matty1979

I have got to know a few things about the "Space City". I was curious about a few "first's" in our great city. Maybe some of you can help. For instance: Where was the first McDonalds, Jack In The Box, Taco Bell...just to name a few....in Houston?

Also, when did HISD High Schools start to include 9th Grade?

When did Houston open its first XXX movie theateres?

When did Houston get COORS BEER?

Oh, one more...why is there a street off of 610 named "MINIMAX"?

Thanks for the help!!

I was curious if anybody out there could get me one of two things:

First a news broadcast from the riots at Robert E. Lee High School back in '74 or at least some feedback from way back when.

Second would be the flood in Houston that took place in April 1979.

I cant find this anywhere. You guys have been great with feedback and hope you can help me out!

WOW never seen such a great post!!

Much like you I grew up in Walnut Bend and my first job EVER was at the pool. We spent many of hours down at the ditch trying to catch anything we could. I find this very funny now but we would also swipe any kind of X-rated magazine we could find...mainly at Eckerd drugstore. We would ride our bikes down to the ditch, check out our XXX magazine stash smoke "Cherry Vine" or ciggs if we had them.

We would go to the pool and manage to piss off the lifeguards until they kicked us out for the day or made us lay on the concrete which could fry an egg until they felt ready to let us back in the pool.

After that we would play Baseball or somekind of game on our street which we lived on Burgoyne at the time. When it got dark we would play "Bloody Wolf" and never worry about wierdos being out there.

Boy those were the days!

Man I think you and I should get together and grab a beer sometime soon! My wife and I along with our son moved back to walnut Bend 2 years ago. talk about changes. I think alot of these original homeowners are starting to fade and there is no doubt that this neighborhood will be what it was back in the day. Oh wait...one problem.....the damn apartments that are about 40% occupied and attract nothing but trash and savages!

This really upsets me because I had such a carefree childhood riding my bike allover Lakeside and Walnut Bend. Kids these days are confined to the driveway and you never see a pack of kids on bikes(normally up to no good) riding thru the neighborhood.

I will post more when i can but keep these comments coming!!!

My cousins grew up in Lakeside and lived on Meadow Lake. Both went to Lee and Revere and have a ton of stories from back in the day.

'

OK a few more things looking at Google earth

the auto parts store at Lakeside and Briar Forest was a Charlies Hi Low

whatever is at the southeast corner of Wilcrest and Briar Forest was not the building it is today and was a daycare I believe

the vacant lot at the corner of Inwood and Walnut Bend was my friends house and they had so much foundation trouble they finally knocked it down and they were going to build new, but google earth has shown a vacant lot forever

the car wash at the front of Walnut Bend came about the same time as Wendys and Handy Dan...it looks like the spoons building is gone and the Ninfas building remains

the building on the northwest corner of Westheimer and Lakeside was a Gibraltar Savings and Loan, a Sally Beauty and a Baskin Robbins

across Lakeside in the strip that had the Schwinn place the free standing building to the east was a chicken place that was a local chain, but I can't remember the name.....I think the building to the west was also a bank

Westchase Mall also had the Palais Royal the whole time, but it used to be in the mall I am 99% sure and the Black Eye Pea was also always there....out front on the southeast corner of Westheimer and Wilcrest in the mall parking lot was the Rusty Pelican and the Taco Cabana was a Two Pesos which was such a Taco Cabana ripoff they got sued and Taco Cabana won and took them over (I have eaten at the original Taco Cabana on San Pedro in SA it had only an inside area where you ordered and you ate on pick nick tables out front under an awning) They were owned by a college roommate of mine's uncles and for a while there was Taco Cabana and Tacocita when the split over an argument over franchising and after they got back together and went with Taco Cabana they sued Two Pesos

The Pizza Hut at the front of Lakeside was where the Walgreens is now

back down Wilcreat right near the McDonalds used to be the Rotisserie For Beef and Bird or "the beef and bird" as we called it....it was really good and pretty nice and I know in the recent past before they closed down they also started to have a nice selection of Texas wines which was another reason I was sad to read about 4 years ago to read the owners were retiring and closing it

on the southwest corner of Westheimer and Wilcrest when that strip center was new they had a Houstons for a long time

the pipeline over Buffalo Bayou at Wilcrest between the two bridges was not there and that is why the corvette with the body could fit through

where the Dominos is still listed at Briar Forest and Wilcrest what shows as "Nicks Sports Bar" was always some kind of a bar (boy I bet you could get your knifing and stabbing on there when Katrina trash moved in)

there is one house on Olympia in Walnut Bend just a few houses to the east of Walnut Bend lane that does not match the others at all in looks or age....it was a friend of mines house and it burned and his sister rebuilt it in that "style" for some reason.....my friends dad when he lived there never would pay his neighborhood pool fees so all my friends that worked at the Walnut Bend pool had to kick him (their friend also) out of the pool and tennis courts haha

when we first moved to Lakeside and for a long time after where westchase mall is was nothing more than a cattle ranch and it had several tanks dug around the property and a lot of cows out there

