Houston In The 1950s

[litlredvette]

I saw an organ grinder numerous times at Merchants Park, usually in front of Walgreen's.

I miss all the push carts selling tamales around town, although I'm not sure I would buy from those vendors today.

Reading all the posts brought back a lot of memories.

While living in the Heights during the early 50's, I remember the tamale vendors. There was also a man that made hot tamales (Leisey's?) and sold them from an old wooden house on Shepherd where he might have lived. He would wrap them in newspaper. They were the best.

I remember a television show where children with birthdays were allowed to get as many pennies from a container/wishing well. The show featured cartoons.

I remember Price's hamburgers before McDonald's came to town.

I remember Playland Park with stock car races and the amusement park with the roller coaster and bumper cars. My grandfather would trailer his racecar from Port Arthur to race.

[4PROP]

Yes, that was a 45 put out by KNUZ around 1962. "Houston, My Home Town." I have a copy. It was one of many "my home town" discs released by radio stations in the early '60s.

Indeed, one of many. Best I recall, it goes;

Let me tell you about my hometown, largest in the Lone Star state.

I'll have to brag a little bit, but I really won't exaggerate.

Big H - O - U, S - T - O - N,

Houston, Houston, That's my hometown.

Where in the world have you ever seen, so much construction?

Where will you find a sports stadium, fully air conditioned?

And where will the tallest building be, west of the Mississippi?

Houston, Houston, That's my hometown.

Houston Oilers and the Colts, fabulous River Oaks,

Battleship Texas and Hermann Park, and such friendly folks.

It's recommended for a lifetime, or just a day;

Houston, Houston, That's my hometown.

Houston, Houston, ......That's my hometown......

.......for what that's worth.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Was digging around in the old photos I found in a shoebox tonight. Many of my friends know I lost my father in March 2007, well my dad was a life long peace officer and life long pack rat. I found some old pictures, that I think are from Houston in the 50's Here's one of my father standing beside his State Cruiser, prior to his appointment to the Rangers in 1954, in what I think is Houston. Maybe maybe not. Anyone remember that cafe? Probably going to have to dig up T-Bird or H2B on this one. Maybe Sparky. My brain just can't pull it out of the fog.

Rest in Peace Pop, we miss you.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Houston PD Dispatch in 1953.

[57Tbird]

Was digging around in the old photos I found in a shoebox tonight. Many of my friends know I lost my father in March 2007, well my dad was a life long peace officer and life long pack rat. I found some old pictures, that I think are from Houston in the 50's Here's one of my father standing beside his State Cruiser, prior to his appointment to the Rangers in 1954, in what I think is Houston. Maybe maybe not. Anyone remember that cafe? Probably going to have to dig up T-Bird or H2B on this one. Maybe Sparky. My brain just can't pull it out of the fog.

Rest in Peace Pop, we miss you.

Sorry, Mark. Can't help on this location. The "Recreation Hall" next to the Cafe/Cafeteria was a PC term for Pool Hall.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Yeah TBird I can remember going in there as a kid. There was a snooker table up front. There was a guy that hung out there that had just come home from Korea less his right arm. But he was a hell of a pool and snooker player. That place was considered a place of ill repute back then, my dad ate in the cafe pretty regular. Seems like it was uptown. Please understand y'all that uptown wasn't very far up. TC Jester North of 610 area now was country back then. I seem to think the was off of North Main, up around Hogan. I think that was considered 5th Ward. My brain just hasn't tuned it all the way in, hell that was over 50 years ago.

Another shot, I think this is Main.

Definately South Main Here

Thanks for the memory jog...

There was, for a while, a doubler-decker bus parked at Sonny Look's Sir Loin House on Westheimer until Sonny decided to have a guy dressed in armor and carrying a lance ride around in the parking lot on a horse.

In the 50's and 60's it was called The Houston Fat Stock Show and Rodeo. I remember Roy, Dale, and Trigger put on a great sharpshooting show inside the Coliseum. Bullet, Pat Brady, and Nellie Belle were no-shows.

