Materene

Looking at the side sliding door on the rear it may well have been an older dealership, Al Parker was in the same area but that's not Al Parker Buick,  you will find a building off Sheperd Drive and Washington with the same styling and I believe it was a grocer long long ago, they used those steel rod supports that came from the top of the brick work down to the awning rooftop, it was on many buildings in the 50's, wish I knew what it was since I worked in that particular area in 1970.  I worked at a few of the old downtown dealerships in my day, Al Parker , Mike Persia.. and I'm blank on it !

You might try the tax office using the address, city business licenses etc..  It's old for sure.  Now in the early 70's in the Spring Branch area they were throwing up large warehouses with those style sides that were formed and bolted in.  It looks like that style construction even if it isn't a tall building.

I know those guys, they were always harrassing us while we were street racing in front of the new Arms Museum that was not open yet in 72.  That was a fine four lane then and straight as an arrow,  then it suddenly stopped on South Main.  In 72 HPD had maybe 8 patrol cars in downtown Houston Proper, if you were invovled in an accident it took forever to have an accident investigator show up. 

Well I'm happy to say our old house is still standing and in very good shape, it was lightly remodeled by the family that purchased it and an upstairs in the rear was added.  In my day there was a garage apartment in the rear, I guess it was torn down, I couldn't really tell looking at Google Earth.  In the back yard there was a pear tree and a nice sized fig tree and you can bet they were used and not wasted, my family is depression era people and fruit was not wasted, it was canned. In the front yard there was a very tall Pecan, it too was not wasted, I can still see the pecan candies made at christmas.  It is one of the few things that makes my heart feel good knowing that house will still be here a long time after I'm gone, the fruit trees may be gone and my family may be gone but something remains.

I rode with the Rednecks in the early mid 70's, after I came back to Houston being gone for years I looked for that old SeaHorse newspaper that always had the ride dates and information for the up and coming month. Like everything else it was long gone, recently I looked at an image out there at Bear Creek Park remembering a few very nice rides that camped there over the weekend, the original road is no more than a small path now beside the new highway.  I have a very hard time finding anything in Houston that I remember. 

I lived on Oxford in the early 50's and I can't say much about the stage stops but I can tell you it was still legal to use a drawn wagon on city streets specifically in the heights.  Maybe some of you might remember the old colored gentleman that sold vegetables and had two mules that pulled his wagon.  I'm remembering back to 56 in this case and that old man was very old at that time.  There were still lots of empty places in the Heights, even a place you might have mules and horses without anyone complaining.  Since Heights Blvd ran into town I would think stage stops may have been on that route as well.

I can remember a Tony's on 20th circa 1956, but it wasn't the all look a like and was more of a stripmall apppearance with large plate glass windows. I lived on Oxford and often had to go fetch a gallon of Milk which of course was a large glass bottle in those days, might add it was worth 25 cents for that bottle so you always had to take along the trade bottle or pay that extra 25 cents.  I always made the trip on my  bike.  I think every trip I made my Grandmother would have me ask for soup bones for the dog, and naturally the dog got the bone after the soup was made.  Our mailman lived just down the street from this market on 20th.  I forget his name it has been decades ago, but he always pulled a little tripod bag carrier behind him, his route must have been pretty large and I'm sure the bag was heavy.  In the 50s there were always tons of freebies mailed out from retailers.  Time keeps marching on, I think soon there will be nothing left from my childhood. 

Ha, floating is for kids.... can you imagine all todays drivers having something like this !

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31341/flying-pinto-killed-its-inventor

Oh, the original Beetle was downright huge compared to the Mouse of the Rising Sun - the original Honda cars.

Almost bought a yellow one, but intelligence prevailed, I bought a ..cough..Pinto instead.  heh  just as well  since they outlawed the sales of that tuna can.  One caveat was I soon discovered the Pinto would float !  The Beltway was under construction in that era and the roadways that had been carved turned into rivers when the seasonal rains came, you either floated across or turned around and drove miles and miles to get where you were headed.  ;0)

KAYO

CROW FLITE

CONOCO

SHAMROCK

ARCO

HUMBLE

15 cent's a gallon for gas, and that was seen in 1970 if there happen to be a gas war going on !

