Memories Of Meyerland/Willowbend/Westbury

[spiderroller]

Stella Link and 610 where the discount tire is now there use to be a Jack N The Box

Before Jack N Box there was a Bonanza Steak House. Got my first job there busting tables when I was about 16.

The Bonanza building is still there I believe.... slightly north of 610 on Stella Link. I don't think it was in the exact same location as the JIB.

[Bill Pennington]

DJboutit, on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:28 AM, said:

Stella Link and 610 where the discount tire is now there use to be a Jack N The Box

Before Jack N Box there was a Bonanza Steak House. Got my first job there busting tables when I was about 16.

My 10 speed and I stayed away from freeways so ?????

Used to eat tacos at that Jack in the Box all the time

South Main and Willowbend there use to a golf course wierd thing about it it was so close to the street bet a few times people driving by got golf balls through there window

Used to play there with my Dad growing up. Started out as a 9 hole course then I believe became a par 3 18 hole course. When it was built it was on the outside edge of Houston.

It was called South Main golf course.It was always a 9 hole course that I remember.It had a few short 4 pars in the beginning but was later converted to 9 par 3 holes.

Played there a few times and pretty sure I hit at least one car.

I remember there to use to be a Mcdonalds on Stella Link just south of south Brasewood it was the only one for like 2 or 3 miles when it closed it turned it into a Specs the building was torn down like 3 or 4 yrs ago

I had my 7th birthday party at that McDonalds, I thought I was so cool!

[aggieengineer]

The cafeteria mentioned was Wyatt's. Pretty good back in the day, about the same as Luby's. I used to eat lunch there occasionally during my breaks from bagging groceries across the street at Belden's.

That shopping center had an A&P market, which closed and later became Cactus Tapes & Records. Cactus was just too much competition for Evolution Tapes & Records, just a few hundred yards to the north. Evolution sold records, car stereos, and ...... paraphernalia. I still remember the smell of incense in there. I still have most of the albums I bought there with my tip money. Music was a big deal back then. What memories.

[spiderroller]

Bought my first albums at Evolution... Kiss... Black Sabbath.. Rush... lol

Cactus brings back many memories of waiting in line for a day or two for concert tickets.... when they were sold the old fasioned way.... you waited in line and bought them.... no rigged system.... no instant scalping or holding back....... for like $8-10 a show.

[Fringe]

Bought my first albums at Evolution... Kiss... Black Sabbath.. Rush... lol

Cactus brings back many memories of waiting in line for a day or two for concert tickets.... when they were sold the old fasioned way.... you waited in line and bought them.... no rigged system.... no instant scalping or holding back....... for like $8-10 a show.

Cactus brings back many memories of waiting in line for a day or two for concert tickets.... when they were sold the old fasioned way.... you waited in line and bought them.... no rigged system.... no instant scalping or holding back....... for like $8-10 a show.

That was the good old days. I remember spending many nights to be in line early for tickets at Cactus or the venue halls. No "special" fees back them either. I just recently purchased a pair of tickets for the Hendrix Experience show and was charged for a ticket convenience fee ($14), facility fee ($5) and a delivery fee ($3.50). I paid less then that when I saw Hendrix himself.

[FilioScotia]

Some time back, somebody here on HAIF posted a link to an eye-popping high altitude aerial photo of the entire Meyerland-Westbury area taken in 1960.

It showed the entire vast panorama of a part of southwest Houston just before it started getting overrun by residential and commercial developers.

Does anybody here have that link?

[57Tbird]

FilioScotia... Is this the photo you mentioned? It's not the entire Westbury-Meyerland area, but it has some of it, and it's from 1960.

Edited January 18, 2012 by 57Tbird

[FilioScotia]

Yes that does appear to be the one. Thanks much. We can see a lot of the Meyerland/Westbury area, including the beginnings of Meyerland Plaza at the bottom, Westbury Square, and the outlines of the old Sam Houston Airport at the top.

Although, I think the top of the photo is a little bit more cropped at the top than the one I remember. i say that because in that photo we could see where Hiram Clarke crossed over Sims Bayou. That was of interest to me because four blocks east of Hiram Clarke and Sims Bayou on Simsbrooke Street I could make out the house where my first wife and i lived for a couple of years in the early 70s. That blew my mind.

I can't find that house in the photo you provided, but I like it anyway because it's a great look at how that part of Houston looked 50 years ago.