Our phone number was MOhawk4-0798 when we lived at 4738 Stillbrooke. Switched to PArkview a few years later. CApitol was downtown. Who picked those names? A fellow NASA engineer here remembers the same thing. We were on the Redd Elementary football team together.

Went to Shearn Elementary on Stella Link before Redd was built. Tonawanda? Then, went to Johnston JHS the first year it was built.

Used to walk to the Chuck Wagon (S.Post Oak and Willowbend) to buy a Spoke Burger (hot dog) for 50 cents.

Westmoreland Farms milk, butter, eggs and ice cream home delivery!

There aren't enough superlatives for The San Jacinto Inn.

If you jumped really high you could bottom out the trampolines and splash the water in the pits that were dug for the ground level trampolines. After that, it was a go-cart track.

I remember watching TV on a Saturday night until they read the English poem "High Flight" and then went off the air around 10:00. Fred Nehouse?

Pin Oak Charity Hose Show.

Camp Hudson.

2Ks Ice Cream Shoppe on Westheimer near Sakowitz.

I went to Goodwill and bought a double breasted ('29) sport coat to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It cost me all of 50 cents but it looked brand new. On a whim, I found a Battlestein's box and stuffed the coat into it and took it to the store in River Oaks to have it altered to fit me. They inspected it closely and then saw the 30 year old Battlestein's label inside. They did it for free and the store manager explained that was their policy.

We've got over 5 million people now, but in the 50s Dallas was bigger than Houston and Glen McCarthy's Shamrock Hotel was out in the boonies from downtown as was Memorial Drive and Lakeside Country Club.

Did someone say Fat Stock Show???

At the Fat Stock Show when this was still legal

[WillowBend56]

Vest & Starkey was the builder of our house on Stillbrooke.

I remember that before houses were completed in that subdivision you could walk around inside on a latticework of 2x4s between which was a coating of tar. Tricky for a barely coordinated kid to do!

I also remember the Freddy or Zippy Kilowatt signs of the power company.

[57Tbird]

Another shot, I think this is Main.

It is.... looking north at the intersection of McKinney.

[JRH_1948]

I remember a place on Katy Rd. (Now I-10 I guess) called Katy Road Kiddyland or something like that. There was another kids playground out on N. Shephard, around 43'rd as I recall but maybe farther out.

[Alpha]

I remember a place on Katy Rd. (Now I-10 I guess) called Katy Road Kiddyland or something like that. There was another kids playground out on N. Shephard, around 43'rd as I recall but maybe farther out.

There is a discussion of Kiddieland Park starting at post #132 in this thread:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...amp;#entry99710

Welcome to the forum, JRH. I'm assuming that you were born in 1948. So was I.

[plumber2]

I've been spending hours looking at the www.historicaerials.com website. I may need an intervention soon . I am intrigued that White Oak Blvd. once connected to downtown at Milam St. The route took it behind the M&M building (UofH Downtown) and followed closely present day I-45 connecting to White Oak Blvd. at the current intersection with the Quitman St. extension. Quitman did not cross White Oak bayou in 1957 but apparently Wrightwood St. did. Does anyone know if any sections of this old road are visible or is it covered up by the present day freeways?

[Subdude]

I went riding around to check it out once, and there doesn't seem to be evidence of the Milam Street extension to White Oak.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Although the streets are not labeled, you should be able to find White Oak on THIS MAP. If you compare this to a modern map, it is obvious I-45 replaced all of the road between downtown and where White Oak crosses Houston Avenue.

I have fond memories of this drive as it was the route we usually took to town from the Heights. I also wondered where the road was exactly, and if any of it remained. It was not until I found this map that I got the answer.

As a kid, my favorite part of the drive was going under the railroad trestle just south of Hogan/Crockett. I was always afraid a train would fall off as we passed underneath, but was disappointed if there was not a train passing overhead as we passed below.

[JET @ HOU 1968]

I am trying to find out the address of the Yahoo Cafe should of been around in 1956 or about.

