Otto’s on Durham, isn’t going to be an Otto’s At 903 Durham, a permit has been filed for a build out of a new restaurant, which was first envisioned back in 2018. When originally pitched, the new combined lot, was meant to serve as a combination catering kitchen, and BBQ restaurant. The venture was undertaken by the current owners of the Otto’s locations remaining in Houston, and the restaurant was pitched with the Otto’s name …
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My name is Mike and I am the founder of the Houston Historic Retail! I have been running this site since 2015. For more information check out the About page!
This decor still provides service “Merchandise”, at American Freight
Let’s start off today with a little history of 2665 S Texas 6, Houston, TX 77082. If you’re too young to remember, Service Merchandise was one of the final catalog showroom chains in the U.S., and one of the last to operate in Houston. Their entry into Houston came via acquiring another company named, Wilson’s. Most locations were built next to Office Depot stores, although I’m not sure which chain to trace this to. Service …
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This Week in Demolition: A quasi-Cape Cod Colonial, and not much else!
Apologies for the delayed demolition report, command post & HQ for Houston Historic Retail, moved over the weekend! Nothing fascinating today, due to the obviously short list. Expect a Permit Roundup, later this week on HHR! Residential Demolitions 12626 Vindon Dr, Houston, TX 77024– Fonn Villas, Photos 5429 Judalon Ln, Houston, TX 77056– Larchmont, Photos 3822 Olympia Dr, Houston, TX 77019– River Oaks, Photos 2438 McClendon St, Houston, TX 77030– Brantwood, Photos 1715 Monarch Oaks …
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Lake Jackson just can’t keep a dang grocery store!
My heart always drops a little bit when I hear about a former Safeway shutting down for good. It’s amazing that stores built in the 1970s are still operating as grocery stores, that’s the equivalence of someone in the 2000s shopping at a store that opened in 1950, not impossible but largely unheard as by that point the supermarkets that had been built would be outsized in only a few years. The Lake Jackson Safeway …
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Random Retail: Two out of place Big Box Retailers, and Two former Burger Joints
Welcome folks, today we’ve got another edition of Random Retail! This week we have a heavy emphasis on a former Wal-Mart, but not enough that it warrants its own post. If you’ve never experienced Random Retail before, well it’s basically a dump of photos I’ve taken that don’t really fit in with anything else I’m doing at the moment. A good portion of these Random Retail photos come from former Wal-Mart #597 at 7075 FM …
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This Week in Demolition: As American as Apple Pie!
No story this week, but demolitions are blow. Enjoy your 4th! 1815 Marshall St. HAR.com This is a list of the buildings which received a City of Houston demolition permit the week before this post. Residential Demolitions 3006 Reba Dr, Houston, TX 77019– Avalon Place, Two-Story with Pool, Photos 2324 Peckham St, Houston, TX 77019– Normandy Place, 1940s, Photos 2536 White Oak Dr, Houston, TX 77009– Norhill, 1930s, Photos 1815 Marshall St, Houston, …
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A former Safeway with a split personality
When a grocery store closes, it’s not unusual for the space to be subdivided. Over the course of the 20th century, supermarkets became larger and larger, aiming for a broader range. Today’s example is a former Safeway located at 2028 N Main St in Pearland. Holding their grand opening November 11, 1979, the new Safeway was one of Houston’s earliest purpose built superstore locations. The breadth of items available was everything you’d find in a …
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A journey through Buc-ee’s turbulent youth
A quick aside before we begin today’s post. There was an excellent online review I read a while back that somewhat inspired me to write this post. It taxonomized Buc-ee’s locations by size, giving two examples “Baby Beaver” to describe the original stores in Lake Jackson, and Adolescent stores to describe ones like the store off 290 on Muschkee Road. For this post, I propose adding a few more classifications to the taxonomy. A “Papa …
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Permit Roundup: New Retail Spaces Appear Throughout Town, Multiple Remodels, and New Restaurants
Welcome back to our second Permit Roundup, this week our post is a bit shorter than last week. It seems similarly to Demolitions Reports, the Residential/Commercial balance changes from week to week, again with an emphasis on the residential permits. Also, if you didn’t read it in yesterday’s demolition post, my server is running very slowly at the moment, but I am in the process of updating, so please bear with me in the meantime. …
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This Week in Demolition: If this is all you get, it’s all you get!
Howdy Folks, this week in Demolition we see some interesting demolitions, mixed in with a litany of technical issues! Hopefully everyone is seeing this post, as I’ve been encountering some technical issues lately. These are related to a consistent rise in traffic, which causes my server to often hit its limits. I’m trying to upgrade to a better server within a week or so, but of course I do have outside responsibilities to attend to. …
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