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I attended Kindergarten at Park Place Elementary school from 1963-64.  Is it still there?  Does anyone have a photo of it?

Chet Cuccia

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Still there..but probably not as you remember it. It was rebuilt and expanded several years back. HISD bought up a lot of the nearby homes and closed off part of Joplin.

Check out the info on the current classes here:

Park Place Elementary Home Page

Here are two pictures of the new design from the architect, SHW

Sorry, couldn't locate a pic of the old buildings.

very cool picture!

My memory of the toy store may be off...but I thought it was a Playhouse toys and I remember very tall glass windows..but as a little kid..that might not be very tall

I liked riding the escalators in Joske's too!

If my memory serves me correctly, the Weingarten's supermarket in Gulfgate was at the far west end of the center, right next to Woodridge.  If anyone knows exactly where, let me know if I'm wrong.

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yep, that's where it was - the doors faced the south loop though. In the last years of Gulfgate it had became a Pic-N-Sav. Which became MacFrugals (which is now Big Lots).

My memory of Gulfgate from when I was a little kid was going to Playhouse toys. I think it was in the wing that exited to the pedestrian crossover over the Loop. I could be wrong though. Seems like it was on the west side maybe where Wilson's/Service Merchandise was in the later years.

I printed that recipe for Monterey House candy and I gave it to my mother.  She's gonna make some of it for my dad.  I won't be able to enjoy any of it because I'm diabetic.

Chet Cuccia

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Be sure you pick a recipe without nuts in it.

Monterrey House candy did NOT have any nuts!

Some of those recipes on there call for nuts!

Okay, here is the picture of 8 West Court.

Not the best shot in the world.

Is/was this your house??

do you remember what your house looked like?

My curiousity got the best of me and I drove by 8 west court street at lunch

it is a Mission-style bungalow with a red clay tile roof.

It is not in great shape but it is occupied. The street looks like it might have been really cool a long time ago. Very nice topography, the road cuts into a ravine down to the bayou and there is a nice old rock retaining wall (Think CCC/WPA campgrounds) Unfortunately, the new channel of Sims Bayou scaped off all the folliage, on the south side, down to the water.

I snapped a photo of it with my cell phone but I have a stupid phone that won't download pics to a pc or email it. So, I have to wait until tonight so I can send it to my wife's phone and then transfer it to the pc to post it.

I don't know if they were in Houston proper or not.  I spent my earliest years in Galveston County.  I remember one in Dickinson and seem to recall others in the area.

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I know there were Gibson's in Seabrook and Baytown. And throughout East Texas. We frequented the one in Longview when we lived there.

A couple of years ago, My wife and I were thinking about buying a lakefront house on Toledo Bend and ended up looking at, what we were told, was the former Gibson's Corporate Retreat. Very nice location. It was on a peninsula that jutted out into the lake.

They had subdivided it and were selling off the different cabins and such. The "houses" were all small rundown 60's a-frames. Nice lot but we wanted a decent house too. Unfortunately, we never followed through on the lakehouse idea.

I like making ones from grocery bags.

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Yeah! More room to draw rock band logos!

Or was that Sage?  I get Sage and Globe confused, but from what I remember, they made Wal-Mart look fancy ;-)

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I never went into a Sage, but I do remember they had ads on the paper bookcovers we had in school. They were like miniature billboards with short goofy phrases on them...can't think of one off hand. Maybe i can dig in my parents attic and find and rat chewed copy of one

On the side street of Gulfgate (I think that the name of it was either Woodridge/Woodbridge) was a department store that we went to.  The name of it was Globe.  I heard that a Home Depot is now in that spot.  Does anyone out there know anything about this?

Chet Cuccia

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Familiar with Globe but not that location. We had one by us, when i was growing up. I think it was owned by Walgreens...it was their answer for Woolco and Kmart.

now that's creativity...

and animatronics creep me out 

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I have seen their "corporate campus" on edgebrook.

Let me just say..it fits with the creativity in their name.

