SpaceAge

The Globe-Mervyn's-Oshman's building on the south west corner of I-10 @ Gessner is being demolished. About 50% of it was down by Monday night. Sage at I-10 @ West Belt was demolished earlier this year possibly for a detention pond and reconfigured interchange. Now Globe is gone too. No more early 1970's vintage discount big boxes.

The Globe building was 84,833 square feet on an eight acre site. HBJ from 11-10-03 lists the options for the site at that time were a Central Market, CVS, or leasing it to Memorial Hermann for their expansion. At that time discussions with Memorial Hermann were stalled.

Notice the way they have not renovated the outter strip of the parking lot of the former Service Merchandise where Office Depot and Oshman's are now located. It appears about 60 or 80 feet along the frontage will be taken by the new I-10 lanes. The whole jewelery store may have to go. This will leave the Oshman's center with an undersized parking lot for a building of that size. There may be some space on the side to develop more parking but it will not be as convenient.

If that same amount of widening occurs at the old Globe-Oshman's building, the roadway will be up to the north wall. It looks like the service stations there may be going away too. That will make the entry into the mall area look better.

A construction fence is going up around the former Globe Discount City-Mervyn's-Oshman's building.

What's going to happen?

Last night at the Rice Design Alliance Civic Forum it was announced that Houston Mod will assist RDA in planning their April tour. Any info on what may be included?

The tour is scheduled for April 2 & 3, 1-5 PM.

I called Mary Kay's son, Richard Rogers, today and left word with his assistant about the house. She seemed interested. I hope the info about the house is correct. I would hate to waste his time.

I drove by this house yesterday for the first time. It is still standing. It does not look all that bad compared to others around there. The one on the corner has the entire rear wall leaning and looks separated at the base. 2111 has a washing machine in middle of front porch as if being moved. The rest of the place is tidy with a truck parked at rear. This house should be saved to maintain the context of this historic area. This seems to be one of the oldest intact neighborhoods in Houston. Has anyone contacted Mary Kay's son about saving it?

Have you ever been to the 12th floor of the Central National Bank building? Can you see any remains of a night club or radio stations?

According to my 1969 city directory, it must consist of two buildings.

Central National Bank

2100 Travis

12 floors and a basement 10' ht.

Glenn H. McCarthy and The Cork Club- 12th floor

Paul & Paul Architects- 2nd floor

Several radio stations listed

Century Building

2120 Travis

14 floors and a basement 10' ht.

Kenneth L. Schnitzer- 8th floor

Fred Nahas- 4th floor (a local media celebrity)

HCAD has combined them on their site. Part of building is listed as built in 1956 and part in 1957.

295,000sf +/- total bldg, 1+ acre site

The parking garage was built 1961. Has office space on top of garage too.

Shown to have a new owner as of Jan 2002.

HCAD value 2004 is $2.8M

The 1957 date for the club may be correct. Yes, the building does look newer. Lars Bang and Lucian Hood, Jr. were out in front at the time style-wise.

I believe this is the photograph you are referring to. Is this the Central National Bank Building or the Cenuury Building? Or are there two buildings connected?

They are nice looking- much better than what would be put up now. The quality of detail could not be duplicated today with the cheap curtain walls, foam stucco, fake stone, or the apartment complex like town house lofts they are filling this area with. I am concerned this area will be in decay again in 10 years due to the lack of quality of the new buildings.

The Central Bank Building was a real swinging place-the second location of Glenn McCarthy's Cork Club in 1957 after he sold the legendary Shamrock Hotel to Hilton. Glenn McCarthy was known as "King of the Wildcatters" and was played by James Dean in the movie Giant. The Cork Club featured the top entertainers of the era including Frank Sinatra. (The last location of the Cork Club was to be at the office tower on Highway 6 at Memorial Drive in 1983 but the economic bust left that building unfinished for years and the club did not open.)

The Central Bank Building is said to be haunted, especially the top floor where the club was. In the 1980's the radio staions KKBQ 93FM and KULF/KKBQ 790AM

had their offices there. The best and most popular morning radio show of all times- the Q Morning Zoo staring John Lander, Jackie Robbins, Rio, Mr. Leonard, and Clete Dumpster- was broadcast from there. Ken Hoffman, with the Chronicle, was one of their writers. Jackie is now on the 107.5 morning show. They would often mention strange things that occurred in the building.

Recalling the lost information from the Lucian Hood III posts, architect Lars Bang had established a firm and Lucian Hood, Jr. later joined it. They had designed the office building in the Rice Village and the Big Doughnut shop, now the Marquies, on Bissonnet, west of Kirby, once shown on this site, and many other buildings and houses.

Bang and Hood split up while working on the Century Building because the developer, Kenneth Schnitzer, wanted to use an engineer that was his relative and Lars Bang wanted to use the engineer they usually used. Hood and Bang remained friends but Lucian Hood III believes they were destined for greatness if they would heve remained together. Schnitzer went on to build much of Greenway Plaza and the Richmond Office District.