Dave W

I couldn't remember when that Ramada Inn was built, so I searched for it under 2121 Buffalo Drive and found a link. That dates it to pre-1961, since that's when Buffalo Drive's name was changed to Allen Parkway.

Gary Smith's Plantation Club At 215 Milam St. in Market Square was in business from the late 60s to the early 70s. No relation at all to the Plantation on South Main near Playland Park.

The Plantation on South Main did serve hard liquor but it was primarily a dining and dancing club. Some major orchestras played there.

It was originally built as a Ramada Inn. Allen Park Inn was the same building(s).

31 minutes ago, brucesw said:

Okay, staring us in the face - check out the listings for Auto Imports and Auto Sports LTD in the list from 59 above -Auto Imports had a lot next door to Wendell Hawkins on Kirby and Auto Sports Ltd had one on Westheimer, a used car lot on Kirby, and another location in Pasadena.  The one on Westheimer I don't remember at all but is maybe the one Dave W is referencing?  

That's the one. The Westheimer location was the original. Our next door neighbors bought a new Volvo PV544 there in 1958. My dad later bought a new Volvo 122 there.

I have no idea why we didn't notice that in the listings.

Could have been AutoSports, but I'm skeptical. They were originally on one of the east/west streets -- Westheimer or W. Alabama -- and were primarily a Volvo dealer. Maybe also MG. Later they moved to much larger quarters on the SW Freeway and had more lines.

The dealership on Kirby handled Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and Triumph, maybe others.

12 hours ago, brucesw said:

Okay I cleared up some of my confusion.  I see the list posted by Ross was from '59, not '76.  I couldn't reconcile my memories of the (upscale) import dealership on that corner in the late 70s with Wendell Hawkins still on that list.  I think (not an expert) all those cars in the pic were late 50s Chrysler products.  That red (Imperial?) on the grass is a huge car.

Interesting to see 2 Olds dealers downtown, Sam White and Bill McDavid, plus Sam Montgomery on Kirby.  I don't remember the Sam Montgomery facility at all.

I do remember DeMontrond Buick on Kirby at Westheimer; later became Hub Buick and was there for a long time after I got to town.

That appears to be a 1960 Chrysler in front of the showroom, and that's a Valiant (first model year was 1960) backing up to the Imperial.

I definitely remember Sam Montgomery Olds and his Sam the Rocket Man commercial jingle. Later moved to I-45 at Rankin Rd.

Another dealership in that general area was Jimmie Green Chevy at Shepherd & Westheimer. Tom Gray, the Nissan dealer, later bought it but kept the Jimmie Green name.

12 hours ago, FirepowerRKBA said:

Dave, thanks for clearing some of that up.  I remember Eagle and Gemco.  They were both part of the same corporation, if memory serves.  I'm not familiar with Curly Fox and Texas Ruby.  That's horrible about Ruby.  It's still part of our history, though.

Would Grocer's Supply be the wholesaler you're thinking of?  I remember GS trucks coming to Sacco's loading dock.

Does anyone remember "Food Giant" here in the Houston area?

You're right, Eagle and Gemco were part of the same company.

It wasn't Grocer's Supply, it was the other big wholesaler. Grocer's Supply also had a similar program but without a group name. I'm not surprised that Sacco was using them by the late 70s, they had de-emphasized their Lucky 7 roots before then.

I do remember Food Giant stores. They were owned by Belden's.

Curly and Ruby left Houston about 1958. Since you're  61, you wouldn't remember.

I remember driving by it. Like Bruce, I remember it as an import dealer, and that was by the early 1960s, b/c that dealership carried the Jaguar XK-E when it first came out in 1962.

By about 1970, River Oaks Chrysler-Plymouth had the dealership on Kirby, just south of the SW Freeway.

Now that's a real mystery. 1101 Bell would be Bell @ Fannin, not near Macgregor. I can remember us eating at the Green Parrot in the mansion on Macgregor in the mid 50s, possibly as early as 1955. Can't remember exactly. It must have been originally on Bell for a short time, b/c there weren't two operating in Houston at the same time.

There were three Green Parrots, all owned and operated by members of the Toothman family: in Kansas City, St. Louis (Kirkwood), and Houston. This article describes the history and mentions that the Houston Green Parrot was opened in 1952. But it doesn't mention the location.

http://www.vintagekansascity.com/food-and-drink/greenparrotinn/mrsjbdowd.html

The Lucky 7 brand name was owned by one of the big local wholesalers (whose name escapes me at the moment). The retail stores were all independently owned and were supplied by the wholesaler on a revolving credit basis.

If you remember when Eagle Supermarkets came to Houston in the early 70s, they were actually part of a California based chain called Lucky Stores, Inc. But they had to choose a different name in the Houston area to avoid confusion with Lucky 7.

We watched the Curly Fox and Texas Ruby show regularly. They were both very talented but never quite made it big. They moved on to Nashville and were living in a trailer home. One night when Curly was performing at the Opry, Ruby fell asleep while smoking. The trailer caught fire and Ruby died.

