Memories Of Midtown

[MZargarov]

What is happening to that great little Mid-Century Dovtor's office on Fannin, in MidTown? I seem to recall that it is a late Joseph Finger (or am I confusing it with a MacKie Kamrath?)?

It sits on a corner and has an inverted point entrance and is stone and brick. Someone is modernizing the hell out of it.

And then there is the old Shirar's Bicycle Shop...a Great Moderne relic...now beyond recognition.

[MZargarov]

What is happening to that great little Mid-Century Doctor's office on Fannin, in MidTown? I seem to recall that it is a late Joseph Finger (or am I confusing it with a MacKie Kamrath?)?

It sits on a corner and has an inverted point entrance and is stone and brick. Someone is modernizing the hell out of it.

And then there is the old Shirar's Bicycle Shop...a Great Moderne relic...now beyond recognition.

[sevfiv]

do you happen to have a side street of the building...or an address? i have a few pictures of that area by the old bike shop, soit would be neat to see which building you are talking about.

[MidtownCoog]

Are you talking about the 4 story on Tuam? I like what I see so far.

It's a shame Shirar's bit the dust. It was the oldest bike shop in Houston. They were there until very recently, and then all the sudden!

I used to talk shop with the owner all the time when I lived in Midtown.

[57Tbird]

And then there is the old Shirar's Bicycle Shop...a Great Moderne relic...now beyond recognition.

You mean to tell me that Shirar's is still there!? When I was a young kid, living on Elgin in the early 40's, I used to walk by there and drool at those new Schwinn's on display in his window.

[dbigtex56]

Fannin, or San Jacinto? There's a mid-century modern (googie?) on the NE corner of San Jac and Elgin which has been extensively modified - last time I saw it, the signage was in Vietnamese.

[MidtownCoog]

Shirar's bit the dust this year.

But you can still steal their sign if you want to.

[FilioScotia]

Although I don't attend Trinity Episcopal Church anymore, I still have fond memories of the "gallery" of historic photos on the walls of Trinity's Parish Hall. At least they were there a few years ago -- I hope they still are. I'm talking about Trinity's annual Parish Easter photos of its church members, gathered on the Holman side of the church for a long group shot. The photographer uses one of those old clunky tripod mounted long-exposure box cameras, and he has to pan the group so slowly that kids at one end can run behind the group to the other end, and the finished print will show them at both ends. That really does work. A bunch of kids have done it over the years.

I'm bringing this up here because of the way these photos contain a moving visual history of that church, and in the distant background of some of them, the history of the corner of Main and Holman.

The Anglican style church building with the side-mounted bell tower was completed in 1919, and the annual parish photos began the following year. In the 1920s, the national prosperity was evident in the abundance of children, and you can see the strains of the Great Depression in the adults' faces in the 1930s. Photos of the war years of the 1940s are striking because there are almost no young men. Most of them came home in 1945, and the photo of Easter 1946 is strikingly different from the one of the year before. Clear evidence of the post-war baby boom can be seen in the following years.

The church kept growing through the 50s, 60s and 70s, but it started shrinking in the 80s as people in the Parish became disenchanted with longtime Rector Arthur Knapp. The arrival of a young priest in the late 80s launched a new period of growth and another explosion of children.

I have spent a lot of time walking around the Trinity Parish Hall studying those wonderful old photos and allowing myself to be moved by the way they show what people and Houston looked like in those moments frozen in time on Easter Sunday every year over more than 80 years. You can see any number of young children grow from childhood to adulthood and old age. Trinity has many middle-aged and elderly members who were baptised there as infants.

It's well worth a visit to Trinity, even if you don't happen to be an Episcopalian. There are tours every Sunday after morning worship, and the collection of stunning stained glass windows is the highlight. Also check out the historic altar-piece, sculpted by the architect who designed and built the old Lovett Bldg at Rice University.

There's a lot of history at Trinity Church. Here's a link to the tour page: http://www.trinitychurch.net/default.asp?id=189

Edited October 27, 2006 by FilioScotia

[dbigtex56]

Thanks for the info, Filio. Such a beautiful building! and I like how the finials are illuminated at night.

Also, it's conveniently located near the HCC/Ensemble station.

[RedScare]

The arrival of a young priest in the late 80s launched a new period of growth and another explosion of children.

Really? Is there a scandal here we should know about?

[FilioScotia]

Really? Is there a scandal here we should know about?

