THE TIME MY BROTHER AND HIS FRIENDS ALMOST BLEW UP A GAS PIPELINE IN THE BAYOU 
One Houston summer in the early 1960s: “My brother and his friends were playing, pretending they were WWII soldiers and they were running around shooting fake machine guns and then they would go over and jump in the bayou pretending it was a foxhole. And I went over and I heard them talking . . . they were going to build their own bomb. And I told them you know you better not do that. . . . The next thing I know I see them in the garage and they’ve got a bunch of my dad’s leftover firecrackers and they’re splitting them open and pouring them into this big prescription bottle. I tried to find my mother. And she ended up being next door. When I ran next door I was standing in the backyard and I heard this loud boom and looked at where the explosion came from and it was right where my brother and his friends had been playing. I heard sirens in the distance and a helicopter started flying real low over the pipeline. . . . Shortly after that there was a knock at the door and it was the police. . . . they said that the magnitude of this explosion had blown an almost-6-ft.-deep hole right above the Shell gas pipeline [that ran along the bayou] and it could have blown up our whole neighborhood had it been a little bit more than that.” [Texas Standard] Photo: Adam Baker [license]
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It appears that what’s left of Mathew Knowles’s Music World Entertainment compound in Midtown is Destiny’s Child now. “Ever since I read that Advantage BMW bought the block,” writes the reader who snapped this photo of the excavator now parked next to the House of Deréon Media Center at 2204 Crawford St., “I have been expecting something to come down.”
The pictured building, designated the “Home of Destiny’s Child” — later an event and wedding venue operated by Knowles, the group’s former manager — sits on the 1.43-acre block bounded by Crawford, Webster, LaBranch, and Hadley that Knowles sold to the corporate owners of the neighboring Midtown Advantage BMW dealership late last year, after (as he later told Nancy Sarnoff) “someone knocked on my door and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Also on the block: the Music World Studios building, where (among others) Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Mario, and Chris Brown recorded — as well as Knowles’s daughters, Beyoncé and Solange. And at 1515 Hadley St., next door to the House of Deréon Media Center, is the 3-story former Rice Mansion, which Knowles had made his company’s headquarters:
Child of Destiny
- 14-Story Office Building at 1700 West Loop Sold for $52M [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Named Among Top 5 U.S. Cities with the Most Green Office Space [Houston Chronicle]
- List of 50 Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities Nationwide This Year Includes 10 in Houston [HBJ]
- River Oaks House Originally Built for a Saudi Prince Hits the Market [HBJ]
- How Much Houstonians Can Save By Renewing Their Lease Instead of Moving, According to Zillow [HBJ ($)]
- City Officials Host ‘Resource Fair’ on Public Safety at Haverstock Hills Apartment Complex [abc13]
- Galveston’s Lone Star Flight Museum Closing July 15 Ahead of Move to Ellington Airport [Galveston County Daily News ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Human Skeletal Remains Found in Vacant Riverside Terrace Home Believed To Belong to Squatter [abc13]
- Houston-Based Clean Line Energy Partners Wants to Spread Wind Power Across the U.S. [Texas Monthly]
- The Misguided Madness of Neighborhood Rebranding [New York Times]
Photo of Wisdom (formerly Lee) High School demo: BOldbury via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Richwood, Richmond, Rich-wherever Place, it doesn’t matter much when they’re all flattened.
- 508 Three Corners Dr. [HAR]
The highrise hotel with apartments River Oaks District developer OliverMcMillan has been promising for a couple years as a tower feature of a promised second phase of the mixed-use development will be an Equinox, according to documents submitted to the city planning department. There’s already an Equinox fitness club in the River Oaks District, fronting Westheimer; the new Equinox hotel will be on the west side of Westcreek Ln., on the rear parking lot portion of the 3.4-acre Sullivan’s Steakhouse–Le Peep shopping center along Westheimer closer to the West Loop that OliverMcMillan leased almost 2 years ago.
The hotel portion of the site is 1.91 acres and set back from Westheimer. Equinox is seeking a variance from the city to allow the hotel to take access from Westcreek Ln., which further to the north also serves as an entry road for the SkyHouse River Oaks and the Wilshire condo towers.
The variance application doesn’t mention how tall the building will be, but renderings of the imagined hotel dating from 2015 (below) show a structure of approximately 25 stories, with a lower parking garage immediately to the west. A shorter building is shown on the 1.5-acre southern portion of the site facing Westheimer:
Phase Two
Today’s sponsor is Plan Downtown and the Downtown District, seeking your good ideas about Downtown Houston. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
Have good ideas? Plan Downtown officials want to hear them.
The Houston Downtown Management District and its partner organizations are inviting everyone to participate in public workshops on July 12 at the Crystal Ballroom at The Rice, at 909 Texas Ave.
These workshops will continue conversations about how Downtown Houston can better serve its residents, visitors, commuters, the city of Houston, and the region. The feedback gathered at these events will inform Plan Downtown, a 20-year vision plan that will outline recommendations for planning, development, and design within and around Downtown Houston — with the goal of positioning the area for a competitive and enriched future. For more information about Plan Downtown, visit the Plan Downtown website.
