AmericanPsycho

Hello. I am new to this forum. I Googled Westbury Square and found this site and was thrilled to read so many posts from several years back now on the topic. I haven't seen WS since going there as a child and am sad to see that it has deteriorated. I remember going there from '70 to '76 (I was five in '70) when my parents decided we needed a bigger house (hence we moved to Fleetwood on Memorial off of Highway 6 - what a culture shock that was). If memory serves me, wasn't there a little shop that sold imports from Holland in WS? I still have a pair of earrings from that store that I have kept all these years. I think there was also a candy store? I remember the glass store. Wish I could remember the names of these places.

This is somewhat off topic, but I have also been trying to research a place that I remember going to as a kid in elementary school. I grew up on the edge of West U on Bissonnet right across the street from the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in a row of townhomes there. I attended West U Elementary and I remember going on field trips to a place that I think was called "The People's Place of Houston" - my closest comparison of it would be a mini-Epcot inside a building with different "countries" that we kids visited to learn about their culture. If anyone can confirm this for me, I would love it and if I am not off base, would love to hear any stories you have about it that might help jar my memory.

My mom passed away recently and I began making notes of things that I fondly remember as a child and these places are some of those wonderful memories.

Look forward to checking back for more info.

Prob. way before my time, I was born in 83'. But I would be really curious about the mini Epcot-esque place you speak of was -- anyone have a clue?

Update on Westbury Square legal case.

City Attorney informed civic club the case has been moved to sometime between July 27 and August 7.

I don't have the details, when I do I will let y'all know.

yes please do. I would like to try and sit in

This is all very good news, Dr. Food. Thanks for the updates. Westbury is such an enormous, solid residential area that is can clearly support new retail. CVS, HEB, these would all be terrific additions to the neighborhood. It would be great to see some more mom & pop-type local establishments open, too, though I guess that's unlikely these days.

Yes, thank you. DrFood for all of the updates. I understand your frustration with people spreading rumors about the crime in Westbury. However, I can't fully blame people for thinking this. When people drive by and see WS, and all run down junk we have around, its only natural to assume the worst. That's why it's so important to get this stuff out of here. I hope Clubberbuck gets on the ball, I was never able to get a hold of her a couple of years ago, so far I'm not impressed.

Does the closing of the Centrette include getting rid of the boarded up area that used to be a rehab center, and I think a laundry place?

The theater is an interesting group, they basically seem to get by on word of mouth. I've been meaning to go see some shows over there, some of them are pretty good. I agree that they could do more to get to know the residents as to not appear snobbish.

Lastly, what's the deal with the Cozy Corner, that is next to the old Post Office. That place has been around for years, I'm assuming its a bar? Such a weird location, what type of people hang out there? -- any friendly neighborhood folk?

The latest news about Westbury Square.....

There is a trial scheduled in Harris County Civil Court against the owner(s) of Westbury Square. The trial has already been scheduled a couple of times before and keeps getting postponed. Gotta love attorneys. I do not have the details. You might contact the Westbury Civic Club to get further details about the trial or look it up in the Harris County Courts web site.

The sno-ball trailer that has been located in the parking lot since 1994 (that's when I moved here, it might have been there before) has not reappeared this year and the electric meter that has been used by them is no longer on the pole in the parking lot. Not sure if they've decided not to come back this season or not.

All of the awnings facing W. Bellfort have been taken down. From what I can see the roofs still have no shingles on them.

Due to the economic conditions the retail that had been planned for across W. Bellfort (townhomes were torn down) is on hold.

Located east of Westbury Square at W. Bellfort/Chimney Rock is the old Westbury Centerette. The Centerette is scheduled to be torn down. It appears that the only structures to be left will be the Pizza Hut and AutoZone. The remainder will be demoed and replaced. Including the old Exxon station that was abandoned.

That's great news, I'm going to contact the Civic Club. I want to make sure I have all the details on this. Is Anthony Antonini the current owner?

Thanks for the updates, did not know any of that.

Any other news?