LOL!!!! Thanks for that. Talk about an unconscious Freudian slip. No scandal there. The Reverend Steve Bancroft -- with three small children of his own -- became Rector in 1987, and as word got around that the church had a new and energetic young priest with lots of fresh new ideas, families with young children started returning to Trinity.

Edited October 27, 2006 by FilioScotia

[Dan the Man]

My dad said that when he was a little kid in West University, the family would occasionally go visit relatives in the East End. Since there was no Southwest Freeway yet, they would drive through Midtown to get to the East End. He said that somewhere in the Midtown area, he remembers a place that consisted of a bunch of picnic tables in a vacant lot, where people could stop and buy fresh watermelon to eat. He said that it was only open during the summer, and the family would stop there frequently. My grandfather loved the place, and he would always stop there when he went to do his banking downtown. Does anyone else remember this place? I've never heard of it before.

[Heights2Bastrop]

I'm sure there were a number of watermelon stands around Houston. The one near us was on North Shepherd and, I believe, 26th. There was a small produce market on one corner, and the watermelon stand was on the other.

You could buy the melon whole, or by the slice. If you bought it whole, they would "plug" the melon by making three deep cuts, then removing the plug so the buyer could see if it was ripe or not. When the customer was satisfied, the plug was simply reinserted.

[Lowbrow]

The Glass Bros. Watermelon Stand has been in the fifth ward since the 50s. I believe it may have closed recently though.

At Lorraine and Chase

http://www.hottowncoolcity.org/view/site/detail/50/

[isuredid]

I am trying to picture a route from West University to the East End. None of the ways I can think of would lead through Midtown except along Main Street over to Polk Harrisburg, Navigation,Gulf Freeway,etc.

I think the most direct way from West U to East End would be Holcolmbe-OST-Wayside (all the same street more or less).

How old is your father or during what time period would he have been a kid?

Edited January 23, 2007 by isuredid

[Subdude]

The route would depend on the time period. OST wasn't built, and Holcombe extended east, until the late 1930s. Prior to that, coming from West U they would probably take Bissonnet to Binz, University to Main, or Richmond-Wheeler. With either route it is plausible they would go through Midtown.

[Dan the Man]

This would have been the early 1950s. He said the watermelon stand was near the building that had the ball on top that predicted the weather.

[Subdude]

That would have been the Conoco building downtown.

[brian0123]

I was showing a coworker my hood today using Streetview and noticed something interesting on an old picture of the superblock.

Link

First, what year do you think this was taken? Reef down the block doesn't exist yet (the bldg hadn't been renovated).

Second, on the sign on the superblock, there appears to be a rendering of some big building "Coming Soon". Was this just a rendering for something across the street, or were there plans for the superblock awhile back that failed to materialize?

[roadrunner]

I was showing a coworker my hood today using Streetview and noticed something interesting on an old picture of the superblock.

Link

First, what year do you think this was taken? Reef down the block doesn't exist yet (the bldg hadn't been renovated).

Second, on the sign on the superblock, there appears to be a rendering of some big building "Coming Soon". Was this just a rendering for something across the street, or were there plans for the superblock awhile back that failed to materialize?

It was a mixed use Camden project that never happened.

[blancoexpat]

I have vague memories of our father taking us to a watermelon stand near the Museum of Fine Arts in the early 1950's.  I think it was on the the north side of Binz, east of Montrose, in the area now occupied by the sculpture garden and parking lot.  Does this ring a bell with anybody? 

[Earlydays]

My wife remembers in the 1950's as a young girl going to a large ice house and watermelon stand on Alameda next to Herman Park. She would go there with her father, they would sit outside and she would get a large slice of cold watermelon and her father an ice-cold beer....those were simpler times!

[readam]

Blancoexpat- it seems like the watermelon stand I remember near the Museum District...between Main and Fannin, East of Weldon's cafeteria

[Vandelay101]

Can’t find any aerials from the mid 80s that has tranquility park and city in it. Does anyone? 

[Montrose1100]

Vandelay101,

 

I appreciate you looking for some info but can you keep your requests to individual threads in the historic section? Thanks!

[ChannelTwoNews]

On 10/5/2020 at 9:37 AM, Vandelay101 said:

Can’t find any aerials from the mid 80s that has tranquility park and city in it. Does anyone? 

Just for clarification - is it a request for aerial photos of Midtown or of Tranquility Park from that era? May or may not have one but not the other.