Dave W

6 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

He might be referring to the old Royal Coach Inn (I think that's what it was called)

Could be. But that was a motel, wasn't it?

4 hours ago, Carole said:

All of these are cool, and as a native Houstonian, I remember most of them!  Question.  There was a nice, fancy (from a kid's point of view) restaurant near Sharpstown Mall on the feeder of 59 before getting to the mall on the same side.  It looked like a castle (English architecture).  My husband (also a native Houstonian) said it was a Steak 'n Ale, but I don't think so.  Does anyone remember?

There definitely was a Steak 'n Ale on the feeder near Sharpstown. There could have been a different restaurant in the same style but I don't remember it.

3 hours ago, Urban Commando said:

I believe this chain (which sadly didn't last very long) was owned by the same company/people that owned Walgreens and Globe Dept Stores. I remember it vividly and the sight of this ad fills me with both nostalgia and sorrow. Usually they were found connected to or right next door to Walgreen's.

 

As a child, my family ate often at the one less than a mile away. Reminded me of the old "One's-A-Meal" or the "Dot" (at least it's still around).

 

I miss such eateries and mourn their loss.

You are correct, sir. Corky's was owned by Walgreens. The name came from Charles Rudolph (Cork) Walgreen III, the founder's grandson. He was president of Walgreens at the time.

I don't remember this one but there was a location in New Orleans (next to a Walgreens). No idea how long the venture lasted but I don't think it was long.

One's-A-Meal -- now that was one of my favorites.

Most phone exchange names, nationally and in Houston, were two syllable words. Easy to say and remember, I guess. No other particular reason that Jackson was chosen. Just looking around online, I found two local businesses with Jackson numbers in an ad from 1944.

Here's an image from a 1951 Houston Buffs scorecard with a Jackson number. BTW, if you remember glass jalousies, you're officially old. :)

21 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Were there rice fields near here?

There were at one time, but the area was well developed by 1968.

I never ate there, but that was in the Buffalo Plaza Shopping Center, just past the Dome Shadows.

I think you've solved the mystery. Good work.

Kiddie Wonderland was opened in the mid-1930s and was never owned by anyone named Speer. It was owned by the Dranes for years until they sold it in the late 1960s. It was several blocks north of Prince's and Sivil's, definitely not opposite. It probably wasn't shown in a listing of parks because it was just a little ramshackle collection of rides on a few acres.

Playland Park was over a mile south of Prince's and was enormous compared to Kiddie Wonderland.

Back in the day, Weiner's were dry goods stores, carrying clothing and shoes, not full-fledged department stores. They carried good quality name brands at reasonable prices, but not high end fashion.

We shopped at the one in the big strip center on Bellaire Blvd. Between Braes Blvd. and Stella Link.

One of the founder's sons (Abe Weiner) went on his own and founded Leonard's Stores. I don't think he expanded outside of Houston.

Could this have been at the same location as the later Arrowhead Park?

Most of those South Main hotels were already there when we moved to the area in 1950. That was pretty much the outskirts of town back then. But the Las Vegas wasn't built until 1959-1960 when the area was a lot more developed. It was nicer and more expensive.

At some point it became a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge. I see it's now an America's Best Value Inn.

3 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

Hadacol is certainly featured prominently in that ad. Almost completely forgotten now, but it was very well-known in its day.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg as far as its backstory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadacol

Hadacol failed but Dr. Tichenor's ("best medication around") is still around, although you'll have to order it online. Maybe it's because Hadacol was only 24 proof while Dr. Tichenor's is still 140 proof.

There was a Burger King at that location in 1964-65 and it was fairly new, but I'm not sure it was the same building as in the picture. No idea if it was corporate or a franchise.

Lucky 7 stores weren't franchises. The brand was owned by one of the bigger wholesale grocers, and the independent stores it supplied could use the name and the combined buying power and advertising.

13 hours ago, Kasper said:

. "Pressley". Sure this wasn't an impersonator??  😁

 

There weren't any Elvis impersonators in 1954. He was just becoming known and hadn't yet had his first chart hit.

I got the jpeg above from the Scotty Moore website run by James v. Roy. The site includes all the venues that Elvis, Scotty and Bill Black played. The page below has information on the Palladium (originally Jerry Irby's Texas Corral) and if you scroll down until you see the "Elvis Pressley" jpeg you'll see more about his performance there and later 1954-56 shows. It's worth reading.

http://scottymoore.net/houston.html#PAL

That's the full name of Lamar High (unless it's been changed) but it didn't exist until at least 20 years after that listing and wasn't even called Lamar at first.

There is (or was) an elementary school very near Henry @ Chestnut. Could be the same campus as the school in the 1914 listing.

Jim's is a San Antonio based chain. There are still Jim's there and in Austin.

I don't remember that location but there was one at Chimney Rock @ North Braeswood. It was a freestanding building on the site of a strip center that was anchored by a Weingarten's.

One more thing about Rose Behar: two posts in this thread refer to her as a Holocaust survivor, one said she had a number tattooed on her arm. I never heard of this or saw a tattoo, and we shopped at her original store on Almeda Road many times when we were kids, up to the 70s at her Village store when my kids were little.

Her Find a Grave page says that she was born  in New York in 1911, and her brother's page says that he was born in New York in 1915, so I think it's unlikely that she was living in Germany in the 1930s.

13 hours ago, ADeGregori said:

Two wonderful old Jewish ladies, Holocaust survivors. Loved that place, they had the best doll house stuff - I remember they even had a miniature roll of toilet paper, which I of course had to have for mine. My dad probably remembers their names, though they are long dead by now. I got my Sasha dolls there - sold for hundreds on eBay a few years ago. I think they still make Hot Wheels, but not like they used to. We still have a lot of Hot Wheels, mostly older, and even the grandkids (my parents' not mine) are grown. Want to buy them? alicedegregori@outlook.com 

As I said earlier in this thread, the owner's name was Rose Behar. Another woman may have worked there, although I never saw anyone else there, but if so, she was not an owner.

There was no stadium other than the racetrack. What's shown on the map is the grandstand seating around the racetrack.

One of my uncles was a big fan of the stock car races. He took me and the son of his best friend to the races there many times. For years afterward, he claimed that one or the other of us would inevitably have to go to the bathroom on the last lap. 😅

I don't doubt that a Price's Restaurant was there at that tine (I don't remember it) but there was never a Price's Hamburgers at that location, back then or later. Price's Hamburgers didn't even exist until about 1960 or slightly before.

That photo is pre-1962, when Phil Parr took over from Sam Reece on bass.

Left to right: Herbie Treece, Utah Carl Beach, Clem Kujawa, Sam Reece, Wiley Barkdull, George Champion.

Here's a clearer photo.

2 hours ago, Ross said:

That's probably about the time the Corps of Engineers was working on straightening and concreting the bayous. Great picture.

It was a bit later than that. A friend and I used to go exploring the bayou banks in the area just west of South Main, near his house, as late as 1958 and that was before it was straightened and concreted. The trees and other vegetation were very thick. I don't think the project started more than a couple of years before that.

It was at the corner of Milam & Congress, not sure which corner.

Avis Rent-A-Horse refers to Avis, the name of the woman who owned and ran the stables. No relation to the Westheimer family.