kittysmith

I used the picture from the Houston Freeways website to place where I think some of the stores were located.

I'm not sure if White's was on the north or south side of Mading's drugs. I know that Penneys was on the west end and that Palais Royal was next to it. I don't remember the exact placement of Lew's, Playhouse Toys, and Tom McAnn, I just know that they were in the general area that I indicated with the arrow.

I remember that Woolworths' had a back door that opened out on the courtyard. They had a few check-out counters there and you could buy large ice cream sandwiches in that area of the store.

Does anyone remember that the Meyerland sign blew down during Hurricane Carla? It fell into the drugstore.

If anyone has a better memory than I do, please share your knowledge.

As a young teenager, I stood outside Lew's Records waiting for them to open anytime a new Beatles single was being released. I loved that place. Didn't it have those old listening booths? I think Lew's and Playhouse were right next to each other on the north side, but I'm not sure which was where.

My parents used to take me there in the early 80's. It has a cave and a ball pit I think. Only problem is nobody I have ever talked to remembers it and now that I am older and living in Houston again I would really get a kick out of knowing where it was. Seemed like it was so far away back then.

There was a place on a sloping patch of land at 610 and 59 that was like a homemade amusement park with crafts, mabe that was it? I used to take my son there in the early 80ies. There were pitch black tunnel mazes that you could crawl through -kinda scary - ball pits, dress-up areas. It was really informal and uncommercial. I hardly ever remember any staff being around. It was fun. Later there was a plant nursery on this patch of land and now it is just more freeway.

Gail & I were good friends in Jr. High. Her mother either owned or managed the Hermes (?) store in the square and her brother Skip, opened the headshop. Her Dad was in advertising or distribution, I think, because right before Cap'n Crunch was released on the market, their garage was filled with boxes of it. They lived on Landsdown, I lived on Cartagena and our lives pretty much revolved around the Square.

This just makes me ill. My father worked for Bob Cohen at Storecrafters (aka Triumph Industries and Architectural Woodworking), and we often drove over and watched the construction of this incredible home. It was a marvel, and like most marvels in my home city, it had to be bulldozed to make way for the mundane. I feel like I should sit shiva for it.

"The plant" -as we called it - where Daddy worked for Bob was on Yellowstone Blvd., almost right where it meets OST by the railroad tracks near Almeda. Cohen also designed this wonderful mod building. It too, was slated to be torn down; that was about three years ago, and I haven't been back by since. You might want to drive by; it may still be standing. I'd love to go back inside once more...spent many, many happy hours running around there on Saturdays when I was a kid. I have a photo of it taken the last time I went by, and will post it when I find it.