Edited January 19, 2012 by FilioScotia

[IHB2]

"There use to a BBQ restaurant on Omeara about 1 block from south main next to the ghetto carwash now it is a place where they park ambulances"

way back in time - the 50s - there was a Paul's BBQ on the east side of Post Oak real close to South Main. don't know how long it lasted but was the closest place to get bbq pork sandwiches from my family's house on the western the edge of Bellaire (we moved there in 48).

Paul's served bbq beef too, but Houstonians were more southern than western then...

[Lloyd-TX]

Great thread, DJ.

Late to this party, but FWIW AJ Foyt Chevrolet actually had three different names through the years:

It was first MacRoberts Chevrolet, then AJ Foyt bought it, and lastly is was called Tex Star Chevrolet. Tex Star didn't last very long though, the economy went bust.

Edited March 7, 2012 by Lloyd-TX

[davcorn]

That building that may or may not have been a PoFolks was definitely also a Bonanza at one time (S Post Oak between Willowbend and W Belfort). As a kid I remember crawling around inside the closed structure and it being pitch dark and dangerous - pretty sure it was before the Yamaha dealer went up in flames. Not sure if Bonanza came first or PoFolks, but I don't remember PoFolks being there very long.

Across from the now CC's Pizza, which was a DQ and prior to that a Burger King.

I just checked the map - Hunter's Pub is still there? Wow.

[hbcu]

In that elementary school near the Food-a-rama in the strip center....that used to be a gun shop, post oak trophies was over there also

Think a chinese restaurant was on stella link also that looked like a chinese village as there was one on West Airport and Hiram Clarke

Wasn't jack-in-the-box on chimney rock and west bellfort? The old sign is still there Also, a chinese restaurant was across the street in a office building on chimney rock

At main and post oak was a mcdonald's, pizza hut and mobil gas station

[Jim Anderson]

Great thread, love the photo! We moved into Meyerland in 1960, my mom still lives in the same house. I wonder if the photo might have actually been taken in 1959. The land where Kolter Elementary now stands is vacant in the photo. Kolter opened in 1960, so I think it might have been present in a photo taken in 1960, unless the construction went really quickly - I don't remember myself, I was just too young at the time. I attended Kolter from 1962-1969. The school had its 50th Anniversary celebration in November 2010. Amazing how much I still remember of the neighborhood even after 32 years in the Navy and being gone almost 40 years now. I keep promising myself I'm going to move back someday. Great place to grow up!

[WestburyDave]

If anybody is still visiting this site and has access to the Westbury60.jpg picture that has been mentioned on this site and the Westbury Square site, could you please post the picture again. The page is no longer available.

[FilioScotia]

I found that old aerial photo in one of my old postings in another thread. Here's a link to it and I hope it works. I hope it's the pic you're talking about.

http://www.houstonar...&attach_id=2490

Edited August 2, 2012 by FilioScotia

[Croberts]

An old way of copy writing street maps was to add short streets that do not exist. Usually these are dead ends, short extensions of existing streets, or short streets connecting two other streets. Sometimes they would be given fake names, sometimes not due to the short length.

[Croberts]

An old way of copy writing street maps was to add short streets that do not exist. Usually these are dead ends, short extensions of existing streets, or short streets connecting two other streets. Sometimes they would be given fake names, sometimes not due to the short length.

[Subdude]

An old way of copy writing street maps was to add short streets that do not exist. Usually these are dead ends, short extensions of existing streets, or short streets connecting two other streets. Sometimes they would be given fake names, sometimes not due to the short length.

 

I've heard that before as well.  In some cases (viz Brunsville) non-existent streets show up on maps for years.

[estreeter]

As my parents have lived on Spellman since 1958, the "world" of my childhood ended at Warm Springs.  It has been open field behind it as long as they have been there.  My dad is looking forward to the Willow Waterhole to be expanded to that side of Post Oak.  

[sevfiv]

I came across a neat advertisement for Meyerland from 1958 - it blasts Houston's no zoning and warns of "mongrel neighborhoods" and "stately magnificent homes mingled with neon signs hawking insurance agencies, beauty parlors, funeral homes and apartment buildings – melancholy reminders that Houston has no zoning law"

 

http://arch-ive.org/archive/meyerland-houston/

 

[Subdude]

"Mongrel neighborhoods"?  Good heavens.  

Love the "MOhawk" phone number.  

