Our winner in this week’s game was Señorbanity. Congratulations — you’re the newest member of the Rice Design Alliance — via a one-year individual membership donated by the organization. Thank you, RDA! We’ll also recognize a neighborly guess and award second place to Jayci.
Sweet! So where can you find this home?
A quick roundup:
be sure to also stop in at Ginger Barber’s Sitting Room which is next door. Further up the street is Tara Shaw and Heather Bowen Antiques. Continue up W. Alabama to Antiques and Interiors on Dunlavy, Boxwood and The Country Gentleman, then hit up Foxglove and Alcon Lighting.
If you haven’t passed out from exhaustion yet, turn around and head back to Brian Stringer’s and go the other way on W. Alabama. Stop at Jane Moore’s, then at Ferndale, go to Brown, Bill Gardner, Made in France, and Objects Lost and Found. Back on W. Alabama, continue on to Thompson and Hansen, The Gray Door, Chateau Domingue, Indulge on Saint Street, and 2620 on Joanel.
More openings and closings:
Which area freight rail routes might share their tracks with commuter rail lines? Probably not the Union Pacific line along U.S. 90A to Sugar Land. “But two other freight lines have less traffic, and Union Pacific is working with government planners to free them up for commuter trains. One runs out the U.S. 290 corridor and one runs along Texas 3 to Galveston. TxDOT is considering granting $2 million in stimulus funds for two engineering studies on those routes. ‘My goal is to have trains running in three years,’ said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. The engineering studies will design routes that bring suburban commuters to the 610 Loop, but no farther. The freight traffic inside the Loop is still too busy, and although there is an abandoned rail line, it runs right through the Heights — a politically vocal neighborhood. ‘That’s not something I want to take on,’ said Emmett. The compromise is to build some commuter lines now, connect them to light rail or bus lines, and figure out later how to get them inside the Loop, to downtown.” [Houston Chronicle]
Opening October 3rd in Sugar Land: A branch of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, smack dab in the center of the former prison farm now known as Telfair. The museum is a rehab of the old Central State Farm Prison building, but it has a better-sounding new address: 13019 University Blvd., at the corner of New Territory Blvd.
Meanwhile, far to the north, HMNS’s Woodlands Xploration Station in the Woodlands Mall is shutting down on September 7th. The Woodlands Children’s Museum next door to it will close a little less than a month later. Going into those vacated spaces: Forever 21.
Photo of new Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land: HMNS
Sugar Land requires single-family rental units to be inspected each year. And the city council has just voted to require the same for multifamily apartments: “The multifamily ordinance must be approved on second reading at a future meeting to become law. If approved, the measure will require apartment owners to pay an annual fee of $8 per rental unit. Sugar Land Community and Environmental Director Mike Goodrum told City Council members on Tuesday that the fee would equate to an annual cost of about $2,000 to $2,400 for the typical apartment complex in the city. Most of those complexes, he said, are owned by Gables Residential of Atlanta, Ga., which was consulted during creation of the new proposed policy. . . . Since apartment complexes typically have somewhat rapid tenant turnover, city inspectors would annually inspect those units that are vacant on the day the inspector schedules a visit, Goodrum indicated.” [Fort Bend Now]
One highlight of the decorating sampler provided by the listing for 403 Lombardy Dr.: the Monkey Bed.
What’s more to see in this fine home for sale in Venetian Estates?
There’s the multicolor cloud motif gracing the Media Room:
Houston music historian Roger Wood traces the lyrical references of Bob Dylan’s new song, “If You Ever Go To Houston”: “Not nearly as many people realize that ‘Midnight Special’ is a song about getting arrested in Houston and sent to prison in Sugar Land (where the train tracks ran right past the prison near Hwy. 90, and where the folklore about the midnight train beacon signifying early release for the lucky cell-dweller upon which it might shine predated Leadbelly’s song, written while he was incarcerated there). The first verse of that one: ‘If you ever go to Houston, you’d better walk right’ (also recorded by Leadbelly with the alternate line, ‘If you’re ever down in Houston, you’d better walk right,’ which I myself allude to in the title of my first book, ‘Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues’).” [Hair Balls]
An update on recent comings and goings:
More twists and turns:
Great game this week!
Here’s where you thought this home was: 4 of you guessed Memorial, 2 the Memorial Villages, and 2 Crestwood; Hunter Creek Village and Hedwig Village each got a vote. There were 2 guesses of Sugar Land, 2 of Sugar Creek, and 1 of Sweetwater. There were 2 votes each for FM 1960 and Champion Forest, plus single guesses of Huntwick and Olde Oaks. Plus: The Woodlands, Kingwood, Pasadena, Clear Lake, River Oaks, Tanglewood, Twin Lakes/North Eldridge, Bellaire (or was that Bel Air?), and League City.
The winner was writergeek, who guessed around, but ended up getting it — all the way down to the golf course:
For some reason the entry screams Sugar Land to me - either Sugar Creek (near the country club) or Sweetwater… The dated decor screams of the flight to the suburbs in the 80s and it looks like they went bust shortly after since the house hasn’t been touched since. Perhaps someone who was in a S&L scandal?
An honorable mention goes to movocelot, who was first to detect the home’s actual age:
Expansive rooms, painted brick, ceiling beamlets, applied molding on cabinets say early to mid 70’s to me.