St Cerials (sp) was a LOT smaller and Rodgerdale was a two lane road with ditches on each side

Rosewood Hospital and a bunch of one story Dr offices use to be on the north side of Westheimer just east of Gessner

I can't believe the way so many asshats have moved into Rivercrest and knocked down the trees and built those total ghetto crap homes (especially some of you NBA stars you know who you are your houses tool like ass that a fool built nice job trashing a beautiful subdivision)

in the past Briar Forest did not go through Rivercrest it stopped before to the east and it was a single lane in Briargrove Park and dead ended at the Rivercrest lot boundary

the furthest south and west lot in Rivercrest (that google has as a vacant lot right now) was some people that had a nice home, a big red barn and some out buildings and several horses and a horse walker you could see from Westheimer...it looked like they actually trained and make money off of horses there for a long time

Vargos.....always been beautiful......food has always SUCKED!

Benihana has been there FOREVER

I am pretty sure Sherlocks pub has been in Carillon and it was a place that was pretty popular for the 18-23yo crowd and was pretty good about serving minors most of the time back then

southeast corner of Westheimer and Beltway 8 was a Schlumberger, Halliburton, or Baker (one of those or similar type company) field office with the office building that is still there and there use to be long sheds with equipment (dozers engines pumps ect) and some equipment fab areas as well.....there was plans to do something with that 20 years ago

in the middle of Briargrove Park there is a wooded area across Seagler from Twin Circle Drive......it was always suppose to be a park, but it looks like Houston has still done nothing......a small airplane crashed in there one time and one or two died and we all had to go and take a look....looking back now I wonder if the pilot did not crash into there instead of all the homes and apartments around there.....have to think that is the case if so what a selfless act on his part God Bless him

use to be a post office on the east side of Rogerdale just after Richmond then westpark tollway was a railroad track

south east corner of Westheimer and Gessner was the Jack in The Box and a Shipleys Donuts looks like it has been redone

the dumpy pile of crap at the northwest corner of Jeanetta and Richmond was "the Cadillac Club"....there was nothing Cadillac about it

I would share a story about one of the few times I rode the bus home from Lee and what happened when we pulled up to that corner and all the apartment trash from the apartments at Lakeside and Briar Forest saw a little black kid looking in the bushes for something......but the words they were using back and forth can't be said on a polite forum.....but the few white kids on the bus were looking at each other and dying laughing while the apartment dwellers went CRAZY on that kid....looks like the area around there is still "keeping up the brand"

well I can share a little....they were calling him a poor penny pusher from piney point and telling him he was not going to find any pennies in those bushes (it went down hill from there) of course the funny thing is everyone saying that were themselves a bunch of broke fools from trash apartment themselves.....I realize that Piney Point is actually the city on Memorial, but that area around Jeanetta was always called Piney Point as well for some reason

there was a substitute bus driver for the back of walnut bend that used to go in that area when traffic was really moving and they were running early in the morning and get everyone into the front of the bus and back into a lawn and trench it the same driver if traffic was backed up would let everyone get out of the bus and run into the Cstore if they would get him some cigarettes

further south of there was where the little league fields were after Paul Revere was built (just down from where that crappy old Ma Bell field office is) it looks like that area is still mostly a park.....the concessions were always getting broken into

WOW never seen such a great post!!

Much like you I grew up in Walnut Bend and my first job EVER was at the pool. We spent many of hours down at the ditch trying to catch anything we could. I find this very funny now but we would also swipe any kind of X-rated magazine we could find...mainly at Eckerd drugstore. We would ride our bikes down to the ditch, check out our XXX magazine stash smoke "Cherry Vine" or ciggs if we had them.

We would go to the pool and manage to piss off the lifeguards until they kicked us out for the day or made us lay on the concrete which could fry an egg until they felt ready to let us back in the pool.

After that we would play Baseball or somekind of game on our street which we lived on Burgoyne at the time. When it got dark we would play "Bloody Wolf" and never worry about wierdos being out there.