What is the East End Folder?  How do I check it out?

Chet Cuccia

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Try this link.

Gulfgate topic folder

you could also just use the search function (see top right of screen) to find things you are interested in. Most of them have been discussed before in some form or another.

Thank you.  It looks like an apartment complex.  I don't recall one being there 40 years ago.  I remember us living in a small white house.  Next door to us was another house that had one apartment on ground level and another one upstairs.

Maybe those houses have been demolished.  But I appreciate your efforts.

Chet Cuccia

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From the HCAD map link I posted for your address, your lot looks to have been the one opposite the apt complex. should be the first house visible through the trees on the north side of the street.

Remember the candy they would place in the bottom of the chip basekt?

We would always hit one on Old Galveston Road in the 70s.

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boy I wish I had the recipe for that candy. I have never been able to find anything close to it.

From 1962 to 1964 I lived in a small white house located at # 8 West Court Drive.  It was on the corner of that street and Galveston Road, just south of where Park Place Boulevard dead ends into Galveston Road.  Sims Bayou is nearby.

Has anyone out there been in that area recently?  As I said, I haven't been there in over 40 years (I live in Orange, Texas, which is 100 east of Houston).  I was wondering if the house that I lived in back then is still there.

Chet Cuccia

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Looks like it may still be there. Check the listing from the harris co. appraisal district.

8 West Court

you should look at Google's satellite maps (or terraserver etc) and see if you can pinpoint your house.

They channelized Sims Bayou about 10 years ago and cut a new path for it on the south side of your old street. I do not know for certain but houses on that side might have been removed.

When I lived in Houston (1962-64), my parents did a lot of their shopping at what was then called Gulfgate Shopping Center (now Gulfgate Mall).  I remember us going to an amusement park next to it.  I think the name of it was either "Playland Park" or "Peppermint Park." 

Does anyone out there know what I'm referring to?

Chet Cuccia

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It was Peppermint Park and it was at Reveille and Arnim. where the dodge body shop is now. If you search the threads, i think Peppermint park has been discussed some in the past. there were several locations in houston. One near 290 and the loop and one on the SW freeway.

Here's something else that I remember.  On Telephone Road a little way's south of the Santa Rosa Theatre, there was a mexican restaurant called "Monterey House."  I also remember that a driving range was next to it and across the street was a Henke & Pillot (now called Kroger) supermarket.

Are any of these places still there?  I looked up in the Houston phone book and I found "Monterey House Tex-Mex Restaurants."  I wonder if Monterey House changed their name to that.

Chet Cuccia

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Monterey House went out of business in the late 80's, if my memory servers me. Many of the locations reorganized into a new company called Monterey's Tex-Mex and have a similar menu.

At The location of the old one on Telephone Road, the building is still there but it is another restaurant now. I don't remember what it is - i think its a taqueria.

The old Kroger's ( the former Henke and Pillot) was there until the early 80's and then Krogers built a new center across the street. The old building is gone and there are several stores in what I think is the old location..a CVS pharmacy, a laudromat, and several other smaller shops.

Yep, I am thinking of the one at Brodway and 45.

I think it was also a peep show for a while.

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The old theater in the circle at Broadway and 45 is currently the Circle Pawn Shop. I don't believe it was ever an adult theatre. I do know some history of it though. It opened in about 1941 as the Plaza Theater.

The Santa Rosa opened nearby in 1947 (on Telephone Road) and, The Plaza, faced with the new competition from the Interstate-owned competitor, struggled and was sold. The new owner renamed it the Vogue and it became an art theater, showing French and Italian imports. This experiment did not last long and it reverted back to The Plaza. It only remained a theater until about 1951.

I believe that you are thinking of the one that is on Telephone road and Park Place Blvd. It was an Adult theatre for many years and just recently closed their doors.

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The Santa Rosa was an adult theater/movie rental place until recently. A medical office building is to be built next door and in the old theater parking lot. There are rumors that the theater will be saved and turned into a community center or something to benefit the nearby neighborhood.