Headlines
08/31/12 8:30am

Headlines: Commerce Towers Mortgage Scam; First Fort Bend County Brewery

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Photo of Alabama Theater Trader Joe’s sign: Cody Lutsch

Buildings for Sale
08/30/12 2:41pm

A Western Front in the East End

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Some saddle-up bric-a-brac remains on the exterior of the former Harwin Western Wear store on Navigation, a few blocks south of the original Ninfa’s. The 1935 retail-residential property contains a few apartments plus more living quarters in the converted attic. Located on the corner of N. Palmer St., the partially painted brick-and-board (and barbed wire) structure with awnings is across from a parking lot, a light-industrial building, and a vacant lot. A Metro bus stop sign sits right out front. The new listing, $200,000, offers no interior photos — but plenty of peeks at the exterior and environs:

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Fort Bend County
08/30/12 1:27pm

What Passes for a Row House in Sugar Lakes

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Just over the water from First Colony’s Lake Pointe development, you’ll find this waterfront property with 110-ft. of frontage on Oyster Creek. It faces the Greater Houston Rowing Club‘s Oyster Creek boathouse; behind the home is a cul-de-sac, connecting to Sugar Lakes, an eighties-era neighborhood of mostly brick homes with a tree canopy on its winding streets — plus a neighborhood pool, playground, playing fields, and sports courts. This 1990 home was posted as a new listing earlier this month, for $545,000.

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Headlines
08/30/12 8:30am

Headlines: What Downtown’s Bombay Pizza Gets Right; Spotlight on Sugar Land

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Photo of east Montgomery marijuana field: Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, via Cleveland Advocate

Buying and Selling
08/29/12 5:30pm

A Very Long Short Sale: What Jenny Lawson Left Buried in Pearland

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It “only” took 987 days to sell her Pearland home, Jenny Lawson announces. But did the Bloggess — and now bestselling author — shirk on that “No Zombies — sort of” guarantee she had offered on her single-story David Weekly model in Southern Trails back in 2010 when she first put it on the market? “In the middle of signing all of the paperwork,” she writes, “I mentioned to Victor that we should probably disclose that we buried that-guy-I-couldn’t-remember-the-name-of in our yard years ago and Victor looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Probably because you’re not supposed to say that in front of realtors. Then Victor told me to be quiet, but I mentioned that we’d probably go to hell for not digging the guy back up. Then Victor explained that I was talking about a saint I’d buried upside down in our front lawn to help sell the house and the realtor looked at us like we were insane because apparently she’s not Catholic. And technically neither are we, but at the time we were pretty desperate to sell the house and I was willing to bury just about anyone in the yard to stop having to pay two mortgages.”

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Fondren Southwest
08/29/12 4:14pm

Upstair Downstair in Fondren Southwest

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Step proudly through the front door, then take it down a notch into the slightly sunken living room of this new listing in the Northbrook part of Fondren Southwest. A 1976-minted contemporary — updated in the interim — the home has an initial asking price of $179,000.

The home’s driveway curves off the cul-de-sac of a 10-home street. Behind the property, there’s a narrow easement beyond which lies the 4-pronged classroom wing of Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School, north of W. Bellfort Ave. near Bob White Dr.

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Demolitions
08/29/12 1:00pm

M.D. Anderson Planning To Extract Dental Branch from Med Center

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The 1955 building Houston architects MacKie and Kamrath designed (along with several later additions) for the University of Texas Dental Branch will be removed from its home at the corner of MD Anderson Blvd. and Moursund in the Med Center, according to the Texas Historical Commission. The UT School of Dentistry abandoned the 5-story, granite-faced building earlier this year for a new 300,000-sq.-ft. facility in the new UT Health Science Center Research Park south of the Med Center proper (and OST) at 7500 Cambridge St. UT’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which owns the Med Center site, hasn’t yet announced a schedule for the demolition.

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Headlines
08/29/12 8:30am

Headlines: Judge Orders New Dam Study for Grand Parkway; Even More Dunkin’ Donuts Heading for Houston

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Photo of Hermann Park’s Sam Houston statue: elnina999 via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Boulevard Oaks
08/28/12 1:36pm

This Old House on the Edge of the Edgemont Esplanade

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As Federal-style homes go, this ivy-clad example on North Blvd. in Edgemont has a pedigree that earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places. An understated bronze plaque displayed discreetly beneath a demilune portico says so, but doesn’t elaborate. The 1925 home’s design is reportedly the work of C.B. Schoeppl & Co., whose efforts can also be found in a NRHP pair on Westmoreland Ave., as well as in a few other older Houston neighborhoods. Listed a couple of weeks ago for $1.9 million, this green-roofed home at the eastern end of the Boulevard Oaks Historic District sits back from — and a bit above — the tree-lined esplanade along North Blvd. But its corner-lot address is a tad shy of the double-allees of live oaks found a half-block to the east, in Broadacres.

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Public Transportation
08/28/12 11:22am

Driving Tour Progress Reports: How Far All That Light Rail Construction Has Come

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How far along is construction on the 3 rail lines Metro is building? A little more than a year ago, HAIF user ricco67 took a video camera along on drives following the paths of each soon-to-be rail route, and posted the results. With the completion of a video taken alongside the East End Line construction from Downtown to the Magnolia Transit Center posted yesterday (above), you can now spot-check progress in updated tours of each of them.

Ricco67’s update showing construction on the Southeast Line dates from last month:

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