Spooked former residents looking for some sort of larger, more mystical explanation for the disastrous end of the Park Memorial Condos at 5292 Memorial Dr. now have confirmation of a first-class backstory to hang their storytelling hats on. A little late for Halloween, a medical examiner has determined that the human remains discovered this summer during the condos’ demolition — and the preparation of the site for its replacement, the Park Memorial Apartments — belong to bodies interred at a cemetery that once graced the site. That would be the Crooms Cemetery, Preservation Houston’s David Bush tells teevee reporter Deborah Wrigley. The African-American burial ground was named after Felix Crooms (who scored nearby Crooms St. as well), was in operation from approximately 1917 to 1937, and also served as the final resting place for members of St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church.
A reader writes: “Any news ever come down the pike about the huge empty lot on the Northeast corner of Larkin and Arabelle? It’s been empty for years, and all I’ve ever seen done is occasional mowing. . . . When I first moved into the neighborhood in 2006, there used to be an old blue shack house and the rumor was it was a brothel. But it was knocked down (I THINK in 2007 or 2008?) and goes from overgrown grass forest to freshly mown about once every 3 months. I could have sworn there was a real estate agency sign on that fence before, which was what I thought that No Trespassing sign was from afar, but it seems to be gone now. The other weird things is that they are CONSTANTLY building new patio homes in the area. . . . 3 more just went up a few doors down on Larkin street. But this land . . . just sits.” Photo: 
