COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEIGHTS WALGREENS STRIP CENTER SHUFFLE “Woah is right. So how does this bode for the existing strip center across 20th where the old Walgreens is along with Kroger, etc.? Would love to know what the plans are for that whole strip now [that] that new Kroger is done and Walgreens seems to be going across the street. Anyone know?” [Mary, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Happy Hide a Way]
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Tag: Houston Heights
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RUTLAND ST. SCARECROWS “Those houses are still in various stages of uncompleteness. Woe looks to be the fate of anyone who tries to get anything done there. Bill Baldwin is now the latest to try and for his sake, I hope he succeeds. But those places have been eyesores for awhile now. Personally, I think that places like the old Eighth Avenue Elementary site and 2200-2207 Rutland serve as scarecrows of a sort, scaring off townhome developers, much like the ones at 15th and Yale used to before a community garden went in there. . . .” [Martin Hajovsky, commenting on Heights Home Composting: The Amazing Disappearing Waterhill Townhomes; previously on Swamplot]
Okay, tell us what was the plan for that block south of W. 8th St. along the new Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, between Nicholson and Waverly?
This large, open space will be available for community gardens, both cultivated and natural, think edible weeds. Small animal husbandry, such as goats, chickens and rats could also be sustained. Compost houses flank the development to show clientele how their homes will indeed return to their natural state a lá the second law of thermodynamics, or something like that. Between the back row of Compost Homes are the E-condos. These models reflect real world living as they do not have plumbing or electricity.
Huh? Well, it’s not even a year since Houston Indymedia reporter Keefski tried to explain it all . . . but the Waterhill Homes at the Heights development is at last seeing some action!
What kind of action?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ISLANDS OF VALUE “I have come to believe that what is nearby means nothing at all to a lot of people. The Heights just east of Shepherd was, just a few years ago, mostly shotgun shacks and run down rentals. That stopped nobody from building half million dollar plus homes. Now- that doesn’t mean this place isn’t overpriced – a comp is a comp. I’m just saying that there are apparently many people who love being the castle surrounded by the serfs.” [finness, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Brookesmith in the 200s]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IMAGINING THE H-E-B HEIGHTS REVITALIZATION PLAN “The Sons of Hermann site would not have to be dry. There used to be a liquor store at the Boulevard and the bayou – Kims #1. Tapping in to all the people who now live within drunks-puking-in-your-driveway distance of Washington makes that site a good choice. Enter from Yale or Heights. Then maybe those condos that are 6 feet from the RR [tracks] would finally sell.” [finness, commenting on H-E-B Plans To Build a Montrose Grocery Store at Wilshire Village]
The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance has sent out an email reporting that the congregation of the Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights voted in a special meeting this past weekend not to demolish its sanctuary building after all.
So what’s going to happen to the unused 1932 brick structure instead? Says the GHPA:
The Gothic Revival building on Cortlandt Street at East 15th Street will be used as flex space to accommodate church functions and Immanuel Lutheran School activities as well as community events.
Sure, it’s likely to make a great space for events. But how could any church function match an all-out building demo for fun?
The GHPA reports the congregation has committed to spending $150,000 on the rehab — about twice the cost of the demolition, which had already been scheduled for May. GHPA credits the 90-days-to-oblivion feature of the city’s otherwise toothless preservation ordinance for the save:
A commenter named Jamie fills in the details on this “Stairway To Nowhere” — which also appears to include a ramp — found on the corner of 18th and Ashland streets in the Heights. Blogger Viula of The Heights Life, who snapped the photo, is curious about where the stairs came from:
“They really struck me as part of a time gone by in the Heights,” she writes.
And what a time it was! Reports Jamie:
Longtime Houston Heights resident Ivan Reyna tells Fox 26 reporter Isiah Carey that his family can no longer afford the 3-bedroom 1920 bungalow on Arlington St. his father bought for $18,000 — 37 years ago.
Across from the Reynas are two million dollar homes. Just down the block is another house that sold for $600,000. And that’s the problem. Reyna says as a result of the revitalization of the Heights he can’t afford his father’s dream any more. Ivan says, “the taxes have gone up 100% since they started building the mansions.”
HCAD records show the appraised value on the home has increased almost 40 percent over the last five years alone.
Ivan says they’re hoping to get at least $250,000 for their aging home as is. He knows potential buyers are not interested in the small structure to live in. Many of the newcomers want to shop around, buy the land, and tear down the structure.
Reyna says he’s alright with that. He, his sister, and older brother are hoping to make enough off the sale to move down to the Valley where Papa is. He says there they can get 5 acres of land for a cool $90,000.
