rreini

Thanks for this post. I hadn't know this was still in existence. The permit for Channel 11 had only been approved January 18, 1953, so almost certainly the building was erected that year.

By January, 1954, KGUL had signed a letter of intent to build studios on the 19th floor of the Prudential bldg. on Holcombe. Those studios would turn out to be 4 times the size of the studios in Galveston. Later that year, as Houston Consolidated Television rushed to get Channel 13 on the air out of the KNUZ-TV studios on Cullen when 39 failed, a legal battle broke out between 11 and 13 over 11's increasing activities in Houston since it was licensed primarily to Galveston. This included a move by 11 to a new tower closer to Houston according to one report but I haven't yet determined if such a move took place or when, but it's possible that facility was not in use for long.

Here's my post on the first day of KGUL-TV.

Didn't the transmitter move to Friendswood for a while -- more specifically, between Friendswood and Alvin on FM 528, fairly close to the Galveston-Brazoria county line? This tower was used by Channel 8 for many years afterward.

Going further afield, there used to be a Toddle House in League City on West Main (FM 518) just west of Hobbs Road (and thus west of the freeway). It's been a Waffle House for several years now.

Southwest Dodge 60s Channel 39

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaQ5_yJqJs

That dealership must have turned into Southwest Lincoln-Mercury, for that's what I remember at that location with the longhorn logo. Nice find there!

I made the same discovery about the rerouting of Old Galveston Road and posted about it here, starting at post #25:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?showtopic=17999&st=0

rreini, what year is the map of League City from that you downloaded?

My post referred to the same map, the one of "Friendswood" from 1919 (An Army Corps of Engineers tactical map). The map extended into Galveston County, but the detail there seemed to be less accurate than on the Harris County side. For example, the roads we know today as FM 2094 and the Kemah Cut-Off portion of FM 518 are shown, but they're out of position. The map legend admitted as much: "Area south of Clear Creek compiled from various sources."

I'd bet that it was realigned at some point. Looking at Google Earth, Old Galveston Road in Webster is a 1.76-mile road that clearly once led to a bridge over Clear Creek, connecting to Kansas Street in League City. Aerial imagery also indicates that an old right of way led from the intersection of Old Galveston Road at NASA Road One to the intersection of Highway 3 at Medical Center Dr.

I'd imagine that Dickinson Ave., which becomes Nichols Ave. in Dickinson, was also a former alignment. It sort of looks like a bridge over Dickinson Bayou was once there, and from 30,000 feet it looks like the whole section of Highway 3 from just south of Dickinson to the Galveston County line was at one time realigned as a bypass.

I've download several historic maps of the southeast Harris County and northern Galveston County areas from the Perry-Castaneda Map Collection at UT's website. The historic and topographical are the ones of most interest here. Especially of interest is a 1919 map of "Friendswood", which actually covers all of southeast Harris County from Pasadena down. It shows Galveston Road from South Houston down to League City, and the only place where it diverges from the railroad track is in Webster. Someone driving down Galveston Road would have come to a dead end at what is now Nasa 1, made that jog to the left to go down Old Galveston Road, and taken that across Clear Creek, ending up on Kansas Street in League City.

The map of League City is not as accurate as the Harris County side, so I can't say with certainty which way the road went after that.

I thought it was Johnny Rivers that did "Secret Agent Man". That was one of my favorite songs at that time.

It was indeed. Johnny Nash did "I Can See Clearly Now", "Stir It Up" and "Hold Me Tight".

I don't know where that would have been...BTW- What did the Pasadena Foley's look like, originally? It always had those palms and arches when I went there, like the one at Almeda. Like I said, it was very late '60's, more likely early 70's when I shopped there. The store had actually been there for quite a while, I was surprised to find out.

I'm quite positive that the front of the store looked nothing like the Almeda store at first. I probably would have gone there with my parents before Almeda opened. As I remember, it was single-story, and the Foley's name was spelled out in block letters, possibly lit red at night. The font was very similar to the one seen in the Bob Bailey pictures.

But did Foley's move into Dillard's (Joske's) after Dillard's closed the Joske's building to move to the original Macy's building, then temporarily moved into Wards then moved back after it reopened? That's what I'm wondering.

I'm pretty sure that Foley's moved into the old Wards store first, then arranged to have the old Joske's expanded after Dillard's had moved out. All of which led to one net result: Dillard's and Macy's switched buildings!

I kinda remember it on Nasa 1 near El Camino. I only remember going in there a couple of times, for I think I was a bit young for its heyday. I tended to visit the Radio Shack in League City....

Thanks for the link to the pics. It was great seeing the Pasadena Sears store again. That was the store my family used to shop at until the Baybrook store opened up.

