Swamplot Archives by Category: Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Aurora Picture Show’s Original Movie House Has a Buyer

July 22, 2010 – 12:54 pm
   

The woman who’s buying the former home of the Aurora Picture Show from microcinema pioneer Andrea Grover plans on starting her own new film and arts organization and running it out of the former Sunset Height Church of Christ at 800 Aurora St. Artist, filmmaker, and law student Cressandra Thibodeaux’s name for her new concept: 14 Pews. She hopes to host theater and film productions, weddings, art exhibitions, classes, and workshops in the space, along with occasional screenings from . . . Aurora Picture Show. Writer Steven Thomsen gets Thibodeaux to gush: “‘I’m going through a divorce and thought that Houston would be the best place to lick my wounds,’ she tells CultureMap. ‘It’s always treated me like a forgiving lover who wraps me in her warm moist arms. And the moment I landed at the airport I was engulfed in her warm moistness. . . . I have spent 10 years tossing ideas and projects at the walls in Los Angeles,’ she explains. ‘I came to Houston and in one week everything I tossed stuck to the walls. I credit the humidity.’” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Kenny Haner

12:54 pm | 13 Comments | Read more about Attractions, Buying and Selling, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Quicklink
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Monday, July 5, 2010

Very Small Business: The 14 Tiniest Commercial Buildings in Houston

July 5, 2010 – 12:49 pm

Armed with your suggestions, roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia set out to document the smallest freestanding commercial buildings in Houston she could find. And here are the results! Above, “The Spot” hair salon at 1207 Westheimer in Montrose, at the corner of Commonwealth.

More tiny:

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12:49 pm | 13 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Neighborhoods: Griggs Terrace, Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: Oak Forest, Neighborhoods: Seabrook, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, Neighborhoods: West End, Office Buildings, Retail
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Monday, May 24, 2010

Goodbye, Aurora Picture Show: Houston’s Best Known Movie House, Up for Sale

May 24, 2010 – 6:33 pm

Home theater specialist Andrea Grover is leaving Houston — and selling the Sunset Heights church-turned-movie-theater-turned-residence where she founded a well-known local arts organization 13 years ago. For the 10 years that it operated on Aurora St. just east of Main, Aurora Picture Show featured a ridiculous range of obscure and not-quite-as-obscure film and video screenings in its sanctuary space, along with 13 weddings and a couple of memorial services. Then 2 years ago, Grover explains, the microcinema went south — to Montrose:

Aurora relocated its office and library to a bungalow in “Doville” (the neighborhood affectionately named after Dominique de Menil). Their programming has been nomadic and site-specific in order to attract new audiences and activate different sites in Houston. This strategy has worked extremely well for the organization, which has seen increased attendance and membership as a result of catering to Houston’s love for new experiences and one-of-a-kind events. I retired at the end of 2008, and Aurora is doing so well that I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner!

The house includes a movie chapel with pew seating for 96, audio-video equipment, and a “disused baptistry,” along with a small freestanding outhouse for theatergoers that was “designed by a well-known architect (Michael Bell), though you would never guess it,” writes Grover.

The home comes with a trailer, too:

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6:33 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Attractions, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Religious Facilities, Renovations
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Friday, January 8, 2010

Heights Vs. Montrose: The Legal Battle

January 8, 2010 – 9:39 am
   

After giving himself 5 months to settle into his new Sunset Heights home, HBJ editor and former longtime west-Montrose resident Bill Schadewald sets about appraising the relative merits of his once and future ’hoods: “Montrose: Dozens of nearby attorneys ready to help me consummate a merger, negotiate an acquisition or initiate a hostile takeover. Heights: Hundreds of lawyers on hand to fix my speeding ticket, handle my uncontested divorce or represent me in a minor traffic accident case. Edge: Heights. Some of the lawyers even have brothers-in-law to do the car repairs and throw in a new set of hubcaps for free.” [Houston Business Journal]

9:39 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Quicklink
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Monday, November 23, 2009

Sounding the Alarm at the Aurora Picture Show

November 23, 2009 – 10:26 am
   

The microcinema’s founder, Andrea Grover, reports on the little Sunset Heights church on Aurora St. turned little movie theater — turned little crime scene: on recent events at the Menil-bungalow office of Aurora Picture Show on Sul Ross: “Now that the dust has settled . . . it’s OK to tell you: Aurora was burglarized, not once, but twice in 9 days, and the insurance claim was denied. . . . There was a small clause about a B3 monitoring system (a monitored alarm) that was not highlighted at signing and allowed the insurer to deny Aurora, after eleven uninterrupted years of payments to them (without a single claim) - probably amounting to $30-40,000 in insurance payments. . . . Now, out over $5000 worth of equipment, plus staff time, and contract labor for clean up . . .” [Facebook, via Arts in Houston]

10:26 am | 16 Comments | Read more about Crime, Insurance, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Quicklink
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Friday, March 14, 2008

Sunset Heights: Will Not Subdivide

March 14, 2008 – 4:00 pm

Former Post Office at 2601 Baylor St., Sunset Heights, Houston

East Sunset Heights Methadone Clinic Ad

This Methadone Clinic graphic was posted today on the Medusa Properties website, and conveys in slightly different fashion the same news we received in our email from a Heights-area reader:

The oh-so-neighborly Mr. Jared Meadors did *not* receive the variance he requested for the Baylor St subdivision.

Photo of 2601 Baylor St. and Methadone Clinic Graphic: Medusa Properties

4:00 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

A Sunset Heights Lot Size Turf War

March 13, 2008 – 6:23 pm

Former Post Office at 2601 Baylor St., Sunset Heights, Houston

Here’s just one paragraph from a nine-page variance request application submitted for consideration at today’s Planning Commission hearing:

So what message does this whole process send to people like me who are willing to go out and spend their time and their hard earned money and take risks in order to improve the city and improve our neighborhoods? The message is: Only the guys with deep pockets and deep connections—the Perry Homes, the Tricons, the Fingers, the Olmsteads, the Levits, the Weingartens—only those guys get to win at this game. Those guys can build what they want when they want. Everybody else loses. Everybody else gets bad advice and the run around. Everybody else should just stay home and sit quietly on their couches and watch TV.

There’s more to like in Jared Meadors’s request to subdivide the 49-by-120-ft. property he owns at 2601 Baylor St. in Sunset Heights into three separate lots — including an accounting of his annual net adjusted income over the last three years, two HAR.com screen shots, and some occasional heavy leaning on the CAPS LOCK key. But it’s nothing, really, compared to his more wide-ranging complaints about his difficulties with his neighbors and the Prevailing Lot Size ordinance that he has posted on the website of his company, Medusa Properties. It begins:

NEW CONSTRUCTION! SUNSET HEIGHTS - MODERN CRAFTSMAN STYLE - AVAIL SPRING 2008
*** UPDATE *** THE BLUE HAIRED LAWN NAZIS OF EAST SUNSET HEIGHTS STRIKE AGAIN!

More name-calling, after the jump!

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6:23 pm | 25 Comments | Read more about Development Restrictions, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Sunset Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations
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