Boy those were the days!

My cousins grew up in Lakeside and lived on Meadow Lake. Both went to Lee and Revere and have a ton of stories from back in the day.

'

Like you, I live in the West Houston area. I've lived in Houston twice in my life; in 1979 and now. I remember "Sunday driving" out in this area where I live now, thinking, "Gee, I'd sure love to live here some day!" and I do....

I've found out a couple of things (probably discussed elsewhere on this forum, so please don't everybody jump me).

1. How Dairy Ashford got its name: It's one of those Houston-special hyphenated names, denoting place to place. "Dairy" was what is now Alief, and referred to a concentration of dairy farms in the area. "Ashford" was a small community located close to the current Westheimer/Dairy Ashford intersection. So the road between them was "Dairy-Ashford", just like "Barker-Cypress", "Aldine-Bender", etc. I am not aware of another area that names roads like this.

2. There is recent work from UH and Rice indicating that there are a large number of geologic faults in the area, which are responsible for the terrible condition of the roads---and the foundations---in the area.

I don't remember, though, from 1979 when I was driving my company car (and their gas...) around out here looking at houses, the now bombed-out intersection of Wilcrest and Briar Forest at all. If anybody knows, what grocery store was there before Food Town? Was it a nice shopping center? Did it start to go bad with the arrival of the Katrina refugees, or was it going downhill beforehand? I just remember everything out here being new in 1979.

I know that before it was a Food Town it was a Gerlands. Back in the 80's it was grocery store called David's. Not sure if that was a chain or not.

Is the Woodway square fire topic not worthy of posting about? This was one of the worst fires in the history of Houston. I think there were close to 300 units destroyed.

Does anyone have any related stories?

Is the Woodway square fire topic not worthy of posting about? This was one of the worst fires in the history of Houston. I think there were close to 300 units destroyed.

Does anyone have anything else related?

http://www.firegroundvideo.com/2010/07/houston-fire-department-711-woodway-square-apartment-fire-1979/

Dont forget the Woodway Square apartment fire back in 1979....Its scary to think people lived in multiple unit dwellings with wood shingles!!!

Amazing post! What a sad video. I heard that there were alot of people jumping from the top floors.

Thats funny about the hotel manager. Thats back in the day when they actually cared about the hotel staff. I should know, I worked at one in college.

Does anyone recall what stores were located in the strip center in between WICKERSHAM and WESTHEIMER right along Blue Willow?

Also the strip center where "1st Stop" is on Walnut Bend In between Briar Forest and Inwood? I have heard a UTOTEM but could be wrong.

I would love to see the old prints...very interesting!!

I know I need to not be so spread out when it comes to topics but....does anybody remember the old Little League Baseball and Football fields they had where Paul Revere Middle School stands?

I know for a fact that Revere was originally "pitched" as a High School. That explains the abundant amount of parking spots and the fact there was a complete metal shop and no metal shop course ever available while I was in school there. It had features that LEE HIGH SCHOOL did not have at the time.

The fact that I worked in the library at Revere and saw a whole slide show dedicated to pushing it to become a high school can confirm that.

Another great fact is that Walnut Bend LN was originally named "Black Horse"

Does anyone have any newspaper ads for Walnut Bend or Lakeside Estates from back in the day?

I remember Westchase Mall very well. There was an arcade and I think it was called "Funway Freeway". There was also a toy store a beauty shop, a record shop and a Kodak store if I recall.

They always had a killer haunted house every October!!

What about the Carillion shopping center. Does anyone remember some of the original stores?

I also remember something about the Westchase Hilton burning down in the early 80's...not sure though!

Who could forget the airport. I belive they had a small place onsite called the "Sky Cafe". I could be very wrong though.

When did they Briar Forest all the way thru to Beltway 8 or the "West Belt"?

Howdy people! I have been observing for years and wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I am curious if some people out there can give me some info on my neighborhood.

I have lived in Walnut Bend for the better part of of 25 years. I also spent several years living off of Dairy Ashford and Memorial.

If anyone has any info on the area...not current but historical I would love to hear.

Thanks everyone!!

I should correct myself and say that any comments about the history of the westside of Houston are very welcome and not just limited to my neighborhood.

Sorry guys....new to the posting!

Howdy people! I have been observing for years and wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I am curious if some people out there can give me some info on my neighborhood.

I have lived in Walnut Bend for the better part of of 25 years. I also spent several years living off of Dairy Ashford and Memorial.

If anyone has any info on the area...not current but historical I would love to hear.

Thanks everyone!!