Robertson Chevrolet was on the corner of Wayside, it was a white deco building with a big neon clock above the front door. The one with the rocket was McDavid and was the second dealership north of Woodridge, Metro Chrysler Plymouth was on the corner. Also there was Leeland Lincoln Mercury and Bob Marco Buick north of those on the same side. The one with the funny roof where Calhoun became the Gulf Fwy. across from UH was originally a Checker Dealer and then an MG dealer.

joe

That Chrysler dealership went through many ownership or name changes. In 1968, I remember it being Miles Hall Chrysler/Plymouth. We got one of our cars from there around that time.

Dr. Demento is the air name of Barrett Hansen, a Los Angeles radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music

parodies. He created the Dr. Demento persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM. After Hansen played

"Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said Hansen had to be "demented" to play that and the name

stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and from 1978 to 1992 it was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio

Network.

I have no idea which Houston radio station or stations have carried this show. It was still on the air as of last year. Here's a

link to his bio on the Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Demento

I'm not positive about this, but in the '79-'80 period, I think I remember it being on KLOL, Sunday nights, 9 PM. Very sure of the Sunday night, pretty sure about 9 PM, not sure about KLOL at all.

Definitely was not KPRC (trying to tie the original topic in)

"5. A colored tile bldg (1-story, orange, turquoise, yellow tiles, '60's style, maybe an architect or drafting office, X from Shlumberger) West"

The 1-story orange and turquoise sounds like a Howard Johnson's -- but that was on the east side of the freeway. And I don't remember that having yellow tiles, so you may be remembering something else.

"11. Car Dealership (Bob Robertson? w/ neon rocket sign) West"

Sounds like Bill McDavid Oldsmobile -- remember the ad "Bill McDavid, exit 7, Gulf Freeway"?

In fact, American Bandstand wasn't seen in Houston until the mid 1980s. I didn't see it until I moved to Corpus Christi.

Since the thread's been revived, I'll contribute something -- I do remember AB airing around '72 and '73. It might not have been on channel 13, though; I seem to remember it possibly being bumped to channel 26. I could be mistaken on that. But I definitely remember seeing Bandstand -- for some reason, an appearance by Cheech and Chong sticks out in my mind.

Holy crap!, 1979?. I can't believe I was off by that many years . But I do recall going to Sears when it openned and the rest of the mall not being finished. They were open before the rest of the mall.

I'm pretty sure everything opened at the same time. When my family first went up there, the entire mall was open, though every storefront was not necessarily filled. If there was a period where Sears was open before the rest of the mall, it was very short.

i don't remember a sears out there in 71 but that's not saying much (the aerial website doesn't appear to indicate there was one there either). i remember the mall opening ~1979 with sears, montgomery wards and joske's. this was a good complement to almeda since it had penney's and foley's. i do remember then mervyn's and macy's were added but can't pinpoint a year( 85 is what one website says macy's opening yr was). then in the mid to late 90's macy's closed in baybrook (joske's had already been bought out and changed to dillards in ~87) and dillards opened their 2nd store in baybrook where the former macy's was. this "newer" dillards was expanded and the original dillards closed.

here's where my memory goes cause i never was a fan of baybrook. if someone remembers what was, where macy's is now, then i can probably continue. i'm thinking it was ward's.

There was definitely NOT any Sears there in 1971. That corner was vacant until the mall was constructed. Sears has always been at that location since the mall's opening in 1978. Where Macy's is today, Joske's originally was, although I don't believe that the building is the original. The Penney's building is definitely not the old Ward's store remodeled; that store was leveled and rebuilt.

Can't really help with a precise dating of when the Mervyn's and original Macy's were built (I'd left the area by then), but 85 is in the right neighborhood.

I've just watched the first part of the documentary -- very interesting! And based on a news story mentioned in it, I can date it to April 1966. There was mention of the dedication of a statue of Abraham Lincoln on or near the 101st anniversary of his assassination (the statue wasn't in Houston but somewhere in Latin America, IIRC).

This is a fantastic resource web site! Thanks so much for posting it. It's fun to see the past patterns.

And, rreini, when was the last time you visited ol' League City?

It would have been last year, in October 2007. I might have been back this fall if Ike hadn't gone through.

Thanks for the updates, detached and bred. And another thanks to you, bred, for mentioning the Historic Aerials site. I used it to view what the area around Newport looked like in 1957 -- nothing? Only the ditch and Hobbs Road. Going up to 1964, I saw the beginnings of Newport and saw that our house had been built by then (we moved there in March 1965). And to add a bit of historical Houston to this, I panned up the Gulf Freeway into town -- tremendously different in 1957 from what I remember from later.

