Specwriter

Anyone have any old photos of Frizell's Pontiac at Gulfgate?

Here's one from the internet. I apologize for it being so small and blurry. I'm pretty sure the tan car in the foreground is a 1973 Pontiac Grand Prix.

The red Chevrolet Blazer with the white top must be a 1973 model or later as well. Notice that Frizzell is also an AMC dealership at this time.

"3040 Woodridge, next to Gulfgate; where you get a whale of a deal." Mascot was a cartoon whale.

Retrofit a driverless system into a 1979 Lincoln Continental with pillowtop seats and a jello tuned suspension and the passengers will have an isolation booth on wheels.

but will the requisite video games/wi-fi enhance or detract from the total isolation experience?

Please don't rush to excitement, but can someone confirm whether or not the clock has been blasted or perhaps repainted a dark grey?  I drove by on 45 around 8 this evening and the paint looked a lot darker.  It may have been the lighting but it was enough to get me hopeful.

I look forward to the return of the clock. Why do we need a clock on top of a building when we have every other means of telling time? Heck, my car has both an analog clock face on the instrument panel and a digital read out of the time in the corner of the 'info-tainment" screen. Surprisingly they remain synchronized!

This is why we need a highly visible clock: Even something as anachronistic as a sundial, is a good reminder that life is cyclic. Morning,  evening, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, epochs, eras, what-have-you; things that measure time keep us mindful of the rhythms that influence our lives.

In Seabrook a round-about was created when Lakeside Drive was extended to intersect Repsdorph Road. Just last week a four-faced, Victorian style clock appeared in the center of the round-about. It hasn't been hooked up to a power source yet (it has shown 1:30 since I first noticed it last week) but it looks grand and goes well with the newly installed 'cast iron' street lights. I assume the faces will be back lit when power is turned on.

It will be a nice addition to the street scape, at least until some yutz mows it down with an automobile. One of the street lights on the outside of the round-about met an early demise that way less than a month after the round-about was opened.

That VCR was pretty big. So was the announcers hair.

Corrrea, Tucker, Springer, and, of course, Altuve. Lovin' it.

Great find, Blisstoria. The story of Candace Mosler, her murdered husband, Jacques, and relationship with her nephew, Melvin Powers, ranks up there with the Joan Robinson Hill/Dr. John Hill and Cullen Davis sagas of Texas. I wonder if that played any part in the selection of this house for the movie. 

now taking bets on how long it will be before some worthless POS who hangs in the area tags the brick....

Metal panels would clean right up with some Varsol.    Seriously, there are some anti-graffiti coatings that can be put on masonry and they are fairly effective. Unfortunately, they need to be reapplied periodically and after each time the graffiti is removed. Given the probability of tagging, I hope someone thought to add this to the brick.

I wonder if having a 605 foot Space Needle would have affected the heights of the buildings built here...

If you mean, would developers, designers, and building owners honor the height by avoiding building above it I doubt it. I believe the only thing that keeps Houston from having a 100+ story building is economic reality.

I never knew that Houston was a proposed site for the 1962 World's Fair. We could've had a Space Needle!

That would have been so appropriate for this city - even more so than for Seattle. At 605 feet the Space Needle would now be dwarfed by many buildings here. San Antonio's Tower of the Americas is 622 feet and, I believe, still the tallest structure in Bexar County.

This location is no longer listed as a future development:

 

https://www.surgehomes.com/homesites

Pity. We were at the game on Tuesday night and discussing that it would be nice to have a place near MinuteMaid and BBVA but not directly across from them.

or one of those enormous inflatable advertising balloons that you see on top of car dealerships or buildings that are hosting a grand opening!

Just pop a space helmet on that gorilla and you're good to go.

For some reason the Harris County Clerks site is not available right now but I went to the appraisal district web site and believe I've at least identified the parcel I mentioned earlier. The address given is 2230 Repsdorph. It is on the other side of Repsdorph from the tract shown on your attachment, BigFootSocks. I will try the Harris County Clerks site later and see what I can find out.

The link below is to the appraisal district's description of the property. When I told my wife about the clearing and surveying going on she said someone she works with once told her that parcel belonged to the Catholic Church meaning the Houston-Galveston Diocese. If you go to the link, and open the window for Ownership History, it does in fact indicate that a previous owner was former bishop John L. Morkovsky. Whether that means he owned it personally or was in his name as the principal of the Diocese I don't know.

http://www.hcad.org/records/details.asp?crypt=%94%9A%B0%94%BFg%84%93%82%7Ble%8El%87tXt%60W%9E%99%A2%D3%89%95%C2e%7CU%8A%81%86%C0%AB%A8%AD%86%5E&bld=1&tab=2

Now that I like with the helmet cradled in the astronaut's arm and his hand extended. The spacesuit is much more realistic even in its degree of abstraction. The other reminds me of the Sta-puf marshmallow man in Ghostbusters.

Not sure it's "better", but SMUs campus is definitely up there with Baylor and Rice.

Don't overlook Trinity University in San Antonio either. It is a very nice melding of regional and Modern architecture.