Congratulations! Here’s what you’ve won:
In this episode: four decade-old houses in New Territory, all within walking distance of . . . each other! Each home has distinctive touches! And they’re all open for your visit this weekend!
Location: 1743 Heddon Falls Dr.
Details: 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,769 sq. ft.
Price: $290,000
The Scoop: 1998 brick 2-story home with slightly winding path and two 10-year-old live oak trees in front. Double-height arched brick entry. Cathedral ceiling in Family Room. Hardwood floors downstairs, new carpet up. Breakfast Room has new light fixture. Pool and spa in back. On the market since mid-August.
Open House: Sunday, 1-4 pm
More New Territory options as the tour continues . . .
On the lot at the shuttered Bill Heard Chevrolet off the Southwest Freeway in Sugar Land Saturday: a couple of armed security guards, hired by GM to make sure nothing leaves the lot.
Inside the dealership’s main offices it looks as though the entire showroom floor was frozen in time. Deflated balloons hang off of cubicle corners and showroom models. A loan application sits on a desk, unfinished. A framed picture of a family going down a roller coaster at Sea World hangs above an uncleared desk, one of many family photos that indicate the suddenness of the announcement.
If you’re to believe one of the managers of this particular dealership, the employees stayed late into the night helping customers get their plates processed and out the door. Contradicting this is an article from Wednesday in the Houston Chronicle in which the operations manager of Bill Heard Sugar Land, Linda Patterson, claimed they were selling vehicles into the night and would continue to stay in business. But by the next morning it was announced they would be closing, possibly for good.
After the jump: More on Bill Heard’s collapse, plus photos from Jalopnik’s (how’d they get?) behind-the-scenes report!
Car-shark favorites Landmark Chevrolet — on I-45 North near Gulf Bank — and Bill Heard Chevrolet — on the Southwest Freeway at 90 in Sugar Land — are both closing as part of a nationwide 13-dealership shutdown orchestrated by the pair’s parent company, Bill Heard Enterprises, which is based in Georgia. The move should make a lot of former customers very happy.
Available soon: A few more of those 9.9-acre stormwater-special feeder-road concrete lots?
Photo: Bill Heard Chevrolet
Sandwich franchise Pita Pit has a store tucked inside a Greenway Plaza office building. Two more locations debuted recently: one at Highway 6 and Williams Trace in Sugar Land (opened in May) and another in the tunnel beneath McKinney St. Downtown (opened in July). A new store in a strip center at Westheimer and Fountainview is listed as “coming soon” on the company website.
Now a source reports that a total of 10 Pita Pit franchises are planned for the Houston area — including one in the shopping center at 3939 Montrose Blvd., just north of the Hurricane-Ike-swept Diedrich’s Coffee, near Marble Slab.
Photo of Sugar Land Pita Pit: Pita Pit
From MarkWBennett (Mark W. Bennett): RT @StephStradley: #FF @houstonpress "Blog Stars" @kuff @lmayes @thebloggess @houstoncalling @swamplot @htownchowdown @bluejeangourmet & me
From steveneparker (Steve Parker): A good explanation of the the major light rail issues: RT @swamplot Where the New Light Rail Lines Are Stuck http://tinyurl.com/yj579v3
From texaswatchdog (texaswatchdog): Can anyone help rescue the ex-presidents buried in the mud in Pearland, TX?: http://twurl.nl/hmxdjj h/t @swamplot
From StephStradley (Stephanie Stradley): #FF @houstonpress "Blog Stars" @kuff @markwbennett @lmayes @thebloggess @houstoncalling @swamplot @htownchowdown @bluejeangourmet & me #nice
From icemanhorns84 (David Crowl): I would support this RT @swamplot Extending Metro’s Main St. Rail Line to Fort Bend County http://tinyurl.com/yzvfygp
From smurfing74 (Irfan S): I heard from someone in pearland that they decided to not put obama's bust their for fear of vandalism. So sad. @swamplot
From melindamerola (Melinda Merola): Did it. RT @swamplot Coming Soon to San Felipe: Winetopia http://tinyurl.com/yzd7jb6From melindamerola (Melinda Merola): Edit: I *love* Swamplot! RT @swamplot The Houston Press Sez Some Nice Things About Us http://tinyurl.com/yhjre5o
From FoodPrincess (Joanne Witt): +2 RT @she_eats: Congrats @HTownChowDown @BlueJeanGourmet @texanschick @swamplot @lmayes named Houston's best bloggers: http://is.gd/aM9GCFrom FoodPrincess (Joanne Witt): +2 RT @she_eats: Congrats @HTownChowDown @BlueJeanGourmet @texanschick @swamplot @lmayes named Houston's best bloggers: http://is.gd/aM9GC
Comment of the Day: Inner Loop Traffic Scare
“I’m always surprised at the people in the Houston metro area who live in the suburbs in order to avoid scary traffic. To me, the traffic in the commercial centers of the suburbs is just as bad, if not worse, than what I encounter within the Loop. My boss dropped me off at home once, with the surprised comment that ‘wow, you can drive from the Med Center to the Heights without going on the highway’. Then proceeded to tell me that the reason he lived in Sugarland was that his wife was terrified of highway driving. I still don’t get it.” [Sunsets, commenting on Sub-Suburban SUV Adventure: Braving That Big Trip “Downtown”]