Borden Dairy Milk & Ice Cream Plant At 1900 Milam St.

[57Tbird]

T Bird, was the Mobile station across the street from the Retting's ice cream parlor on the corner of Main and Elgin?

 

Yes.  It was across Elgin on the NE corner of Main and Elgin.  It faced toward Main.  There was a D'Arcy's on the SW corner and a Gulf station, I think it was, on the NW Corner.  I lived between that Mobil station and another big, old house that was on the NW corner of Fannin and Elgin.

 

[gpb]

The old Borden's sign from downtown Houston was bought by the husband of a lady, who has has since retired from Borden's, as a present. It is now at their residence in Conroe on Longmire Rd. (drive slow, you'll see all the stuff).They have other articles and relics from all over the world in a warehouse and various other bldgs in their "backyard". They have a small store in front where many things are for sale or trade.  (Really neat stuff). My wife worked there 20 +years and worked for the lady in the accounting dept, and we had the privilege to tour a few times. 

[HoustonIsHome]

With all these plants, ice cream palours, etc,  downtown and midtown seemed like it was an interesting place just a few decades ago. 

[Subdude]

There was another downtown dairy - the Phenix Dairy Company was I think near where Allen Center is now.

[IronTiger]

1 hour ago, Subdude said:

There was another downtown dairy - the Phenix Dairy Company was I think near where Allen Center is now.

 

Phenix was the original manufacturer of Philadelphia cream cheese and had other cheese plants throughout the nation (they probably did dairy too, but cheese was the thing they did). They were purchased by Kraft Cheese Co. in 1928 to become Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company. I can believe them having a plant here--by 1930, after Borden and National Dairy, they were the third largest dairy company in the States. (I'm not sure when the dairy plant downtown closed down...in 1930 Kraft-Phenix was acquired by National Dairy, and in the 1950s, National Dairy was moving away from things like fluid milk...and ultimately, National Dairy would change its name to Kraft).

[native_Houstonian]

There was Sanitary Dairy on West Gray....but I just remember hearing about it.   Don't have any personal info.

[FilioScotia]

***gpb -  The old Borden's sign from downtown Houston was bought by the husband of a lady, who has has since retired from Borden's, as a present. It is now at their residence in Conroe on Longmire Rd. (drive slow, you'll see all the stuff).They have other articles and relics from all over the world in a warehouse and various other bldgs in their "backyard". They have a small store in front where many things are for sale or trade.  (Really neat stuff). My wife worked there 20 +years and worked for the lady in the accounting dept, and we had the privilege to tour a few times.*** 

 

People who like watching American Pickers on the History Channel know that places like this one are the very sorts of places the "pickers" look for. Can gpb provide the name of that place and a phone number? I want to submit it to the Pickers producers because it sounds like it has a lot of stuff the "pickers" like to buy. They're especially fond of old signs, and it's been a while since they've been to Texas. 

 

 

[Timetrekker]

There was a Rettigs on Telephone Rd, near Austin High School, near Dumble St.  Does anyone remember that one ?  I loved the triple dip cones, and wonderful milkshakes.

[MartiMoser]

On 12/13/2016 at 6:30 AM, HoustonIsHome said:

With all these plants, ice cream palours, etc,  downtown and midtown seemed like it was an interesting place just a few decades ago. 

It was. Our family moved to Pearland in 1960. But my dad and his family lived downtown, The Heights and then bought a home in Denver Harbor. But any shopping, eating, etc was still done downtown when we settled in Pearland. I was the 4th of 5 kids and if the older kids wanted the car they had to take us 2 youngest brats with them. To this day I can remember my precious big sister with the cone with double side and a quadruple dip ice cream. We called her Little Lotta after the comic book character. We went to a place above a street level storefront that sold clothes. Piles and piles of the weirdest misfit stuff. The owner's name was Sol Stimble. I came home once with 1 red patent leather shoe. Couldn't find the other but I had to have that shoe. I was probably about 8. Oh the fun we had downtown. We didn't need an amusement park. We made our own. 

[Clarence Sophus Jr]

There was definitely a Borden's Ice Cream & Fountain Shop at Pierce and Louisiana. My family went there often, after church services. Great memories of that place. I was actually looking for old vintage photos myself.

[Ruff Draught]

On 7/7/2013 at 9:45 PM, sinister1 said:

Hey guys, how about the Borden's plant that was near 59 in the area of Texas Ave./Harrisburg, Preston St. area? Does anyone have pictures of it? Or knows of it?

No pictures, but I remember it.  Way before the Hwy 59 elevated, but I think I remember seeing the building later, from hwy 59, while driving north.  Believe it's been gone for a while now, can't say when.  In the mid 1950's, my uncle would let me ride along with him on his job(he lived in Needville), getting up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the early morning and picking up cans and fractions of cans of milk from the very small dairy operations in Fort Bend County between Rosenberg and Houston, and delivering them to the Borden Company's facility on Houston's east side(think someone said later that the address was 2020 Texas, between Chartres and St Emanuel Sts.), waiting while the milk was emptied, take the cleaned cans, and return them to pickup points near the farms on our way back.  My uncle also drove an 18 wheeler for a while to this Borden plant, picking up a full truckload of bottled milk for the Rosenberg distributor, daily, and I would ride along also.  There were few freeways, then, and we would drive through downtown Houston;  I remember we would turn on the corner where the Kress building was located, seeing the red and black(best I can remember) Kress sign every day.  I was about 10 or 12 at the time, my uncle was about 10 years older, and I always enjoyed his philosophical stories, some I cannot repeat here.  I truly miss those days, and the pint of Dutch Chocolate milk I'd get there most days!

[Ruff Draught]

In reply to Timetrekker, yes, I do remember the Rettig's on Telephone Rd.  We lived at 4920 Pease, in that little old 2 1/2 story apartment(still there) and we would walk, the four of us kids, 6-10 years old, by ourselves(different day then) to the Eastwood Theater(long gone, I think) on Saturdays to see a movie.  We would pass the Rettig's on  our way, never stopping, money a bit tight for us back then.  Our mom and dad might treat us there for perhaps a very special occasion.  Seems the 'Wishing Well' a hamburger place was very close by.  Had a wishing well out front by the street that one could throw some change into and make a wish!  Always a lot of change showing in the water!  I seem to remember a Rettig's on Wayside Drive, back toward Buffalo Bayou from the Sears store, somewhere around E or F avenue or close by, that lasted perhaps years maybe to the '70's(?) before becoming a hamburger place run by Koreans, I think.  The really best burgers and very inexpensive!