Reflecting on the Heights Krogarten’s

Howdy folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today, we’re taking a moment to reflect on a piece of grocery history we’ll soon lose. Specifically, the Kroger at 239 W 20th St, Houston, TX 77008 will close next month, and after it does, it will likely be demolished. Before we speculate on the future, though, let’s hop back to the past. Specifically, back to the late 1800s, when this area of Houston was being planned out. The Heights was Houston’s first real suburb, and it was specifically a streetcar suburb. In those days, a massive streetcar network that traversed Houston, running through the heart of the Heights, brought shoppers into downtown, where most retail existed. This stayed mostly true, well into the 1910s, but with the advent of the automobile, retail quickly became a game of convenience. In the 1920s, the Heights was being targeted for potential retail development. These were often simple projects that would knock down a couple of adjacent homes to build a small shop or sometimes just convert a home into a store. In 1929, Weingarten’s decided to join that trend and construct a new store in the Heights. The building would be at the Northwest corner of Yale and W. 20th, and anchor a small “shopping center” which ran along Yale. The Heights Weingarten’s opened in May 1930, only a few months after the announcement. To build the store and the small shopping center, Weingarten’s had acquired about six houses at the end of the block. It seems that not long after, multiple neighbors sold out, leaving Weingarten with a patchwork rear parking lot, bound by four homes on the far side of the block, and a handful along W. 20th.

The rest of these photos can be viewed in my 2022 post on the store.

As Weingarten’s 8th store, the chain was quite established by the time this location opened, and it was met with a warm response from Heights residents. The store would be upgraded over the years, evicting the shopping center tenants to expand. In 1950, Weingarten’s would construct a new location, this time at the Southwest corner of Yale and W 21st. This new building would be much larger than the old store. It was the first location to use a truss roof, a common feature of later Weingarten locations. The store would continue to grow in popularity, with the old building being converted into a Weingarten’s Home Center, essentially a junior department store. Over the next few years, Weingarten would focus on buying up the remaining residential properties on the block. The store would once again be rebuilt in 1976, this time putting us into the current building. As part of this construction, the 1930s store, which had been converted to shopping center space, was demolished. The 1950s building would be spared, but given a new facade and also converted into a shopping center. This new store once again featured a truss roof, with a distinct peak that still exists, along with the older barrel-roof truss from the 50s store, behind a facade. Not much has changed in this store besides the sign. From Weingarten to Safeway in 1984, then to AppleTree in 1989, and finally to Kroger in 1994. In fact, most of the old Weingartens still exist if you look hard enough. The restrooms are in the back room; the old meat-cutter windows are visible behind the coolers; and the permits from the Safeway days still exist. There’s no pharmacy, the service departments are tiny, and, really, the biggest change has been reorienting the entrance. The fact that groceries have been sold from this corner since 1930 is a testament to Weingarten’s and the store as a whole. It might be a tiny supermarket, but it’s consistently packed, and honestly, a fun store to shop in. According to other tenants in the shopping center, there have been talks of tearing the entire thing down for a complete start over, potentially something multi-level, but that’s just loose talk. What we can assume, though, is that these old Weingartens won’t be grocery stores ever again after April, so I say go visit them while you can.