Okay, I'll buy that. Especially if you grew up in the area during that time and remember there being no overpass at 646. I was unaware of that....thank you!

So, if that is FM 528, then the building on the right is the Hooters I guess?

Nope... but I can't remember what it is or was. The "southwest" corner of the intersection had nothing major there until the late 80's. The only building I can remember between 528 and the cemetery was a small building (not the one in the picture) that might have been a gas station at one time. Last I saw it, gravestones were being sold there, I think. Then again, I can't remember the intersection with 528 ever looking like this. My earliest memories are of there being feeder roads but the main freeway being under construction. Maybe the building was torn down before I was old enough to remember it.

Checking the views on Google Earth -- this could indeed be from the 528 overpass looking south. But the perspective from 3002/646 can't be ruled out either, even though there was no overpass back then (perhaps it was taken from a mobile elevated platform). But I don't remember 3002 as a full interchange back then; it was just a highway crossover, so that would tend to argue against that. I am quite sure that it is definitely not from El Dorado looking north; the freeway bends too sharply for that.

If I were down there right now, I'd consider going out with a camera and attempt to reproduce that view...

Hmmm..i always thought that was a picture at 528 looking south because of the curve in the highway

but i see there is a slight curve north of 646 too. Anyone know for certain?

whichever direction the picture is looking, there are power lines in the background.

they could be the ones that run parallel to Sh96/Link rd today which would make the overpass 646 or maybe there is a set just north of Clear Creek that i cant remember right now.

The book "Houston Freeways" identifies this as looking northward from around the area of El Dorado Boulevard. But I've always felt it was taken south from FM 528/Nasa 1. It can't be from FM 646 (FM 3002 before that) because there wasn't an overpass there until the 70's. I remember it being an at-grade intersection until that stretch of freeway was made into a true freeway. I feel very confident in that, 'cause I grew up in Newport and would have passed that interchange frequently on the way to Dickinson or points south.

There may be some legitimate freedom of speech issues here, especially when the big inflatable is being used as a comment or a political statement. While driving by a construction site in Dearborn, MI, the other day, I passed by a picket line of unionized workers unhappy with the owners -- I didn't notice their specific grievances. Joining them on the picket line was a big inflatable rat.

I may have strayed but here are pics of League City when Hurricane Carla hit in 1961. You wanted pics of the era so here you go!

[url="

Hey, Vertigo, your URL got lost in the ether somewhere. I'd like to see those pictures.

You must have lived in Pecan Forest off Main Street. Do you know if the South Shore Harbor lighthouse was there all those years ago? It seems like a place that kids would have gone out to and explored if so.

Also, I know there were several airfields in League City besided Houston Gulf Airport.

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freema...htm#houstongulf

One where South Shore Harbor is now called Davis Auxillary Army Airfield #3.

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freema...on_SE.htm#davis

And one called the S & S Patrol Field where the Landing subdivision is now, hence the name, the Landing:

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freema...on_SE.htm#sands

The lighthouse dates from South Shore's inception in the early '80s. It certainly was not there when I was growing up there (65 to 81). Something else not there now is the original road bridge across Clear Creek, which would have connected Old Galveston Road to Kansas Street. I've heard third-hand stories originating with Art Goforth, principal of Clear Creek High in the '70s, that he and other neighborhood kids used to play on the remains of that bridge.

Thanks for the obituary on James Ross, tmariar. This certainly explains why Newport Elementary School was renamed in his honor. I note that three of his pallbearers have also been honored with schools being named for them (Landolt, Bay, Gilmore). And I went to school with Gilmore's son, also named Darwin.

Thank you! That is awesome! I can move all the way down main street with your description and visualize what it was like. I'm suprised by how many of those old buildings are still there!

A couple of questions:

Was the large shopping center at 518 and Hwy 3 there at this time? From your description of what WAS around, I would imagine that the shopping center had been built by this period as well.

I vaguely remember something being across from Clear Creek High School where the Whataburger is today. A hotel or motel maybe? Is this correct?

Was there anything at all out in east League City in the 1266/East 518/646 area where Hwy 96 is now?

That shopping center wasn't around in the '60s; it was built around 1970 or '71. That was where Kroger was when it first came to League City; a SuperX Drug was next to it. Down from SuperX was Western Auto, and in the other direction was TG&Y. The laundromat and Hill's Liquor have been there as long as I can remember. There was even an S. E. Teaff store there for a little while.

No hotels or motels by the high school; first hotel in town was the South Shore. The biggest thing I can remember on 1266 was the old Spaceland Airpark. There would have been a few houses out there, but I never went out there that much.