marmer

I seem to remember you saying years ago that that house needed to be put out of its misery.

Go over to that house on Blalock instead. It's still there for the moment. 

 

The one we saw last weekend, right?  Have you found anything else about it?

Google Earth has b/w historical imagery from 1978 and 1989 which is fairly clear; maybe you can find them there.

http://dining.rice.edu/RetailContent.aspx?id=138

Hopefully the course is making enough money to pay for it's own upkeep. I haven't played there in about 4 or 5 years. I liked the old layout better. When the clubhouse and number 1 tee was up by the zoo. They used to share the same parking lot. They redesigned it I believe in the 80's. I like old courses like Herman and Sharpstown because they are good walking courses. Newer courses are not designed for walking. Of course I only play about 5 or 6 times a year. I don't even keep score. I just enjoy relaxing and being outdoors. That's the way golf should be played. Some people take it way to serious.

Google Earth historic imagery says the new clubhouse was built between 1995 and 2002. My guess is closer to 2002. I seem to remember it wasn't that long ago.

Vale's First Baptist Church sanctuary in Lake Jackson turned 50 last year and is intact. Easy to visit.

Really? That's Wylie Vale? It's kind of overshadowed by the newer 70's addition. I'll go look again. (I've been way too busy to get down there the past couple of months.) I've been there several times when I was younger for weddings and gigs but not since I started paying attention to architecture.

I posed a question on swamplot that has not been answered.

Based off the sales price, if available, if not hcad's appraisal, is it feasible for the developer to build anything smaller?

Related to that question is, how old is that complex anyway? I'm guessing it's old and I'm sure in 5, 10 or 15 years it was going to be close to unlivable and I seriously doubt anyone who owned or bought it would simply renovate the current space, right?

My basic premise is this, it seems like the developer probably had no choice in terms of the finance side. I could be totally wrong, just seeking some input.

edit: I did look at other properties like Gables on Bering and Post Oak Place apartments and the appraised values were very similar to 1717. Not sure if that's comparing apples to apples or not.

It was there, and old, in the mid-80's. It was renovated pretty thoroughly around 1995. I wouldn't assume it would be anything close to unliveable (even by Montrose standards) in 5 or 10 years.

Steak 'n' Shake is listed as "coming soon" on Pearland Town Center's website. All right!

Nice. Streetview is unusually good in this location.

I remember a few years ago getting a rare tour (on the Galveston Historic Homes Tour) of the Masonic Temple in downtown Galveston. A big part of what goes on is theatrical presentations of important ideas or concepts in Freemasonry. It's kind of an oversimplification to say this but one of the steps for Masons to advance in degrees is by learning and participating in these small plays. The Galveston Temple includes a beautifully kept hemp house from the 20s with lots of sumptuously painted scenic drops.

Isn't that the last surviving George Dickey building downtown? The Sweeney, Coombs and Fredericks building. http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/Building/2213/Sweeney-Coombs-and-Fredericks-Building.php

While the heraldic and family name information is certainly accurate, my sense is that the Houston apartments were just named by their original developers, probably after family members.

According to my salesman, Momentum Audi is going to be building a new 7-story dealership between Farnham and S Shepherd at 59 (the area behind 59 Diner) -- construction to start sometime in 2012 with completion in 2013

Cool. It'll probably be hard to park over there too, just like it currently is. If you have a salesman, perhaps you have an Audi? If so, welcome to the four-ring community.

A proscenium is an arch or similar structure surrounding a traditional stage. It hides the curtains and fly loft, if there is one. It can be clearly seen as a grand arch in the 1928 photo.

It is associated with opera houses and similar auditoriums and is in contrast to a thrust stage, where the playing area projects out into the audience (like the big Alley Theatre) or an arena theatre, where the audience surrounds a central playing area (like the small Alley Theatre.)

There are more photos of the City Auditorium in the Bob Bailey Collection. Bob Bailey Collection

The eBay photo is unquestionably the Houston City Auditorium. I admit the 1910 photo on Scotty Moore's web site looks very different. I wonder if the impetus for the remodel was the 1928 Democratic Convention. I know they built a special venue for it but maybe they spruced up the Auditorium for other events. Also, the face of public entertainment was changing fairly drastically between 1910 and 1928 with the increase in movies and the growth of jazz and the decline of vaudeville.

However, if you look carefully at the 1910 photo, it looks like the roof is not complete and the building is still under construction. But the column location and the balcony, as well as the floor boxes, are the same. Before 1928 it looks like a projection/control booth was added in the center of the balcony and a major reconstruction of the proscenium and wings occurred -- maybe for an organ, for speakers, or to mask more wing space for live performance (or likely some of all of that)

I think what the seller means by "Texas City" a city in Texas...sometimes the seller doesn't know that much about the item, they're just trying to describe it to the best of their ability.

We, on the other hand, know more about Houston & it's smaller neighbor, Texas City.

Or the caption could have been printed as Texas "City Auditorium".

BTW, I saw that new, small book about Texas City today at Barnes & Nobles.

Precisely. Is that an Arcadia book? The other ones are really cool.

Interesting. eBay is wrong but that's just a coincidence because there is a Texas City. It's clearly the old Houston City Auditorium.

Rice was here in 1980?

Yes, but only about a third of the buildings. ;-)

I started at Rice in 1980 and I remember some of that. I'm pretty sure Sonny Look's at 610 thrived until about 1985, Gaido's was gone by 1982 or so, Kaphan's and Dentler's hung un until the mid-80s also. I remember all the Westheimer places mentioned above. Valian's was gone by 1982 at the latest (pity) and Bill Williams was gone before I got there. Liquor by the drink was legal but the blue law didn't get repealed until 1984 or so, and yes, that was a very BIG DEAL.

