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On 5/2/2015 at 7:32 PM, ArchFan said:

Interesting thread.  I attended Spring Branch Junior High, back in the day.  What was the gas station next door, a Conoco?  I think that later become a "food place" and even later a "plant house".

 

The first JITB i remember was in the Heights in the 60s, I think it lasted a long time.  I bought a lot of jeans at Bilao's on US90/I10.  Thanks for sparking some good memories!  It's amazing how things change.

Po-Mac's Burgers & Tall Plants.

On 5/24/2015 at 3:40 PM, ArchFan said:

US 90 / I-10 was certainly a focus for shopping places of the 50s-60s-70s era.  Bilao's Department Store was certainly prominent, I remember getting paper book jackets with their advertising on them.  I can also remember the Western Skies Motel, but that is really way back.  On Bunker Hill just south of the highway, there was a small center with (I think) a Lewis & Coker grocery store,  a so-called dime store, and a mexican restaurant.  Also a drugstore owned by a Mr Yee, as well as a U-Tote-Em convenience store.  For a while, there was also a place called Cumming's Cupboard, which offered very good chocolate milk shakes for the astounding price of 35 cents.

Old high school yearbooks are a wealth of historical information - 1964:

My sister worked at the Sakowitz, a center piece of the open shopping acreage lay-out, in 1968-70. That store had a fabulous central entrance, with a large mosaic fountain as a focal point. https://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/12/ever-shopped-at-sakowitz/ We bought our first puppy, in 1970, at a pet store which was located in the open air shops, just northeast of the former Joske's site. My school friend's parents owned the Mini-Max grocery on West Belt. I have a lot of fond memories from that shopping center, especially when it was in its first incarnation, though I shopped there when they added the 3 story enclosed mall in the 1980's, as well. You knew it was sadly going down hill, in the later 1980's when all they could offer, on the open space that once held the little shops, was a wet t-shirt contest. I was glad it revitalized into another multi-use shopping center as time went on.

On 1/15/2016 at 7:56 AM, TwainMark said:

Glad I found this thread.  I too was there for the tornado, in the dressing room.  Don't recall if we were getting ready or had just finished, but I do recall a young lady who was standing by the front door got showered in glass when it blew out and they rushed her to the dressing room, stripped her down and put her in the shower to try to wash off what they could.  Conflicting emotions for a hormone-ravaged teenager, to be sure.

 

I too played hockey there from the day it opened till I went off to college in 1976.  Worked there off and on also.  I'm betting some of us here know each other.  Met some of my heroes from childhood up north... Gordie, Bobby Hull and others.  Had some interesting experiences when they practiced there, such as the time I was sweeping behind the bench and goalie Don McCleod skated over in a panic and says "hey kid, I need Bobby, go find him, quick".  Bobby was Bobby Brown the trainer.  I track him down and say Don's in trouble, so he runs over to the bench and McCleod tells Bobby to get him a cigarette RIGHT NOW!  I thought that was hilarious; different times for sure.  

 

One thing I know is that it was torn down for the post office.  I remember being around when they built that as it struck me as a really cool building for a PO.  It was situated slightly east of IH and probably overlapped it's footprint a little bit. 

 

What I was searching for when I landed here was someplace I can purchase a copy of that photo from the Post/Chron archives or elsewhere.  Reason being that I am in that photo and still have an old copy plucked from the paper.  Found it recently when searching for something else, and it's getting pretty brown now almost 42 years later.  If anybody had any leads on that, I would be most appreciative.

I have an original, promotional Houston Aeros hockey puck from the 1970's

On 8/28/2013 at 0:33 AM, ranger13 said:

I used to work at the Ice Haus in Town and Country Village back in the seventies. I also played junior hockey and later in a men's league. I have many memories of the Ice Haus and a lot of wonderful people who worked and visited there. Not only do I remember the tornado that came through the area, but I was in the rink getting ready for a game when it hit. I could see the roof trusses rise up and settle back down as the tornado passed overhead. It eventually went across the parking lot to the hotel across the way and sucked all the windows out of the back of the building. I still have the newspaper clipping from the Houston Chronicle discussing the incident which included a picture of the entry to the Ice Haus. All the information about the farmers market next door is correct. They used to open the doors between the market and the rink to allow shoppers to come in and watch the skaters. The building was not torn down, but converted into a Post Office. If you're interested I can post the picture I mentioned.

 

To great memories.

Very nice info! I did double check historicaerials.com and the post office was, indeed, a new build (I believe in time for the 1976 Bicentennial - I also believe that building has its same red and blue paint job from 1976, much deteriorated), just to the east of the ice rink/antique mall building. The area where the old ice rink building was became redeveloped into the glitzy Town & Country Mall of the 1980's. I looks like a parking garage took over most of the space. You can see it all on historicaerials.com

On 8/10/2016 at 9:07 AM, anthonytexas said:

Hi. I'm trying to get a feel for the Village Way Apartments back in the early 80's.  We moved in 1981 and stayed there for 5 years. These years were the earliest part of my youth. Friends and I would play around the large lots in front of the apt sections.  I remember my dad car was broken into.  I would drive back through Village Way once in a while, but the Concorde Apartments are there now. Wondering if anyone else grew up there and had stories to share.

historicaerials.com first shows the apartments, on Wirt, south of Hempstead Hwy., in their 1973 aerial.

I think there was a Globe across from Town & Country Mall, if you are heading South on the beltway feeder from I10 It was immediately on the right. am I right about this???

I was waiting for this thread to mention the west side stores. That was Sage. The Globe in the Memorial area was in the SW corner of Gessner and I-10, just west of Memorial City Mall (where the new hospital/hotel has just been built). It can be seen in historicaerials.com, starting from 1973 on up to 2004. It must have been used as a different store after it quit being Globe in the 1970's, but I can't remember what store took over.

Sage was in the SW corner of Beltway 8 and I-10. I remember that Sage on West Belt was the only store that could sell clothes on Sunday when I was trying to buy some new clothing for school that was starting on Monday! Sage was nicer than Globe. Globe was like a K-Mart. Sage can be seen in historicaerials.com from 1973 until 2002. The land was then taken over by the highway department for use in the construction of Beltway 8 - I-10 interchange. The site is now a water retention pit.

I remember that there was also an antique/flea market mall, with vendors having stalls within, on the south side of this building. We would stroll around, looking at all the stuff for sale. The site where the building stood is now where townhomes have been built, to the west of the post office.

Well, I am certainly glad to have come across this thread while searching for something totally different! I have been fascinated by this house since about 1989, as I drove past the back side of it on I-10. The wonderful brick architecture, in an area that typically held wooden frame homes, was very intriguing. About 10 years ago, I was determined to find the front of this house and did some road navigation to find it way back off of Houston Street. Back then, the area had already declined to a sad state. Now, with the developments over the last 5 years, I can see why this property has become lucrative, and I hope it is restored.

Thanks for the wonderful research.