Again, the problem with Westbury Square is that the owner has no desire to fix the place up. I've lived in Westbury since 1994. The Westbury Civic Club and COH have been working to get the problem fixed. The problem is the absentee owner. There's more to the story about the current owner but I won't type it in public forums because who knows who reads these things.

Last year before Ike the COH gave the guy 30 days to fix up the property. There was a public hearing where I believe all member of City Council and the Mayor and if I recall about 20 folks from Westbury showed up and the owner was told fix it or we will. Then Ike hit.

I drive by the square 2x a day as I have for the past 14 years. I've seen it go from a mess to a bigger mess.

There are some plans on paper to bulldoze the square and the shopping center w/99 cent only. The discussions included the following.

1. Building a Harris County Library on the site.

2. Building a new fire station to replace the one on Chimney Rock.

3. Build a small police storefront

4. HEB has wanted to build a large format store since they closed the Pantry back in the late 90's (now 99 cent only). They are still interested.

5. Build some combination retail/loft style apartments or condos.

6. Tie Home Depot into a shopping village.

7. Petsmart and Petco have both expressed a desire to have a store in the area. Ideal location.

I don't remember the rest of the plans that were discussed, but all that needs to happen is bulldoze the square and progress can happen.

There are plans there, we just have to figure out how to get the COH to move the current land owner.

Thanks for the updates, did not know any of that.

The owner was in jail for tax evasion several years ago. He's a well known slum lord that owns a lot of property in Houston, all of it run-down. I dealt with him briefly in the 90's over a high rise he owned that was in very bad condition. He's a MAJOR asshole that does not care about his properties or tenants. Until the City of Houston grows some balls and takes over neglected properties like this I'm afraid nothing can be done. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

I will say he was not single handily responsible for the WS demise. A group out of NYC owned the square for a while in the late 70's, early 80's and that's when the neglect started and the place began to deteriorate.

I agree, the City needs to grow a pair. Since however they are unreliable as I found out, even at the council level, there are probably some things that we can do.

Other more knowledgeable people can jump in if I'm mistaken about this, but I think in the last several years there have been some anti-graffiti rules put in place where citizens can call 311 and report graffiti. Then the city contacts the owner of the property and said owner has a certain time frame to clean it up, and if they don't the city puts industrial grey paint on the walls in violation. This might be a start at least in terms of getting the city's attention.

Man, I didn't know there was anything left of WS. My best memories are of the

candle shop, the basket store, the jewelry store and the best; Village Inn when

Freddie Powers and the Powerhouse were playing there. (He worked with Willie

Nelson later, if I recall.) The place was packed on the weekends.

Here's a picture I found of the Square in the good days:

Cool picture.

Hello all. Although I currently live in the med center, I grew up in Westbury for most of my life. I am a more recent grad of Westbury High (class of 2002) and as many can surmise was a far experience from its glory days.

In any case, during college I became somewhat politically active and interested in the idea of helping clean up Westbury. I will sum up the information and experiences I had:

One of the first things I did was contact an acquaintance of mine, David Wallace the former mayor of Sugar Land. The reason being is that he has extensive experience with construction. One of his upcoming projects is known as Waco Town Square which you can read about on his Wikipedia page. But getting back to the story. I went on a car tour of Westbury with him and showed him the area around the Centrette building, and of course Westbury Square. He was appalled by what he saw, and he gave me some suggestions of things to do, in order to get the ball rolling on cleanup.

I contacted the appropriate council people, and got to dead end after dead end. I even went so far as to contact the management company of the Centrette who told me that the owner is basically an absentee deadbeat who mostly lives in Florida. What a POS he is.

After many hours spent I can't say that I did much good. As a general question though, I would be interested to hear ideas from people on how political pressure can be put on the borderline criminal owners. to clean these areas up. I also understand the owner of W.S. is / was in jail for some time. I personally think there should be enforceable laws that prohibit people from leaving property in sub par shape. At the very least W.S. could be demolished and turned into a dog park, an extension of the community center, there are countless things that could go there. I know that its nice to have some sort of memory of a once great place, but I truly wish there was a way to fight these slums and start getting Westbury to look the way it deserves.