Photo: Isiah Carey
That report we passed on last Friday about the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights voting to turn its former sanctuary at the corner of Cortlandt and 15th St. into a museum of Lutheran history turns out to have been false. City Council members Edward Gonzalez and Sue Lovell, who announced the decision in a press release, jumped the gun a bit:
Lovell spokesman Tim Brookover said the councilwoman’s office received a report from a preservationist attending the meeting that there had “been a lot of talk about a Lutheran museum†and presumed the church group approved the plan.
Though informally discussed, such a proposal has not been formally presented to the governing board, [board president Ken Bakenhus] said.
But there was some progress at the meeting: The congregation did vote to reject local artist and engineer Gus Kopriva’s proposal to lease the sanctuary and turn it into an art museum, the Chronicle‘s Allan Turner reports.
Bakenhus told Turner late last year that the board was “’99 percent’ in favor” of spending $60,000 to demolish the 1932 brick building. The church has a signed contract to tear down the structure this summer.
- Church’s fate in advocates’ hands [Houston Chronicle]
- Museum idea could save threatened Heights church [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Immanuel Lutheran Church Likes a Different Museum Idea, Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?
Photo: Heights Blog
Update, 2/15: As Miz Brooke Smith notes in a comment below, the report turns out not to be true.
The congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights has reversed itself and voted not to tear down its 1932 brick sanctuary building after all, abc13 reports. Instead, they’ve decided to turn it into a museum.
Will it be a Heights art museum, as proposed and promoted by local gallery owner and engineer Gus Kopriva? No. Congregants voted to turn the structure at the corner of 15th and Cortlandt into a museum of Lutheran history.
- Historic sanctuary in the Heights to become museum [abc13]
- Previously on Swamplot: Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?
Photo of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1448 Cortlandt St.: Flickr user dey37
A reader sends in pix from the corner of 15th and Rutland St. in the Heights, where there appears to be some sort of stew over this large cleared lot.
What’s that pink sign way in the back on the alley fence say?
HOUSTONIANS NOW EAT THEIR VEGETABLES IN THE STRANGEST PLACES 
Food and travel writer Salma Abdelnour, who grew up here, takes New York Times travel section readers on a tour of 5 Houston restaurants carved out of former something-or-others: the car dealership that became Reef, the ice house that became Beaver’s, the burlap factory that became Textile, the appliance warehouse that became Block 7 Wine Company. Somehow the spaghetti-western-themed strip center that ultimately became Stella Sola gets mixed up in this crowd (Abdelnour calls the building a “town house”). She adds: “In the film ‘Urban Cowboy,’ based in Houston and nearby Pasadena, the mother of the John Travolta character told him, ‘You just can’t get good vegetables in Houston.’ You certainly can now.” [New York Times] Photo of Stella Sola: 2Scale Architects
A Swamplot reader sends in photos from the construction site at the corner of Arlington and 10th St. in the Heights, where 7677 Homes has apparently been busy transforming a much-talked-about 1,048-sq.-ft. bungalow into a 3,128-sq.-ft. home for a new buyer. Reports our site snoop:
The back of the house came off several weeks ago, leaving between 600 – 700 SF of the original structure.
Now the forms for the new piers are in.
HEIGHTS VS. MONTROSE: THE LEGAL BATTLE After giving himself 5 months to settle into his new Sunset Heights home, HBJ editor and former longtime west-Montrose resident Bill Schadewald sets about appraising the relative merits of his once and future ’hoods: “Montrose: Dozens of nearby attorneys ready to help me consummate a merger, negotiate an acquisition or initiate a hostile takeover. Heights: Hundreds of lawyers on hand to fix my speeding ticket, handle my uncontested divorce or represent me in a minor traffic accident case. Edge: Heights. Some of the lawyers even have brothers-in-law to do the car repairs and throw in a new set of hubcaps for free.” [Houston Business Journal]
The 3D documentation artists who’ve been scanning the facade of Immanuel Lutheran Church’s unwanted sanctuary building at 1448 Cortland St. in the Heights issue an important caution to those appreciating their craft:
Once archived, the data file’s full-scale scan and related imagery becomes a resource for preservationists, conservators, architects, engineers, site managers, or others needing access for a variety of purposes, from maintenance to insurance to historical reference, explained the team from Smart GeoMetrics, a division of Smart MultiMedia. The venture’s principals are Richard Lasater and Doug Smith of the Rice Village area. . . .
Lasater said — with emphasis — that digital documentation is an archival tool, “not a replacement’ for a building.”
- Digital record made of vintage church’s facade [West University Examiner, via Swamplot inbox]
- Previously on Swamplot: Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?
Image: Smart GeoMetrics
