The retro Glenbrook Valley neighborhood entry sign above is now standing on Broadway St. north of the intersection with Santa Elena St., Robert Searcy notes. The neighborhood civic club’s new Mod marker echoes one that stood in the area shortly after the subdivision’s early 1950s founding (shown here in a black and white excerpt from a brochure for the 1956 Parade of Homes tour) and replaces the much more rectilinear sign long planted in about the same spot. The new sign’s cursive also mimics the throwback style of the script on the nearby Glenbrook Valley Apartments on Bellfort St.:
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Elsewhere on Broadway, Scenic Houston’s Hobby-minded landscaping redo wrapped up this month as well; the baby oak trees above are now installed among their older, thicker peers in the median strips just south of I-45:
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Where the Peacocks Muster near Hobby Airport;Â Inside the Historic Battle for Glenbrook Valley
Images: Robert Searcy (top 2), arch-ive.org (Glenbrook Valley Apartments), Scenic Houston (bottom)
Super swanky!
The brick planter is nice with this one. I prefer the simpler, understated sign from before. The new version is too 1950’s diner for my taste. Kudos on the improvements regardless.
Intriguing sign, but a design disaster.
1. The “historic” didn’t really need to be stated, established in 1953 is good enough. “Fabulous” would have been fabulous.
2. Four different fonts on a sign? Stick with two. I realize the stick-on “deed restricted…” text is cut out, but I would had painted this on a third sign or splurge for custom-cut lettering.
3. More teal is needed to avoid the “green” highway sign
4. Nice script lettering albeit borrowed from the apartment complex.
@Blake must be a lot of fun at parties, especially ones in Glenbrook Valley!
Blake, you make some good points. The original sign in the B&W 1950’s photo only has two fonts.
I love it. Goes with the whole theme of that neighborhood.
“Houston’s Hobby-minded landscaping” goes to show people are still trying to put lipstick on a pig …
What happened to the turquoise and red design I’ve seen? The brown color looks like doo doo . The multi-fonts looks goofy.
+1 for the retro signage, but I have to say, closer to the airport, Broadway looks an awful lot like a pig in lipstick. Among other things, the burnt-out shell of the Thai Xuan Village unit that burned is highly visible from the road.
“A deed restricted neighborhood” harkens back to an early time in real estate when Racial restrictive covenants were common place in developed neighborhoods where only caucasians and Christians could buy and or occupy the property. Way to dig up the past with that blazed across your neighborhood sign!
Sue Ann sounds fun, too!
Please don’t leave out Meadowbrook Freeway, adjoining Glenbrook Valley, we are close and need help also. Pot holes, busted driveways and curbs from mud trucks driving through. streets dangerous to drive on, will see POT HOLES on Glenheath and Ruthby. Needs immediate attention all Hinman and area needs attention. Crime as seemed to be improved with all the improvements,
Thanks
Sue Ann: Hope you have not suffered any ill effects from your nap that began in the early ’60s!
Here in the first quarter of the 21st century, a reference to “deed restrictions” in neighborhood signage is usually just a signal that such restrictions (over and above the ones that have been voided by operation of law) are still in effect, and being enforced for the benefit of the neighborhood. It is a positive thing, not a sign of bigotry or oppression!
Hey, and check out the new restaurants that have opened up in the last 50 years. They serve everyone, too!
In other news, water is still wet. And if you need to make change along the way, there are banks on either side of the bayou.