A reader sends in this photo, wanting us to
check out this newly built house in the first ward. On the dirt road aka Winter st. just east of White.
Who would build a house with the train running through their front yard?1?
Only in Houston.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Arne’s Warehouse Store — that 5-building, 2-story maze of party decorations, pet supplies, and small appliances tucked into the embattled warehouse district at the base of the Heights just west of the First Ward — reopened yesterday, almost a year after being hit hard by Hurricane Ike. How hard?
The building that houses Arne’s inventory and staff offices suffered the brunt of the damages – two of its walls were blown down – and the warehouse roof was torn off by the strong winds of the storm, as well. The interior of the store, which is made entirely of wood, and all the products inside got wet, so all goods were purchased by other vendors, thrown out or destroyed. . . .
Although most of the store was in a workable condition, Arne’s was forced to close because it could not function properly without the inventory section. The necessary repairs were made to the warehouse, and the office building was rebuilt.
Photo of Arne’s, 2830 Hicks St., after Hurricane Ike: Paul McRae
Some vocal residents of the First Ward are happy to learn that plans to move a recycling facility to the Harris Moving & Storage location at 1904 Spring St. (pictured above) have apparently been halted. A staff member in the office of newly elected councilmember Ed Gonzalez has indicated to a neighborhood group that Mayor White’s administration has agreed “not to pursue” the relocation.
The 24-hour drop-off recycling center currently operating at at 3602 Center St. (just east of Heights Blvd.) will now apparently stay where it is. Admiral Linen, operators of a facility next door to that location, had wanted to purchase the property from the city.
The Solid Waste department’s plan would have resulted in a recycling center directly adjacent to the not-quite-finished MKT/SP Hike and Bike Trail along Spring St. between Houston Ave. and Taylor. A group of First Ward residents was upset at that plan, and was further angered when the department’s director referred to their neighborhood as “an industrial area” in a neighborhood meeting.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LITTLE HOUSES NOT FAR FROM PRAIRIE ST. “I did get a chuckle out of the statement that the problem with the old houses was that they were 900 square feet and thus there was ‘nothing to do’ but tear them down. I actually think there’s quite a market for 900 square foot living spaces located right near downtown. When they are condos or apartments, they’re quite popular, and there are quite a few houses that size in the Heights that continue to sell – and not as teardowns. It’s an ideal, efficient living space for a single person or a couple, and the existence of smaller houses creates housing options – so the entry price in a neighborhood isn’t higher than many can afford – and thus you get a healthy mix of residents, from young professionals in the smaller houses to families in the larger ones. Having small houses in the mix is really good for an urban neighborhood; the idea that they all have to go is kind of crazy.” [John, commenting on Withering Townhouses of the First Ward]
A First Ward resident wants the scoop on a nearby development that’s “really going to pasture” on the 1500 block of Bingham, just west of Houston Ave. and across from Brock Elementary.
It is a townhouse project that got started 1-2 years ago, was never finished, and is now becoming a huge eyesore (broken doors, windows, garage doors…they got as far as putting mesh siding but stopped short of actually getting the stucko on there).
I have lived in the first ward for about 2 years in a renovated bungalow. it makes me sick to see all these properties built on spec to make a quick buck that are becoming abandoned, and only after demolishing what was there in the first place.
A few more photos our reader sent in:
Sent in by a reader: Another view of construction along the new MKT/SP Hike and Bike trail meant to connect the Heights to Downtown bikeways. The photo, taken from around here, shows the scene along Spring St. in the First Ward, a couple blocks west of Houston Ave.
Discovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike: David Adickes’s giant Beatles sculpture on Summer St. is now one member short. That’s 7,000 pounds of McCartney-ish concrete rubble under that black tarp.
Think this is some kind of hoax? Further photographic evidence of Paul’s fall . . . below:
Landscape students attack the Washington Ave. Corridor! A modest proposal for widening Washington and Center St. between Sawyer and Sabine — from LSU student and SWA summer intern Taizo Horikawa:
During Week 3 I focused on the area along Washington Avenue between Sawyer Street and Sabine Street, pushing the idea of Colors of Ribbons forward. The underused area between Washington Avenue and Center Street is developed as a human-scale, vibrant commercial area with two-story commercial buildings. The north-side sidewalk of Washington Avenue is widened to be 30 feet with a row of shade trees. It works as linear plaza where people spill out from the commercial buildings and lounge around.