3 hours ago, EspersonBuildings said:

You're welcome.  Interesting post you wrote.  BTW, you are correct, the low rise behind the building under construction is indeed the former APC Building.  This is a guess on my part, but I don't think Bill Williams would have been visible from this angle because it was located immediately north of Dryden (where the Marriot now stands but facing Main).  This would be just below the motor bank with drive throughs on either side in this picture.  I could be wrong on this but thanks for making me pick my brain.  

You're correct about the location of Bill Williams. It was north of Dryden, and Youngblood's Fried Chicken was in the block north of Bill Williams.

The map in your first post is sideways, but it's more or less correct.

I think that the busy street is Chimney Rock.

I don't remember the one on Beechnut but I do remember the one on Willowbend Blvd. It was on the north side of the street shortly before the railroad tracks going into the Willowbend subdivision.

There was a brief trampoline center craze in the early 60s. Most were franchises. They were installed at ground level and were inexpensive to build and get going. You'd drive by and see a bunch of people just jumping up and down. I never understood the appeal.

The fad didn't last long,maybe 2 or 3 years. Then these centers all disappeared.

54 minutes ago, mkultra25 said:

Can't imagine that the actual sign on the motel grounds really looked like the illustration in the ad, which is a dead ringer for a Holiday Inn sign. Had to have been a not-too-subtle attempt on the part of the Mitchell's owners to make people think, consciously or subconsciously, that there was some connection to the much better-known national chain. 

It wasn't quite a dead ringer, but yes, it really looked like that.

One of my sons stayed there in 2005 when he came in for a relative's 90th birthday party.

That was originally the Las Vegas Motor Hotel. It opened about 1960. There was a little strip shopping center under the same ownership; it faced Buffalo Speedway. It had a convenience store called The Pantry at one end, an Uncle Van's Pancake House at the other, and a few small shops in between including a barber shop and beauty salon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256093315574

I believe it was already there by 1960, but not much earlier. It was a franchise.

Or Mr. Drane could have operated it as a sole proprietorship before then.

It was rundown and old looking even back in the 50s, hard to believe it was new in 1946.

Bruce, I don't know when the "State" was dropped from their name, but back then all FDIC-insured banks had to have either National or State in their names. Obviously the change must have taken place by 1970.

1 hour ago, Highrise Tower said:

Here's a bank money bag with a rendering of the Fannin State Bank located at 1020 Holcombe Blvd.

Interesting. I must have forgot there was a single-story building as well.  I thought the high-rise tower was apart of the Fannin State Bank? Did the tower get built afterwards for another bank? I believe 1020 Holcombe was also another bank as well.  I'm confused.

That was the original building. I believe that's the same building that additional stories were added on top of in the early 60s.

I don't remember that restaurant. But when I was still a child in the 50s, the only owner of Pier 21 was George Dentler, son of the man who founded Dentler Maid potato chips. If Roland Busch ever owned it, it would have been earlier.

1 hour ago, ADeGregori said:

I went there when I was young - I was probably less than 10 when it was torn down - but I remember clearly that there were always two women there. Rose sat at the cash register and her friend stood behind her and wrapped and sacked items for customers. It was always said that she was a Holocaust survivor, though I never saw a number. Maybe she moved back to Germany in the 20s or 30s. I'll ask my dad, he will know.

It's always possible that she went to Germany, but she couldn't have gone back there because she was never from there. She was born in New York of parents who emigrated from Bulgaria.

Her Find A Grave page shows her best friend Adelaide Friedman as one of her survivors. Perhaps that's the other lady.

1 hour ago, jallaway said:

I've read that the Hermann Park train used to be at Playland Park (9200 South Main); but I'd have no idea what is was called back then.  Another tidbit is that Playland Park shows to have opened in 1940

 

 

There was no miniature train at Playland Park. But the Slusky brothers, who owned Playland Park, also operated the miniature train at Hermann Park.

I don't know which school, but the present Missouri City neighborhood is the same South Main Gardens. The school could have been within HISD borders.

Missouri City was not yet incorporated at the time of the letter, it was incorporated later in 1956.

That would be directly across from Prince's Hamburgers at 8101. It wasn't there when we moved to the area in 1950. From the surroundings, I'd say 1930s is correct, b/c the area was much more developed by 1950.

10 hours ago, brucesw said:

I haven't been able to place a Steak and Ale along there but that doesn't mean anything.  That stretch has undergone many, many changes.  Royal Coach was a huge motel and there's been discussion on Haif.  Probably had a restaurant but I know nothing about it.  There was another motel or residence inn type place next door that did not face the freeway, as I recall.  There was a steak house further down, right before the entrance to the mall - Rustler's or Cattle Rustler's or something. That's been discussed, too.  Where was Sharpstown Dodge?  That became a HouTran or Metro bus barn.  Did that replace Royal coach?  Then there was Allen Samuels, now Classic Chevrolet, I think.  (I don't get down that stretch as much as I used to).   What was in there where Lucy, the Ethiopian restaurant is?  How about what was where Pappas BBQ is now on the opposite side?  

Not helping much, am I?  One of our posters with the old phone books will show up here someday, I hope.  The only S&A's I can place were on Shepherd, between 59 & Richmond and further out 59 just before where the Beltway is now; I know there had to be others.

There was definitely a Steak & Ale on the feeder road near Sharpstown Mall. It was on the opposite side of the freeway from the Royal Coach.