Buff Stadium, sure glad I got to see a few games there before the wrecking ball pulled the tarp over the field.

Sand Bar Ranch on the San Jacinto River I-59, the best bar b que to be found with an all Black Rodeo , I can still smell that bar b que on an open air pit

The weekend trip to Hempstead in the old 49 Ford so we could fill the truck with 50 cent water mellons, big as small wash tubes... really folks there once was a water mellon bigger than a grape fruit !!

I worked after school selling newspaper subscriptions, but that was for the Press.  While the route man was turning in the nightly booty we kids would walk across the street and spend all our money in that Chinese market, they had every piece of junk known to mankind, much like they do today.

http://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/V4-N2-Oliveira-San-Jac-Inn.pdf

I think they renamed part of it just because they could !... I see evidence of political over reach in a lot of street naming, for example just in this present photo area but not in sight is the old Gears Road, which deadended into Stubner Airline, it has been renamed two times since I lived there in 72 to 73.  I have no idea what the name of the street might be presently, it was Greens Road for a long time and that was insult enough.  In 72 the entire area was still as this photo above, there were pastures where livestock grazed and only a very few old houses on either side of the road.  A strip mall now sits on the corner of Gears and Stubner where I lived.  There was one very interesting note about this little area, in altitude it always seemed to be the area the got the worst weather from our North before the rest of Houston got theirs.  I think this one little area was probably the last Houston area that stopped being country and then became what you see today... a lot of run down worn out houses that were built in the 70's, some of which I took part in building while working with a friend who happened to be a Carpenter.  Those houses we built look ghetto now.  I remember what the corner of Airport Blvd and I-45 once looked like in 1970, one lone Shell station on the intersection and exit ramp.   Sure is ugly now, so ugly I have revamped my funeral plans and intend to be cremated just so I don't have to lay there on Stubner Airline for eternity at the National Cemetery,  and watch all the changes that will surely come....

I miss Playland Park, I miss the North Houston Race Track, now on airport property, I miss Myers Speedway, now a cow pasture as it was before it became a Speedway, that's one for the books !!  There once was an old Church on the corner of Oxford in the Heights and as an 8 year old kid I would walk over to that empty lot next to that little church and lay down on the pews and take a nap, they had all been taken outside and placed in a nice orderyly row.  I have no idea what for, maybe the church was being renovated or maybe it was being closed, but I do know it was one nice place to lay out in the sun and nap.  There's no place left in the Heights to nap now....

I miss the Playland Park Speedway, I miss the North Houston Speedway, now on airport property, and I miss Meyers Speedway, now a cow pasture as it was before it became a Speedway.

Here's a December 1959 Google Earth satellite image of the North Houston Speedway Race Track.

The old track was at the corner of Greens Road at Lee Road.

It seems all this freeway expansion will be one that never ever gets finished, it's like 45 south to Galveston, I'm 64 pusing 65 and have never seen that 45 south not under construction or improvement. What a shame the city planners were not visionaries and had purchased those early monorails systems in the 50's, the infastructure would have already been established and a lot of commerce could have been saved.

And I once thought I was alone thinking that stupid train sucked! So in 1970 I can tell you that you could drag race down main street without any problem, course we didn't but they only had about 8 police cars on graveyard so I know for a fact you scaresly ever saw a police car downtown, I know because I sat at that warwick circle for 2 hours waiting for one after some idiot ran the yield sign on montrose and T-Boned my pretty new mustang. Now the fun thing about Main street at night was to catch those lights just right so you never had to stop, it could be done but you had to really pay attention. One hot spot downtown in that era was the McDonalds drive in under the 45, not related to McDonalds chain, and further down was Bill Williams across from the University and now where the medical building is sitting. That train is just plain silly and eats up a lot of real estate, not to mention the added danger of getting ran over by one. Thumbs down

It was all still country out that way in the early 50's, we would go to the dirt track races every saturday night, I remember seeing nothing but cows and fence everywhere. That old North Houston Speedway property is still visible on the Airport authority maps and google earth, all grown over but still very visible. Where Jensen intersectst with 59 was at one time the end of town and a two lane, even in 1970 there were still a few cows and some fenced properties on Airline Stubner road around Gears road at that time, Gears was changed to Greens Road, why I'll never know and it was probably a politician that saw fit to have his name there instead. I can't think of any practical reasons why old streets would be renamed unless the people doing the renaming figured they were more important. I don't like abuse of power that comes from City Hall and there seems to be plenty of it.