[Pegarino]

In the 1950s as a young married couple we would go to the Trail Drive Inn Theater on/near OST. There was a small restaurant near by that served the most wonderful Stuffed Shrimp. I would dearly love to know the recipe for this. What fond memories we have of this time so long ago. Hope it rings a bell with anyone out there who's still alive and can remember when we were young and ***....well, young!

[sevfiv]

Welcome to HAIF!

Do you remember anything more about the restaurant? Was it a steakhouse?

[georgetowngal]

I moved to Alief in 1945 and every Sunday my parents and grandparents would drive to Houston for lunch at many, many restaurants. There was one in particular that I can't stop thinking about and I have no idea what its name was. It would have been in the 50's and my guess is it was Downtown. After we would leave the restaurant, out on the sidewalk would be an organ grinder with his cute little costumed monkey and I would give it pennies.

Anyone else remember that?

[pachanga]

Vallians?

[brucesw]

Use the expanded search form, enter 'organ grinder' and look in the Historic Houston forum for previous queries and answers. I can't link to the results so you'll have to look them up for yourself. There were apparently several around town.

[brucesw]

I have been contacted by a researcher writing a book on this organization and its activities.  My own involvement was pretty minimal - I took part in a radiothon broadcast on KBRZ Freeport from Brazosport Hi in Freeport - but we also had a school talent show and students did other things to raise money.

 

It's easy to forget what a big deal polio was back then.  We had a flurry of cases in the early 50s in the Brazosport area, resulting in one popular student being forced to wear braces and walk with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life and we all learned about iron lungs.  Wiki has an interesting section in it's biography of Jonas Salk on the dramatic announcement of the development of an effective vaccine and the public reaction. 

 

Anybody else have any memories of the organization and the activities schools conducted?

[WillowBend56]

Here are seven aerial photographs taken in December 1951 by noted industrial photographer Robert Yarnall Richie:

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/suburban%20Houston/order/upload

 

Can you identify the areas?

[WillowBend56]

Here's another looking north over the Shamrock Hotel area toward downtown:

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ryr/id/3045/rec/33

 

Neat!

 

 

[WillowBend56]

Here's the full album of Robert Yarnall Richie aerial photos of Houston starting in 1948 (including the ones I already posted) and ranging in subjects from suburbs to downtown streets to industries to Southern Pacific's Englewood Yard:

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/Aerial%20View%2C%20%20Houston%2C%20Texas/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/upload

 

Enjoy!

[Ross]

Here are seven aerial photographs taken in December 1951 by noted industrial photographer Robert Yarnall Richie:

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/ryr/searchterm/suburban%20Houston/order/upload

 

Can you identify the areas?

 

First few, and a couple of the later ones, are from the South towards UH, looking over the new large houses off of South McGregor way and Rosenheath

 

 

[Earlydays]

I recognize my best friend's house on Roseneath......where he lived when we were HS Seniors in 1963/64

[NenaE]

That first photo is a great shot of Riverside Terrace. The back view of the large Weingarten residence (designed by Joseph Finger) is located on the left side. That area has such a beautiful landscape, with those tall pines. Thanks for sharing.

[Michelle C]

Thanks for the link for the aerial pictures of Houston. I was able to find several locations and clearly see the buildings of auto dealerships located in the downtown area in the forties and fifties. Earl McMillian Ford on Louisiana, Dow Chevrolet on Milam, Lester Goodson Pontiac on San Jacinto, Two locations for Davis Motor Company, one on San Jacinto and the other on Fannin, Abbot Stansell Dodge and Plymouth on San Jacinto. As I have the time I think I will be able to locate more. The pictures are a real treasure trove.

[devonhart]

Came across a report online of a Houston fireworks factory explosion in 1953. Apparently, when they saw a mushroom cloud over the city, some Houstonians thought the Russians had attacked.

 

[NenaE]

Nice shots of the Houston Country Club (East End) - Gus Wortham. You can see what a beautiful spot that is. That pool was gorgeous.

The RR to the left, CC entrance road over RR tracks from Harrisburg Blvd., Wayside Rd located at bottom of the picture all help with iidentification of the location.

[Subdude]

Yikes.  Does anyone know where this was?