As I said about the new Rice Field House earlier this year, the University has the money and the will to experiment and do things on a scale one may think more grand than would be normal for an institution of its size. There you have it.

While most of the newer buildings on campus push the envelope the original quad remains pretty much (with the exception of the Fondren Library) true to William Ward Watkin's original intent.

These newer buildings on campus don't necessarily have to be "commercially successful" so this is probably the most appropriate venue to experiment with architecture. Think of some of the "show cars" from the opulent auto shows of the 1950. Some where very well received and pointed to the style of the future and some faded away into history.

That's interesting, BigFootSocks. Lot 1 has a newly opened Valero station on the corner. The lot behind it was being cleared of dead trees yesterday. I guy in a front-end loader was bringing the tree stumps across the street to the lot just north of Bosone's auto repair and self-storage.

It was on the lot across from the two shown on the re-plat (on the east side of  Repsdorph and north of Bosone's) where I saw the survey crew. There was much more involved earth moving on that lot than on the two shown on the re-plat also.

It could be lots on both sides of the street are being developed. I pass through here frequently so I'll let everyone know of the progress. An old real estate agents sign still stands on the lot to the east of Repsdorph but I expect to see a new sign, with at least a hint of what is going on there, to appear soon.

Awesome. This guys needs a HAIF "medal of honor", if there is such a thing.

It will probably be a shoe-in for a Preservation Houston Good Brick Award.

Just north of where Repsdorph intersects NASA Road 1 a good size tract has been cleared of underbrush and most trees (many of which were dead anyway). Late this morning I also saw a survey crew. They were even pulling manhole covers to get the elevations of the storm sewer inverts. This tells me there must be some type of construction imminent. This is within the city limits of Seabrook.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2200+Repsdorph+Rd,+Seabrook,+TX+77586/@29.565271,-95.0414771,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x863f62664b1ca85f:0xbe406590798c3d41 

They are All advertising gimmicks.

True that. I think about Tri-Color (subtle huh?) used car lots around town displaying almost all the flags of North and Central America. It does draw attention. Let's be honest too, the 100 foot tall astronaut is just a specific and more permanent version of the inflatable gorilla or that goofy column thing with the face painted on and the flailing arms.

All kevetching aside, this does look like a fun addition to the Clear Lake - League City area.

Just an interesting little tidbit-

JW Neal and his son both had grand homes in Avondale -- both on Avondale Ave.

Americans love their coffee. 

Contrast is good and having the first floor corner pulled back to "reveal" the columns is a nice feature too. I just wish they had been clad in stone or even metal panels instead of brick. 

Iron Tiger, was the grocery at Gulfgate also a Weingarten's? The only others in the city at the time I can think of are Lewis & Coker and Henke.

By the way, it would seem having a grocery store at the revived San Jacinto Mall would be a good thing. I hope it all works out.

Was there ever a grocery store at the original Gulfgate Mall? I grew up on the north side of Houston and we never ventured south of downtown for shopping. There was a Weingarten's at the Northline Mall I remember distinctly. It was off a side corridor at one end of the mall. Of course, it had an entrance from the parking lot as well.

I'm o.k. with the LAX knock-off (the future of travel and all that) but why oh why do we need 100 foot statues (probably made of plastic no doubt)? It is difficult to make something that large look proportional from both near and far anyway. The Sam Houston statue in Huntsville is evidence of that. I was surprised when I first saw the Statue of Liberty up close that even she, as beautiful from a distance as she is, looks a bit squatty close up.

Besides the proportion issue why is it we feel the need to 'amp up'' everything? Again, I'm complaining about the proposed astronaut statue. It's not good enough to have a nice chorus singing Christmas songs during the holidays. There must be a 'human Christmas tree' with 500 members belting out Away in a Manger  and Silent Night at 100 decibels. Hopefully those who can't sing will be drowned out by the others. 

Is the car dealership that flies a 100 foot by 60 foot American Flag (that by the way is not lit at night as it should be) more patriotic than one that flies a 15 foot by 9 foot one? The former smacks of 'advertising gimmick.' Talk about wrapping one's self in the flag. . .

By the way, the LARGE cross near Beltway 8 and the Gulf Freeway doesn't seem all that jarring to me at least. The proportions are pleasing and it doesn't have "Jesus Saves" in neon on it. The sentiment itself is one I endorse but I don't need to see it in 10 foot high letters.

I drove past yesterday - my first up close look since all exterior work was completed. The brick columns really don't 'fit' with the rest of the exterior but this renovation is a huge success overall. My compliments to those who made it happen.

Wow, I thought for sure this thing was destined for the wrecking ball. It looks like it should be condemned. Fantastic news!

I'm delighted to think this building will be restored. It does look pretty rough but one of the great things about modern technology is we have very effective ways to restore 100-year-old (and older) buildings back to their original appearance. This is especially true for concrete and masonry which, of course, this building is.

In the past, every time I drove past this building I felt both hope and dread. Hope that someone would restore it and dread that no one would. It appears that hope won. Yay!