torimask Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Sorry for the quality, but I was at the Julia Ideson building today flipping through the 1966 book of bound Houston Chamber of Commerce Magazines and came across a couple of photos that weren't identified by the shopping mall that I was hoping someone here would recognize. These are phone photos of pages that curve from the binding, so they're a little wonky. Above is Foley's (logo visible on the banner at right) and I'm hoping it's Almeda Mall's opening. The following page has a short piece on the opening of the mall that month (October, 1966) but this was run on the preceding page with a piece about the uptick in department store sales. Does anyone know for certain whether this matches the interior of the Almeda Foley's? It certainly looks like a grand opening crowd. One more, definitely not Almeda, but unknown, without caption that ran in the February 1966 issue: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intencity77 Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 The second picture is of the former Northline Mall. I can see the Britts sign far in the distance and that store was only at Northline to my knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 Yeah, and there was not a Kresge at Almeada Mall either and Sharpstown which did have a Kresge opened in 1961, so I choose Northline also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 It's definitely Northline. The stores visible in the picture match the layout on this map: http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/files/legacy/northline.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purpledevil Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Wow...yeah, the second picture is Northline. Photographer stood in front of Joske's entrance and took the picture looking down towards Montgomery Ward's. The S.S. Kresge's on the right of the second picture was my treat as a kid if I behaved and kept my mouth shut while my mom & grandma "looked around" at Craig's (on the left). Kresge's had a lunch counter on the far left side of the store front, and went almost halfway down the wall. Mmm...I can taste that cherry coke float now...The first picture, to me, looks like Northwest's Foley*s. That one may be more difficult to pin down, since Almeda & NW Foley*s were basically identical then. Given that we know the 2nd pic is of Northline, I would rationalize that the close proximity to one another, likely means the Foley*s picture was taken at NW than Almeda. In '66 the brand would have only been in Downtown, on the Gulf Freeway, Sharpstown, & the NW/Almeda pair in Houston.Thanks for posting, torimask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torimask Posted August 20, 2015 Author Share Posted August 20, 2015 Wow...yeah, the second picture is Northline. Photographer stood in front of Joske's entrance and took the picture looking down towards Montgomery Ward's. The S.S. Kresge's on the right of the second picture was my treat as a kid if I behaved and kept my mouth shut while my mom & grandma "looked around" at Craig's (on the left). Kresge's had a lunch counter on the far left side of the store front, and went almost halfway down the wall. Mmm...I can taste that cherry coke float now...The first picture, to me, looks like Northwest's Foley*s. That one may be more difficult to pin down, since Almeda & NW Foley*s were basically identical then. Given that we know the 2nd pic is of Northline, I would rationalize that the close proximity to one another, likely means the Foley*s picture was taken at NW than Almeda. In '66 the brand would have only been in Downtown, on the Gulf Freeway, Sharpstown, & the NW/Almeda pair in Houston.Thanks for posting, torimask. My pleasure! I'm betting the first photo is Almeda-Genoa because the photo appears on the page right before the Bob Bailey photograph of the azalea ribbon cutting of Foley's in October 1966. Northwest had not yet opened on that date. On a subsequent trip, I'll get to the Briscoe center where all the Bailey negatives are housed and see if I can locate the whole roll from that date. Surely he took multiple photos at the opening! Here's the piece from the Houston Chamber magazine: http://southbelthouston.blogspot.com/2015/08/81415-foleys-almeda-opening-october-1966.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefmonkey Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 It's definitely Northline. The stores visible in the picture match the layout on this map: http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/files/legacy/northline.pdf Man, the list of stores remind me of how things have changed in terms of what stores you expect to see in a Houston mall. Now it's all Teavana, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, etc. But back when I was a kid (born in 1976), it wasn't a shopping mall if it didn't have: A WalgreensHickory FarmsB Dalton's or WaldenbooksA cafeteria (usually Piccadilly or Wyatt's)A pet storeA Florsheim shoes (that's all my dad used to wear back in the day)A piano storeA Sticks n WicksOrange JuliusAn arcadeAnd an in-mall movie theater Also, I was tickled to see a "One's a Meal". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Man, the list of stores remind me of how things have changed in terms of what stores you expect to see in a Houston mall. Now it's all Teavana, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, etc. But back when I was a kid (born in 1976), it wasn't a shopping mall if it didn't have: A WalgreensHickory FarmsB Dalton's or WaldenbooksA cafeteria (usually Piccadilly or Wyatt's)A pet storeA Florsheim shoes (that's all my dad used to wear back in the day)A piano storeA Sticks n WicksOrange JuliusAn arcadeAnd an in-mall movie theater Also, I was tickled to see a "One's a Meal". It's truly unfortunate that One's A Meal is no more. What really stands out on that Northline map is the number of shoe stores. Northline was certainly not a big mall by modern standards, but it somehow managed to support no less than seven shoe stores and one shoe repair shop. Also, I never realized that Freeland's Pet Shop was originally in the mall. By the time I started going there, they'd already relocated to the strip center on the south side of Crosstimbers, next to Shakey's Pizza. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Man, the list of stores remind me of how things have changed in terms of what stores you expect to see in a Houston mall. Now it's all Teavana, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, etc. But back when I was a kid (born in 1976), it wasn't a shopping mall if it didn't have: A WalgreensHickory FarmsB Dalton's or WaldenbooksA cafeteria (usually Piccadilly or Wyatt's)A pet storeA Florsheim shoes (that's all my dad used to wear back in the day)A piano storeA Sticks n WicksOrange JuliusAn arcadeAnd an in-mall movie theater Also, I was tickled to see a "One's a Meal". And Swiss Colony and Spencer Gifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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