If you work in, live in, play in, or occasionally visit Downtown Houston, this is your opportunity to speak your mind and be heard. Four topical planning sessions will explore potential development recommendations for business, transit, attractions, and livability:
- The Premiere Business Location (11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
- Houston’s Leading Multi-Modal Center (1:30 to 3 p.m.)
- Houston’s Greatest Place To Be (3:30 to 5 p.m.)
- The Standard for Urban Livability (5:30 to 7 p.m.)
Each session will begin with an overview of Plan Downtown, followed by a general outline of the topics covered in the overall strategic plan. With the help of a project lead, participants will delve deeper into the assigned topic through a brief presentation. Hands-on activities, engaging exercises, and interactive stations will serve as mediums to capture ideas, thoughts and feedback.
Important event coming up? Getting the word out is a whole lot easier when you’re a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day. Here’s how to become one.
Sponsor of the Day
There’s now nothing left of the 1952 2-bedroom house or its 3 accompanying oak trees that until late last month stood at 4027 Portsmouth St. in Weslayan Plaza, a tiny neighborhood just west of Greenway Plaza and just north of the Southwest Fwy.
Here’s a quick photo recap of recent activity on the site:
Now You See It
STILL SELLING A LITTLE PLACE IN THE BIG CITY 
“In 15 months of reporting on Houston’s suburbs and exurbs,” writes Mike Snyder, “I’ve heard this phrase again and again, usually uttered in a tone of wistful nostalgia. It’s often cited as a vital civic asset that’s at risk in rapidly growing cities such as Pearland that really were small towns within some residents’ lifetimes.” And it hits the print regularly too, he says: “A search for the phrase ‘small-town feel’ in the Chronicle‘s digital archives yielded 245 hits. Most were articles about real estate projects that used the phrase as a marketing tool. They carried headlines such as “Bay Oaks: Resort-style living with a small-town feel” and “Creekside Village will create a small-town feel.” [Houston Chronicle ($)] Photo: Stanford via Swamplot Flickr Pool
- New State Law Effective September 1 Will Allow Spears, Swords, Machetes To Be Carried in Public [KHOU]
- The 8 Kinds of Chinese Food You’ll Find Along Bellaire Blvd., by Address [MyTable]
- A Video Tour Inside HISD’s New Wisdom High School (Formerly Lee HS) on Hillcroft [YouTube; more info]
- AmazonFresh Leases 110K SF Warehouse in Fallbrook Pines Business Park, Just South of Sam Houston Race Park [HBJ ($); more info]
- Sinkhole Appears in Rayford Rd. Across from Kroger Just West of Aldine Westfield Rd. in Montgomery County [Houston Chronicle]
- Controller’s Office Audit Shows Houston’s Affordable Housing Funds Not Being Spent To Build Affordable Housing [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Houston Downtown Management District Holding Public Workshops To Discuss 20-Year Plan for Downtown Development [Houston Public Media]
- A Brief History of the Closet [Places Journal]
Photo of Meyerland construction: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Trouble is, the house has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what you do with it.
- 1808Â Westwind Ct. [HAR]
ADDING NEEDED FAST-FOOD DIVERSITY TO THE NRG PARK—SOUTH MAIN DONUT NEXUS 
“At least, an Arby’s will add a different fast-food chain to the area. Another donut shop would have been useless with the Shipley’s (Murworth/Main: SW corner), Dawn Donut (Murworth/Main: NW corner), and Glazed (Old Spanish Trail near Kirby) giving them a run for their money.” [Major Market, commenting on A Peek Inside the Half-Baked Krispy Kreme near NRG Stadium] Illustration: Lulu
Actual neighborhood hardware store East End Hardware (see inset second photo) went belly-up only a few years after its 2012 opening at 3005 Leeland St. (at the corner of Ennis St. in East Downtown). Now opened in its place, as of the first of this month, is a replacement (pictured at top): East End Hardware.
Among the changes: a revamped exterior, with the name of the establishment now rendered in vintage Houston blue tile; a dog-friendly patio; and a new beverage menu that includes 20 beers on tap, mixed drinks, and “boozy” New Orleans-style sno-balls in flavors such as piña colada, tiger’s blood, and screwdriver. Also: food.
EaDo Hard Drinks and Wares
Neighbor-with-a-security-cam Bill Curry has now posted to YouTube 6 additional time-lapse videos covering days 2 through 8 of the demo of the Googie-style River Oaks Manor condo complex at 2325 Welch St. The structure went down at the end of last month across from his home just east of Revere St., in an unnamed neighborhood real close to River Oaks.
If you thrilled to the jumpy frames from Curry’s Nest camera chronicling the removal of a 26-unit, 2-story structure dating from 1950 (in favor of a 32-unit, 9-story structure dating from 2018) but wanted to see what more it took to remove the row of Welch St.-facing carports left standing in the first video, follow the rest of the sequence, beginning with Day 2 (above) and continuing with the third day (June 27th) below:
Clearing Out in River Oaks Adjacent