[NenaE]

Wow, what a loaded paragraph. Mongrels, hmmm...Makes me think of gypsies. Well, it's a little too late now. It's a smorgasbord out there.

[livincinco]

Fear is always a powerful selling tool. The language has become more polished over the years, but the message is pretty much the same.

[mollusk]

Why heavens to Betsy, the "mongrel neighborhood" in the illustration has housing stock that looks suspiciously like Riverside Terrace.

 

Check out http://thisisourhomeitisnotforsale.com/ some time.  During that same era, my grandparents got blockbusted out of the Palms Center area, ending up in Sharpstown.

[JLWM8609]

Why heavens to Betsy, the "mongrel neighborhood" in the illustration has housing stock that looks suspiciously like Riverside Terrace.

 

Check out http://thisisourhomeitisnotforsale.com/ some time.  During that same era, my grandparents got blockbusted out of the Palms Center area, ending up in Sharpstown.

 

You can tell they were alluding to Riverside Terrace. Mongrel reads like a code word for "negro" in this context.

[NenaE]

Wow, what a loaded paragraph. Mongrels, hmmm...Makes me think of gypsies. Well, it's a little too late now. It's a smorgasbord out there.

 

Just to clarify - I was speaking of the zoning...per my quote below. 

[IronTiger]

While "mongrel neighborhoods" seems like veiled racism (and I'm not denying that there may be a bit of that), I don't think that, especially if you consider that Riverside Terrace didn't have anyone that wasn't white living in it prior to '52 (if I recall correctly, the major demographic shifts happened after the 288 clearance), and the fact that they say "stately magnificent homes", which they wouldn't if they thought that poorly of the "mongrel neighborhoods".

[ArchFan]

Thanks for bring that advertisement to our attention.  It is a very interesting relict of an earlier time.  Although nuances of the ad are subject to interpretation, it is better to have tangible evidence about that era than to rely just on fuzzy notions from movies.

 

I would not interpret the word "mongrel" as having racist overtones.  But ... I also think that clever advertising often tries to resonate simultaneously with different points of view.  So, while I think it is possible they may have wanted to appeal to racist sensibilities, among others, my gut feeling is that they mainly wanted to appeal to people who were concerned about investing in a neighborhood that would not erode like so many in Houston have:  clusters of single-family homes that wind up having used-car lots etc.  embedded in them.

 

 

[mollusk]

I was here at the time and old enough to be aware of what was going on.  Houston may not have been Birmingham or Selma, but we certainly had separate entrances, water fountains, men's, women's, and "colored" restrooms (a total of three, one of which was around back), slurs casually tossed about in otherwise respectable conversation, and all the other garbage that gained notoriety elsewhere.  For me, it's not a fuzzy movie story - it's something that affected my family.  My grandparents had one of those signs in their yard, and ended up taking a bath on the house when they finally sold.  

 

If you don't think there's a racist aspect to that ad, you're kidding yourself.  And it ain't completely gone yet - these days, it's called a "dog whistle."  Fortunately, those that respond to that whistle are dying off.

 

[JLWM8609]

While "mongrel neighborhoods" seems like veiled racism (and I'm not denying that there may be a bit of that), I don't think that, especially if you consider that Riverside Terrace didn't have anyone that wasn't white living in it prior to '52 (if I recall correctly, the major demographic shifts happened after the 288 clearance), and the fact that they say "stately magnificent homes", which they wouldn't if they thought that poorly of the "mongrel neighborhoods".

 

Consider that after 1952, the line that separated black residents from white residents in the area moved progressively southward. In 1952, the line was Alabama St. Blacks traditionally stayed north of Alabama while south of Alabama was white. When Jack Caesar moved in, the line moved south to Cleburne, then Blodgett. By the late 50s when this brochure came out, the line was just past Southmore, and that's when you saw businesses opening up in homes such as Wyse Barber Shop and Bill Clair Mortuary.

The area was still mostly white in 1958, but demographics were obviously changing. A few years later in the mid 60s, the area was 50/50 black and white. Around that time, the line was at Brays Bayou, which was finally crossed by 1970, and then the area became majority black. I think part of that reatively late crossing of the bayou came from the fact that black residents displaced by the construction of 288 decided to stay in the area and moved south of the bayou (such as my uncle and aunt who moved from Rosedale St. to Rio Vista Dr.), while white residents took their eminent domain checks and went to places like southwest Houston.

Edited June 9, 2014 by JLWM8609