After the jump: one-way streets!
HEIGHTS HIKE AND BIKE TRAIL: STILL JUST AROUND THE CORNER We have a low bidder for a portion of the proposed rails-to-trails project along the old Missouri, Kansas, Texas Southern Pacific railroad line that cuts across the lower Heights — from 7th St. at Shepherd — to Spring St. and Houston Ave. in the First Ward. TxDOT expects construction of the segment to begin in September. [Home in the Heights, via Swamplot Inbox]
It seems son-of-a-son-of-a-guv Paul Hobby wasn’t quite clear at first what to do with a huge industrial site he bought in the First Ward:
Over the years, Hobby says, there was interest in turning it into an indoor soccer facility. There was also talk of growing lettuce inside the large warehouse. But a year ago, Hobby came up with the idea to create a data center in the space.
But that’s just the start of it. The site is the former Budweiser distribution plant Silver Eagle Distributors left behind when it built its new bunker further west on Washington Ave. Hobby bought the First Ward facility quietly from Silver Eagle in 2004 and leased it back to the company for a while before it left. The site stretches along Edwards St. from Sawyer to Silver, a few blocks north of Washington.
Indoor farm . . . server farm . . . why not? The possibilities are endless! But then, there’s always . . . townhomes!
A row of eight to 10 townhomes are slated to be built along Edwards Street. And an undetermined number of units are being considered for the eastern-most part of the property.
Of course! But it gets better . . .
A reader who doesn’t sound too happy about the situation sends word that David Adickes has sold his artist-studio building at 2500 Summer St.:
Artists who lease space there have been told they need to leave in less than 6 months. Deborah Colton Gallery resides on his 3rd floor.
Yes, that’s David Adickes, sculptor of large presidential heads.
It’s not just the rice silos that’ll be leaving the First Ward. Next thing you know, they’ll be demolishing . . . the used-auto-parts yard across the street. A source very close to Charles Kuffner reveals that the owner of Johnny Franks Auto Parts at 1225 Sawyer St., across the street from the Mahatma Rice silos, has already sold the land to residential developers.
But wait. Johnny Franks Auto Parts bills itself as “The Nation’s Oldest Salvage Yard.” Is this true? If so, how could Houston let such an important historical site be destroyed? Founded in 1910, the salvage yard for years advertised itself as “the house of a million parts.” Sadly — like so many other historic structures in Houston — that may be its ultimate fate.
After the jump, Kuffner counts the reasons why there’s probably no stopping residential development from taking place on this historic site:
Gone to subdivisions, everyone!
Riviana Foods chief Bastiaan de Zeeuw gives more details about the company’s decision to close the Mahatma and Success Rice processing plant at 1702 Taylor St.:
De Zeeuw points out that the acreage devoted to rice-growing in Texas decreased by 75 percent from 1980 to 2006. In the 1980s, he says, Texas represented about 20 percent of total rice acreage in the United States. Now, it represents only 5 percent.
So what will happen to the 9.4-acre site in the increasingly less industrial area just south of I-10 once a new facility is built in Memphis? Read on, after the jump.
Say a long goodbye to those silos that hover over the Winter St. Studios in the industrial area just east of Sawyer St. Mahatma Rice owner Riviana Foods says it is closing its Houston plant and building a new facility in Tennessee:
Over the two-year time period, production and packaging at the Houston plant will be phased out and transferred to the new Memphis facility. At the end of this transition period, the Houston plant, which includes the Instant and Packaging Plants, Warehouse and Technical Center located at 1702 Taylor Street, will then be closed and operations will cease. Currently, approximately 250 employees work at the Houston facility. Riviana’s headquarters will remain in Houston at its Allen Parkway location.
Photo of Rice Silos at 2200 Summer St.: Flickr user emilyj82
How do you pack so many condos into an old warehouse building in Houston’s First Ward? Easy! You knock the warehouse down, build a gate around the block, and pack ’em in!
Permit in hand, Terramark Homes begins construction on the Sawyer Brownstones at 2110 Shearn St. The forty-two units will take up the block surrounded by Shearn, Hemphill, Spring, and Henderson Streets, just south of I-10.
No images of the outside yet, so it’s hard to say if these brownstones will indeed have brown stone or just be brownstone-like. But continue after the jump and we’ll show you the secret to shoehorning so many townhome-style condos into a single block!