The story I heard at the time was that Savitch was arrested when she physically attacked a Brazoria County Deputy Constable who had taken her camera-man's 16mm film camera away from him. She jumped on his back piggy back style.

Another deputy constable pulled her down and slapped cuffs on her. She was placed in a nearby police car, but she wasn't taken to jail because all the lawmen there were up to their ears handling crowd control and security around that small airport, and nobody had time to drive Savitch to the jail in Angleton. So they let her go on her promise to behave herself.

I was a news anchor for KPRC Radio at the time, and that's the story I heard from one of our reporters who was there.

Makes sense. I worked right after high school at Dow and one of my co-workers had been a volunteer fireman for many years. He was out there on the day and his recollection was similar. He said he always changed the channel whenever she came on after that.

I grew up in Pasadena in the 50s, and I remember that little air strip on Allen Genoa. I recall it was used mostly by crop duster pilots who were still flying those old open cockpit biplanes.

Here's a great Houston aviation trivia question. Does anybody here remember the time a National Airlines Boeing 727 landed at the tiny Dow Airport in in Lake Jackson? It really happened in July of 1972, when two guys hijacked the plane at LaGuardia Airport in NYC and tried to force a flight to Cuba.

For reasons I forget, the pilot flew to Houston, but instead of landing, he flew over IAH and put the plane down on a short runway at the county airport in Lake Jackson. He used every ounce of reversed thrust he had and every inch of that 5000 foot runway, but there they were, on the ground, at the mercy of a couple of crazy hijackers.

FBI, Texas Rangers, DPS and every county mounty barney fife and deppity dawg within 50 miles surrounded the place. It ended after several hours when the hijackers realized they and that plane weren't going anywhere and just gave up. The passengers were put on buses for the ride to Houston.

Then came the problem of what to do with the plane. That tiny airport was not built with big planes in mind, and there was brief talk about taking the plane apart and trucking the pieces back to the Boeing factory in Seattle. The pilot said if they lightened it as much as possible, he could fly it out.

So they stripped the interior down to the bare metal. Seats, overheads, wall paneling, carpeting, everything went, including the galley and the sink. They put in just enough fuel to take off and fly from Lake Jackson to IAH, and with just one person on board, the pilot, that plane did the best short runway takeoff a jet that big ever did.

He scraped the tree tops at the end of the runway but he made it and did a perfect landing at IAH about 20 minutes later. The control center cleared the air space for miles around so the pilot could get there in a straight line at minimum altitude. Lake Jackson old timers still talk about that day. The most excitement they ever had down there.

It's also remembered for being the day KHOU TV reporter Jessica Savitch attracted the networks' attention with her coverage of the end of the hijacking. Not very long after that, she moved up to an anchor job at the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, and the rest is history.

Yes. This is all true. I was eleven and living in Lake Jackson at the time. Savitch was arrested by (I think) Sheriff Robert Gladney for getting too close to the plane. Of course she was released shortly afterward.

I have no idea what is there now. Or if the theater building is even there any more. So sad. The Windsor was one of Houston's first Cinerama and Panavision screen movie houses, and showed first runs of many of the greatest movies of the 60s, 70s and 80s. It was really grand and expansive on the inside with a decor that would knock your eyes out.

At some point it was subdivided down the middle into two smaller theatres. That meant that all the seats faced the screens at an angle. I remember going there in the late 70's and early 80's.

Yep, crawled past there about 9:00 this morning. Poor guy. Condolences to his family and to METRO.

Oh wow!!! I never saw the Historic Aerials website before! I just spent a good half hour looking at the Addicks area from 1957, 1964, 1973, 1981, 2002, and 2004. Unbelievable that we have satellite photos going back that far (and in such clarity too). That clears up any mystery about the path of Addicks Fairbanks Road, I guess.

I guess now I sort of know what used to be built on the side of Addicks Fairbanks Road that I found in ruins last weekend. From the 1957-1973 photos, it is much less covered by trees, and I can see some sort of structure built there just before the road straightens out to the northeast near Bear Creek Park. There is also some sort of ditch leading to it running east-west.

The entrance to Hillendahl-Egglin cemetery is much clearer in the 1957 & 64 aerials. The little road spouts off from the 90 degree turn. This road is the only right of way all the way up to the 1981 photo, so the new Eldridge Parkway must have been done after 1981.

I also scrolled down south of Patterson, west of Addicks Fairbanks, and found the mysterious cross of trees buried deep within the greenery. According to the 1957 aerial, it used to be surrounded by cleared farmland, which makes sense that it was some sort of fish farm. There is also a road running east-west to Addicks Fairbanks directly below the circle/cross, which I presume is the forgotten Lamb Rd.

Not to be pedantic (who, me, pedantic? ;-) ) but most of the pre-twenty-first century photos are aerials, shot from airplanes, instead of satellites. Google Earth also has historic aerial imagery in some areas, and it is different from that on Historic Aerials.

Yes, the Arby's closed down. Also, I think one or two of the wine-bars imbedded in the Towncenter itself have closed down. I agree the competition is fierce. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more casualties.

Me too. As to why to leave the Pearland area, it's because there's still not a Steak 'n' Shake. The only ones are at Eldridge and 290 and way out the Katy Freeway.

Some of the stores have closed. Brooks Brothers was a fairly high-profile casualty.