57Tbird

I agree about the accuracy... rather inaccuracy... of the HCAD dates. They have my old house listed as built in 1964. It was built in 1961...the year I moved in. The house of my old neighbor across the street from me was built in 1960. HCAD has that right, and it is not in the picture. I checked the HCAD build dates of some of the other houses in my neighborhood that are in the picture, and they are listed as built in 1958, which might be a little early. So I agree with the dating of the photo.... 1959-early 1960.

That is a fantastic photo! Amazing to see what the area around my first house, in Westbury South, looked like just before it was built in the Spring of 1961. Many vacant lots. I was on the west side of Landsdowne, between Fontenelle and Firenza. We were really out in the boonies then. Had to go a Burger King on Post Oak, near WillowBend, for our first Whoppers. The races at Meyer Speedway on Saturday nights sounded like they were almost next door.

Looks like the Milby name on the gravestone at the lower right of the historical marker

You have a good memory! here is a photo from the Bailey collection that is dated 1952, which is before the Sakowitz at Main and Dallas was built. You can barely make out the Goggan's sign on the right. It must have been on the southeast corner of Main and Dallas.

I mentioned in a previous post on this thread that a friend of mine, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was upset with his high energy costs. He sent me a copy of his last bill which I have posted below. Looks like you would have to be a Cal Tech grad to understand it. Glad I live in Texas.

In the picture that editor made reference to about Metro's old headquarters, the Gulf Building is on the right, and that is Kress's on the left.... the one that has "store" on it. Woolworth is on the left side in his first (upper) picture.

Another figure that would have been good to mention is your kwh usage for that bill. Also... do the bill values listed include add-ons to the the base energy usage charge? I've been comparing electricty costs with a friend in California and his bills are ridiculous for the amount he uses. I'm cooling about 1900 sq ft with my thermostat kept at 79. The average daily high temp for this period (to Aug. 3) was 99. Low average was about 79. The usage period was for 30 days (another relevant figure, since it varies). My energy charge was $185 for 1249 kwh, but a "Base Customer Charge" and Sales Tax added another $8 for a total of $193. I am in Central Texas and have TXU. My house was built in 1978. Looking forward to my next bill, since our high temps have been, and continue to be, 100+.

Building on the far right was the Gulf Building at that time.

Geez! Isn't there anyone in my generation around here? You all are just kids/grandkids! Almost 71 here.

I remember the Royal Coach Inn being on the right side (west) of the SW Fwy just before the Sharpstown Mall as you headed south. They had doormen and valets dressed in Beefeater outfits. I saw Lisa Hartman perform there in the mid-70's, when she was just getting started. She must have been in her late teens - early 20's at the time. There was a Manor House Motel, on the order of the present-day Motel 6, further down the SW Fwy on the east side, just beyond (south of) Bissonnett.

Well... I walked and sometimes rode my bike to the Alabama Fun club on Saturday mornings. Only, I did that scene a few years before you, in the late 40's. Jimmie Green Chevrolet was not there yet. I don't remember when it was built (early-mid 50's maybe), but it was next to the Bible Cyclorama. Then there was a Gulf station just north of him on the southeast corner of Shepherd and Westheimer. Was Chris' Coney Island still on the southwest corner of Shepherd and W. Alabama? We would go there after the movie for Coneys and liquid refreshments. From what area did you walk to the movie? I'm familiar with the territory, since I knew a lot of kids who lived close to the Alabama.

Some of the more popular image sharing sites are photobucket, tinypic, and flickr. Just sign up and follow their instructions for uploading your photos to post here or elsewhere. Resize your pictures to the size most have done in HAIF. At one time there was a 500 KB size limit, I think.