This is my Church , Baptist Temple. When I went there in the mid 50's there was no Bell Tower and only one front entrance with the exception of a small entrance to the bible study rooms on the front of the building. Overall the building is in poor condition, due to low attendance no doubt. It was one of the prettiest Churches in that area with a very large membership, all of the across street area to Yale belonged to the Church and was full of cars each sunday. Vacation bible school and sports was also promoted as well as swimming classes for the youngsters down the street at Hamilton Jr High. I was in the choir at that time and we won a state championship singing at the historical Baptist church in Galveston where the finals were held. The only singing I now do is on my way to the diner table.

I lived not far down the street from this little shop, there was a little small park with an occupied crafts buiding, you had games and sports equipment you could check out and use on the premises, a lot of families would have picnics on weekends and water melon parties, living just down the street I always made sure I was there for the water melon parties and just acted like I was one of the family. Directly across the street from the park was a little small Pizza business, not an eatery but a retail supplier, had a cousin that lived on courtland and he worked there after school a few hours a day until he took the tip of one finger off on a slicer The heights was a grand place to live, so much to do when you were a kid. When I'm home I get so sad driving by all these places and seeing so much gone already. This was in the Cooley grade school area, in those days you could go to school where you wanted. I lucked out and found a photo of Cooley and it shows the half basement we used for our dance classes, yeah I know it sucked when you were 10 but what were you going to do, say no... I hated those dance classes because the girls alwasy had sweaty hands, no air conditioning then, just open windows and large standup fans that would blow your hair out of your scalp.

Here is a photo of the topic property, all I can say is it sure looks different than what I remember years ago.

There was an article recently about McDougal's Sewing Machine Shop closing, but I don't recall what was to replace it. I bought my sewing machine there. Places like this will not be seen again. It's like what happened to the old-style hardware stores. At least we still have Southland's.

I remember this business also, in the early 60's I lived on 13th 1/2 , from where I lived the front door of Reagan High was centered almost in direct line with 13th 1/2 street. I'll have to get a ride on Google Easth and drop down and see what's going on there. Do you remember the Music store across the street from the Heights Theater, As a young kid I drooled all over the show window on the street, I remember a Gibson Thunderbird guitar in the window, had a pretty little T Bird in Turquoise embossed in the neck, I think it yellowed from me standing in front of the window blocking all the light!

This link is one of the best I've come across and shows what it was truly like in the early 1900's Houston. Looking at some of those sidewalks and block numbers that I have personally walked down really enforces how wonderful the gift of photography is to all of society, without it we would live in a very boring world.

Use the drop down box to choose the photo selection you want to browse

http://digital.lib.u...2&CISOSTART=1,1

How RUDH.

I will never understand how the neighborhood I lived in over 50 years ago is now so important to be called historical. Looking at most of the past business establishments that still have structures standing things don't seem to have been embellished equally when it was decided that it should all be historical. The Blvd was then and should now be the only zone that is historical, other than the Blvd there wasn't anything out there in the early 1900's. I once remember touring the inside of the large two story a couple blocks down from Hamilton Jr High, that home was truly historical and this was on or around 62 that we toured the house with other friends and family. I love old photos in the early 1900's showing people's yards with nice wrought iron fences and cows in the front yard, if they could look down I'm sure they are laughing at all the bickering. Progress is like a steam roller and everything should be considered temporary, our lives are much shorter than Progress. Priorities are not as important as they once were, we all have too much time to dislike everything around us.