Just a few blocks northwest from the ballroom in the works on Woodhead, a reader sends a shot of the former McGowen Cleaners at 1931 Fairview St., now up for sale by NewQuest Properties. The cleaners closed shop on Friday the 13th back in November, though they allowed straggling clients to come by for their left-behind clothes through the end of last year.
The once-actually-on-McGowen business’s 3090-sq.-ft. former building (on a 15,000-sq.-ft. lot) is surrounded to the north and east by townhomes, and by older homes and duplexes to the south and west; 1 block down Fairview is the former Te House of Tea, which the reader reports just got a new parking lot where its back garden used to be. NewQuest’s  sales flier for the McGowen Cleaners property also shows the Te’s spot tagged for a new restaurant:
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Other restaurants in the area include bird-themed Roost, Mockingbird, and Raising Cane’s.
- 1931 Fairview [NewQuest Properties]
- Another Montrose landmark bites the dust: Beloved dry cleaners shutters as neighborhood changes [CultureMap]
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Te House of Tea on Fairview Closes Thursday, But You Can Still Buy a Piece of It This Weekend
Images: Swamplot inbox (photo), NewQuest Properties (aerial)
I am surprised anyone still went here after the murder many years ago.
I tried to look up something on a murder there and couldn’t find anything. Now I’m really curious.
The Te House of Tea used to be a laundromat. I went there every two weeks to wash my clothes during the 1990s. It was the perfect ringside seat for the freak parade that was the Montrose back then. In fact, the laundromat was featured in a scene from the 1991 movie “Rush” with Jennifer Jason Leigh, which was filmed in Houston. I immediately knew it was “my” laundromat because the of the posters on the walls. Those posters, one of which featured a “hang in there” kitten, never changed in the entire 10 years I frequented the place.
Is that where the teacher was killed during a hold up?
Yes that was my memory – somebody got all stabby. This was my old shortcut to Taco Bell, and every time I drove by I would think about it.