Here is a 1960 photo that MK made reference to in an earlier post of his about the location of an old airfield in Westbury. This came from a website about old air fields in the Houston area. This is of an area of Westbury South, where I bought my first house in 1961. You're looking south in the picture with South Main (Hwy 90A) running east-west across the top. Chimney Rock is the north-south street to the far left. Landsdowne (street my house was on) is the next street to the right running parallel to Chimney Rock. That's Meyer Speedway under construction at the top. W. Airport is in the middle of the photo, starting at the little curve in Chimney Rock. No Hillcroft yet.

This from the July 21, 1969, Houston Post. Must have been the Art Cinema at one time. I remember seeing this one. It was just across the parking lot from Rodney's Men's Clothing Store in the Village.

From the July 21, 1969, Houston Post. No comments about the color adjectives used here.

"Libby" was a year behind your aunt and me.

Thanks, Mark! I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting up with Norman when I had my first car, a '51 Chevy, worked on at Jimmie Green Chevrolet, on Shepherd between Westheimer and W. Alabama. There was a problem with my brakes that the mechanic wanted to talk to me about. I went back to the work area and who should be the mechanic who wanted to see me? None other than "Stormin' Norman". What a surprise! This must have been about 1953-54.

Mark, Even though I knew that wasn't Playland-Houston, thank you for affirming that I still have a few kilobytes of memory left upstairs. Those "real" pictures of Playland-Houston brought back a lot of memories, and most of the details were as I remembered. Those races were some of the most fun times of my mid-teens to mid-20's youth, so I guess that's why a lot of the details were imbedded. Your pictures of the races with the cars, track and stands were fantastic. I only wish I could have had the foresight to have taken similar pictures when I had the chance. One of my favorites was Billy Wade. Many times, he and Norman Pierce would mix it up out on the track. I remember them getting into a fight with each other after one race. Thanks again for the great pictures! I look forward to seeing more.

After looking more closely at the postcard and the later pictures, I think the postcard shot is of the north, or parking lot, side of the building. There is no step in the upper structure as in the other pictures. Therefore, Main would be on the right in the post card. Subdude is correct about the angle. I've seen other photos of buildings at a 90 degree corner that appear to be less than that. I would guess that Gonzo's 1940 picture is of the Main-Wheeler corner.

I remember, from the 40's, a huge display window on the northwest corner of that Sears, where, at Christmas, they had a big "audio-animetronic" Santa who would move his arms and head and shout HO-HO-HO's over speakers outside. That looks like the window in Subdude's postcard. I don't remember exactly what was on the southwest corner at Main and Wheeler or the northeast corner on Fannin....probably similar display windows. The parking lot was on the north side. I know, that in the 50's-60's, there was a Sear's auto service center for tires, batteries, etc. on the north side across the parking lot from the store. I think most of the Wheeler south side was a delivery and loading dock area. Here are a couple of pictures. Looks like some serious remodeling was done before the early 60's. The best I can date these is by the car in the southwest corner shot of the intersection of Main and Wheeler. I think it's a 1961-62 Pontiac. Looks like this was taken from about where the Delman theater was at the time. This was taken looking straight down Richmond

