Contemporary Arts Museum At 6945 Old Main Street Rd.

[Highrise Tower]

I was browsing the newspaper The Bellaire Texan dated April 28, 1955 and came across an article about a dance club that mentioned Contemporary Arts Museum located at 6945 Old Main Street Rd.

Dance Concert At Museum Tonight

There will be a concert of the Modern Dance tonight at the Contemporary Arts Museum at 6945 Old Main Street.

The program will begin at 8:30p.m. and participants will be the Dance Group of the Y.W.C.A. And their guests; The Chorodrama Choir of the Unitarian Church, Reagan High School Modern Dance Club and the Jewish Community Center Modern Dance Group.

Margaret Hanna directs the YW group, and the Jewish Community Center Group; the Reagan Dancers are instructed by Doris Lee and The Unitarian group is under direction of Kiki Gray.

Pretty cool to see, yet again, another Old Main Street-to-Fannin Street change.  I am guessing it's OMS to Fannin, as around the same time the CAM was located at 6945 Fannin St.

[brucesw]

I remember seeing the original building in the 60s.  As I recall, I was on S. Main and it was off to the east, maybe a bit farther than other structures (Valian's?).  Never went to it but it influenced my appreciation of Houston a few years later when I was contemplating a career move.  Never regretted my choice to come to Houston and I went to the new facility soon after it opened.

I'll be looking for pictures of the original.  Here's the history on the website.

[mattyt36]

16 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Pretty cool to see, yet again, another Old Main Street-to-Fannin Street change.  I am guessing it's OMS to Fannin, as around the same time the CAM was located at 6945 Fannin St.

I'd love to know more of the history of this name change/realignment--first I've heard!

[Dave W]

4 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

I'd love to know more of the history of this name change/realignment--first I've heard!

Nothing unusual about it. Fannin ended at Holcombe. Old Main Street Road ended at Holcombe just east of where Fannin ended. As the area south of Holcombe developed in the 1950s, the two were connected, it was logical to have a single name.

[mattyt36]

2 hours ago, Dave W said:

Nothing unusual about it. Fannin ended at Holcombe. Old Main Street Road ended at Holcombe just east of where Fannin ended. As the area south of Holcombe developed in the 1950s, the two were connected, it was logical to have a single name.

Well thanks, was not implying that it was unusual, just did not know what the prior Main St alignment was. I assume it wasn’t current Fannin north of Holcombe? 

[Dave W]

2 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

Well thanks, was not implying that it was unusual, just did not know what the prior Main St alignment was. I assume it wasn’t current Fannin north of Holcombe? 

Holcombe was its northernmost point, at least in my lifetime. It didn't exist north of Holcombe. Sorry I wasn't clear about that. And Fannin didn't exist south of Holcombe.

[mattyt36]

3 hours ago, Dave W said:

Holcombe was its northernmost point, at least in my lifetime. It didn't exist north of Holcombe. Sorry I wasn't clear about that. And Fannin didn't exist south of Holcombe.

And the most important question …

when/why/how was Main St realigned?

[Dave W]

10 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

And the most important question …

when/why/how was Main St realigned?

This 1935 map shows Main St Boulevard ending at Holcombe, while this 1942 map shows the current alignment. And if Wikipedia is correct, 1942 is also the year US 90A was designated. So an educated guess would be by 1942 at the latest. Why? I suppose it was to link up to the US highway.