myself, or help out. My dad's name is on that memorial. He was one of those Heights verterans that got to attend the dedication ceremony. He has since passed away, as so many of those guys have since then.

Amazing.  What a cool building.  Was that a Battlesteins that was in River Oaks at Shepherd and Welch?

 

 

 

Wasn't there another Jamails on Bissonnet?

 Yes, there were several Jamials locations but the one on Kirby was their flagship store and the last to close. There was a moderate president elected in Lebanon back in the '80's that the local press made a deal about him being related to the Jamails of Houston even though his name was spelt differently. Of course being a moderate got promptly assasinated.

Does San Antonio have some kind of restrictions on tall buildings? Why hasn't their skyline grew like other cities of its size?

 Ahh, Tower of the Americas is pretty high!

Keeping this thread "alive". Ha!

I was watching the old Hitchcock movie Vertigo the other night and there was a scene where Jimmy Stewart asks Barbara BelGeddes where you could find someone that knows the gritty history of the city, like "who killed who on the Embarcdero in 1887?". If they had only had HAIF back then!

Funny thing is that the FAA uses to call letters IAH for Bush and HOU for Hobby.

Hobby was called Houston International Airport after it was determined that Howard Hughes Airport was not an "international" enough sounding name, plus Howard Hughes wasn't even dead yet.

Hobby never had the word Intercontinental in any of it's names.

There is an aerial image of Robertson Pavilion at Hermann Hospital, showing the entrance that was shot on the Route 66 TV series that FiloScotia bet the farm on. Sorry Filo, start selling of your livestock.

Liberals. Barf.

What the hell is wrong with you? You start a conversation and then snap at the first person that disagrees with you. You got some kind of social disorder?

Where's Niche when you need him?

Houston has many examples of facilities that do not fit a particular neighborhood. Who would have that a tuberculosis hospital would have been appropriate right across the street from an entrance to River Oaks? But there it stood for decades without much controversy.

Just some pompus ass ultra conservative legislators trying to make themselves feel good. Tea Party people are the today's version of the John Bircher's of yesteryear.

I was thinking Brochsteins at first, but Waukesha Pierce is probably more likely

There's a Kmart in Lufkin, and there are Kmarts in the Corpus Christi market and the Rio Grande Valley.

Another radio talk show host, this time out of Beaumont 560 AM yesterday stated that he remembers as a child attending Colt 45 ball games in the old Buff stadium. Is it just that they were too young to really remember it right or are their brains fried from too many radio waves. No Colt 45 games was ever played at Buff stadium that I am aware of. I'm 58 years old and I remember the Colt 45 stadium. The stadium was just a metal bleacher type with wooden benches and was located on the north end of what is now Reliant Park. You could see the dome being erected from the seats in the out field.

I think one of the lanes in each direction got matriculated!

Great home movies. Your "Hi Mom" was a good touch. I too was here in Houston for both of those snow events, and also 5 and 18 years old at the time.

Did not have a home movie to document it though (Glad you did). We were bad teenagers also, building snowmen in the neighbors yards before they got home from work........some with boobs!

Thanks for sharing.

The heights is a suburb from the 20's and 30's - just like Pearland...The houses built in this suburb are all very similar just like the houses built in Pearland now.  Both are tract houses, both are following a common architectural preference of the time.  There is nothing special about a 1920's bungalow.  It is still a tract house that was built by the lowest bidder at the time, just like Pearland. - your preferences are that they are great and neat, and worth saving - but others don't share your beliefs. 

My grandparents house in the Heights on Ashland was built in the 1890's not the 1920's. They acquired it in the 1920's. Even though they were not preservationists, they kept the house mainly intack on into the late 1980's.Thankfully it is still standing, the new owners opting for presevation rather than demolition. Even though these houses may have been track houses in their day, they still represent and era in Houston that should be thoughtfully preserved. True, not ever structure is historical but keeping a group of homes standing together, instead of one here or there does alot to give the neighborhood it's desirable appeal.