This sure doesn't look like the track set-up I remember at Playland Park on South Main in Houston. With all due respect, this may be a Playland race track, but it's somewhere else other than Houston. The only thing it has in common with the Houston Playland layout is some carnival rides in the background. I went to dozens of races there between 1950 and when it closed down in the early 60's, so the memories are pretty well etched in what gray matter I have left. I saw just about everything there...modifieds, midgets, powder-puff derbies, figure-8 races, demolition derbies. I don't remember any sprint-car races though, like the cars shown in these photos. I think the track might have been too short for them. There could have been some, though. I do remember lots of sprint-car races at Meyer on the half-mile track there. First...There were no trees in the area. The track ran east to west. The start-finish line was on the north side with a small press box at the top of the stands. I always sat in the south side stands. The parking area was behind these stands, with not much to the south except open land and some motels. To the north, there was the U-turn of the roller coaster and then a few motels and other small structures over to OST where Prince's Drive-In was located at the intersection of Main and OST. The entrance to the raceway was on the west side of the track at the far east end of the amusement park area. At the east end of the track was the pit area. Beyond the pit area were open fields and no trees. The parking area for the amusement area was between the park and South Main. I think Gaido's was on the other side of Main from Playland. Second... There was no white picket fence around the pit area; nor was there any grass in the pit area. There were well-worn horizontal boards about 3'-4' high that encircled the track. Behind that track barrier was a tall chain-link fence...maybe 8-10' tall that was in front of the stands on both the north and south sides. At the west end of the track, outside the wooden barrier, was a corrogated metal fence/wall about 8' tall. Just outside this was the entrance to the raceway for the spectators. I mentioned in another thread about Playland that I was standing in the entrance area when Blackie Lothringer's came flying over the wall during warm-ups and killed a couple of people not more than 50' from me. It's amazing that no one else was killed during the races there, over the years. I remember several times when cars would hurdle over the barrier and into the chain-link fence, almost into the people sitting down in front. Safety regulations today would never allow a set-up like they had back then. The entrance to the pits was through a gate at turn 3. The exit was back through another gate at turn 4. The pit area was asphalt and no grass. Third...There is a blue tent and a white house in the upper left background of one of the photos. Nothing like that at Playland in Houston. Fourth... I showed these photos to some contemporaries of mine who attended races at Playland, and they concurred that those pictures were not from the Playland we know. So...I don't know where the description of these photos came from, but I'm sure they are not of Playland-Houston. I love the pictures and hope you post more of them.

I went to school with his daughter, Frances. Would that be your mother? If not, then she must be your aunt. She was a beautiful girl. Still is, I bet.

This is the text that accompanied the picture of the Milby House. I should have included it when I posted the picture. Keep in mind this was written in 1942... The MILBY HOUSE (private), 614* Broadway, is a typical plantation style structure surrounded by spreading oaks hung with Spanish moss. The yard is lined with neat flower beds and winding walks; a brick fence is topped with an iron railing. Built in 1864 on the crest of a gentle slope, the first structure was a long, two-story wooden house, to which a brick mansion was added in 1885 by Charles H. Milby. The old part was remodeled and used for a kitchen. The bricks have since been covered with concrete blocks. Wide galleries on two sides terminate in a glassed conservatory. More than 100 shutters cover long French windows. At the time of its erection, the house was in the pioneer town of Harrisburg, then a busy village, now a Houston suburb. Its business and industrial district lay along Buffalo Bayou, beside the railroad shops, and wharves. From the upper gallery of the Milby house, stern-wheel and side-wheel boats could be seen as they plied industriously on the bayou to and from Houston and the coast, carrying passengers and cargo. Diminutive locomotives with Mother Hubbard stacks hissed and puffed as they passed, pulling their trains of freight and travelers. Ox- and mule-drawn wagons, and horse-drawn buggies plodded down the long dusty street. Not far from the Milby house, a narrow wooden bridge spanned Bray's Bayou on the road to Houston. The clatter of hoofs and of steel-rimmed wheels resounded above the steady hum of near-by sawmills on the bayou banks; those little milk made lumber of pine logs that were floated down the stream. Mrs. Milby's father, John Grant Tod, was a stockholder in Texas

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this, but I thought I would throw it out FYI. I just received this E-mail from Story Sloane about a Houston web site that he's promoting. Some of the info in it is out-dated, but interesting, nevertheless. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with Story's gallery. I've been there several times. He has a tremendous collection of old Houston pictures from the 1920's and later. Stop by and take a look, if you haven't already. "Friends, Help me make Story Sloane's Gallery number one on Houston's cool site list. Follow the link bellow and leave a comment about our gallery and old photo's or whatever you like about our family business. Any positive remark would be appreciated! http://www.hottowncoolcity.org/view/site/detail/214/ Thanks for your help with this project... Story Sloane III"