The deconstruction crew that brought Meteor Lounge to the ground at Fairview and Genesee streets last week got in a last round of crushing digs at the fallen structure over the weekend, a reader reports: “They piled up all the bricks and ran over them with the huge excavator, crushing them. They then moved the debris and spread it over the dirt in the ‘parking’ lot across the street from Max’s Wine Dive.” The obliterated former club’s corner property is planned as the location of a proposed 5-story parking garage for the Fairview District redevelopment; here’s the view from Fairview of the rearranged structure itself, facing southeast toward the CenterPoint electrical substation on Genesee:
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The parking lot itself is marked as the future site of the 2-story mixed-use building on the right in the rendering below:
The Reeve’s Antiques & Art building appears to still be present in the rendered plan above, at the furthest right edge:
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Meteor Crashes to the Ground in East Montrose; Glossy New Views of That 5-Story Parking Garage and Mixed-Use Office Complex Planned for East Montrose;Â Drag Show Jumps Out of the Way of Bicycle-Themed Parking Garage as Meteor Lounge Shuts Down;Â Drag-Scene Landmark Meteor To Bow Out, Make Way for Fairview Parking Garage
Images: MontroseResident (photos), Gensler (rendering)
That soil is soaked with vodka and regret.
Just FYI, Meteor, however trashy it was, was not a drag bar
@SevenFourteen, I live very close by, so I used to see that on a daily basis. They did have a lot of Tuesday night Jell-o Wrestling for men, but they also had Drag contests. Six of one, half dozen the other. I will say, I really used to dig that Meteor sign, that was cool looking.
Seems like a bad use of a good location for a parking garage. Kind of like putting storage facilities on W Dallas and Richmond.
For the record, Meteor opened sometime around 2001 or 2002. It was an upscale alternative to JR’s and the other bars over near Pacific Street. It attracted a 30-40 something crowd. Then, seeing the competition it was giving his Pacific St. bars, Charles Armstrong bought them out several years later. That’s when it changed focus and had the showers installed for dancers and in even later years the drag shows as he tried to find an audience.
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Given how long it took for this guy to open the newly remodeled Hungry’s in Rice Village, I imagine this will be a gravel parking lot for a long time.
@ShadyHeightster, it would be disappointing if that will be the case with this development; I was hoping things would move at a regular pace as this pocket of Montrose needs updating badly. I wonder if the slow progress at Rice Village was due to the developer, or the City of Houston?
Back before this was Meteor this location was a hardcore Gay SM Bathhouse. I only went once, but it was shocking enough to a much younger gayling as I was then.