Subdude Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Does anyone know anything about this place? Was this an early gay club? http://s15.postimg.org/4l8qxrtbv/T2e_C16_FHJGk_E9no8fyb_CBQIw2u_Vneg_60_3.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) Not sure. Don't know how old it is, but I doubt that they would advertise that openly if it was something that the general public would've frowned upon at the time (homosexuality, that is, not drinking, though some people probably frowned on that too). Remember, there was the "Gay Gift Box" at Westbury Square in the '60s, or so. Edited February 3, 2014 by IronTiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) There really was a time not all.that long ago when the term "Gay 90s" referred to the fun and frivolity the upper classes enjoyed in the 1890s, and it had nothing to do with homosexuality. Edited February 3, 2014 by FilioScotia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 I apologize for leaping to unwarranted assumptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Hmm - I see it on ebay and this is the inside picture (photo booth type thing?). I'll have to look it up later today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txn4art Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Seems like some of the younger people on this forum need to look up the etymology of the word "gay". Also, if memory serves correctly, the name of the Westbury Square shop mentioned by Iron Tiger was The Gay Dot Party Shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 There really was a time not all.that long ago when the term "Gay 90s" referred to the fun and frivolity the upper classes enjoyed in the 1890s, and it had nothing to do with homosexuality. Seems like some of the younger people on this forum need to look up the etymology of the word "gay". I'm not one of the younger people on this forum, and I'm quite aware of when "Gay 90s" was a popular term to describe the latter part of the Gilded Age. In the absence of any other information about the establishment in question besides its Montrose-area location, I don't think it's at all an unreasonable assumption that its name could well have been a double entendre. My guess is that this place predates the significant movement of gays into Montrose that we're all familiar with, but Subdude's question is a fair one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Yes - the Gay Dot was at Westbury Square (it's mentioned on the pink brochure/city directory listings): http://arch-ive.org/westburysquare/brochures/ As for the Gay Nineties - that would be sometime pre-1950s (when Houston began seven digit numbers) but all I can find is a Gay Ninety's Restaurant at 7403 Katy Rd. (would be near present day Awty school). Also, in the 1950s there was a Jimmy Lewis that was an announcer at KYOK radio (an African-American station) - doubtful it's the same guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 The building is still there on Taft, though: http://goo.gl/maps/28tSZ Also, on a tangent, the Lewis family owned that property until 1972 - Ben and Harry Lewis of Ben Lewis Jewelry Co. at 1105 Congress St. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little frau Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 So is the J. 2-0164 supposed to be a phone number? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 So is the J. 2-0164 supposed to be a phone number? Yes. I assume the J grew up into the JAckson exchange (52-) exchange for the Montrose area. I think the picture sevfiv posted from ebay probably disproves the idea that it was a gay club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little frau Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 The clothes and women's hair styles would suggest 40s to 50s in my opinion. I have some photos of my parents as young marrieds in the 40s that are similar to that picture. When we moved to Houston from east Texas in the very early 50s, I believe we had a CApitol phone exchange and later a FAirfax. That puts me to wondering when a single letter was used, especially in advertising, maybe 40s and earlier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 For what it's worth, assuming the "J" in that phone number was short for JAckson, the number would today be 713-522-0164. A reverse phone number search at Whitepages dot com shows this number now belongs to Dr. David Moore-Jones at 1824 Kirby Dr. in River Oaks. I wonder if he still gets calls from somebody trying to call the Gay Nineties Club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Seems like some of the younger people on this forum need to look up the etymology of the word "gay". Also, if memory serves correctly, the name of the Westbury Square shop mentioned by Iron Tiger was The Gay Dot Party Shop.I know quite well the old etymology. I was confusing the name of the store with a similarly-named store at St. Louis' Northwest Plaza (an outdoor shopping center later converted to a shopping mall, which eventually closed and was demolished) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle C Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I was raised in the Montrose area at 1525 Sul Ross in the fifties and early 60's (I graduated in 63). It was a straight neighborhood at that time. When I was a kid I had always heard that Art Wrens was a gay hang out but I couldn't back that up with fact. It was a great neighborhood to be brought up in. At that time most of the people there were older people that had bought their homes when they were new, at least that was the way it was around where I lived. My next door neighbors had bought their homes new and were older folk. Phil's café was on the corner of Mandell and Richmond, it was my favorite place to eat as a kid. It later moved up to Shepherd and Portsmouth about where the Whataburger is now located. As for clubs I was a little to young to go clubbing but there was the Club De Lain on Montrose, it was located about the 4000, or 4100 Block on the west side of the street. Like so many other buildings in the area it is now gone. The house we lived in is gone also. St. Thomas University gobbled up all that property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Note the posts about phone exchanges moved to an existing topic on phone exchanges:http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/2278-houston-phone-numbers-became-numbers/page-5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Del Rio Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 Apparently this place was around in the mid '30s.https://www.facebook.com/historicMonstrose/photos/a.1653037064914478.1073741833.1430556783829175/1653038901580961/?type=3&theater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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