Tag: Old-Sixth-Ward

Old Sixth Ward
07/15/13 11:15am

A Restaurant Renovation in the Old Sixth Ward

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Proposed Developments, Renovations, Restaurants, Washington Corridor
13 Comments

A Swamplot reader writes in to confirm what the sign in the window suggests: “I talked to the people. Said its going to be a restaurant!” This 6,561-sq.-ft. 1925 former food store in the Old Sixth Ward sits at the corner of White at 2003 Union St., just south of Washington Ave. If you’ve got a really good arm, it’s a stone’s throw from Liberty Station. And it’s immediately south of that awkward triangular patch where planning firm Asakura Robinson and other neighborhood futurists plotted visions of a walkable Washington Corridor, with bike repair stations, local retailers, food trucks, and the like.

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Old Sixth Ward
07/12/13 11:45am

Repairing the Broken Spoke: A New Bar in the Burned-Out Washington Ave Cafe

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Openings and Closings, Renovations, Washington Corridor
3 Comments

A tipster tells Swamplot that the former Broken Spoke Cafe at 1809 Washington will soon be home to a new bar called the Caddy Shack. The cafe, located between Silver and Sabine in the Old Sixth Ward, closed last fall — and, unfortunately, soon after received the brunt of a fire that destroyed a vacant duplex next door.

Photo: Allyn West

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Art
06/19/13 4:00pm

Buffalo Bayou Pump-n-Spritz On the Fritz

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Old Sixth Ward, Parks, Public Art, Quicklink
12 Comments

BUFFALO BAYOU PUMP-N-SPRITZ ON THE FRITZ Open Channel Flow — that 60-ft. public showerhead behind the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark — cost $154,000 to build. Apparently, that sum didn’t include any rainy-day money for maintenance: Pump all you’d like, reports Hair Balls’ Brittanie Shey, but nothing’s coming out. To find out why, Shey says she contacted the artist, Matthew Geller, city council member Ed Gonzalez, and members of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Houston Parks, and no one had an answer. Eventually, Gonzalez’s chief of staff was able to pass the buck: “He told me that the artwork falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Works and Engineering department, and that the department had fielded a request in March to repair the sculpture. That repair had apparently not been made. ‘We’ve asked for that to be investigated,’ he said.” [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Metalab

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Historic Districts
05/22/13 2:00pm

A Twofer in the Old Sixth Ward

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Homes for Sale, Old Sixth Ward
11 Comments

This li’l Victorian on Kane St. dates to 1890 — that’s according to the plaque by the door. (You can’t miss it.) In the Old Sixth Ward south of Washington and east of Sawyer St., this lot at 2211 Kane actually has 2 houses — the historic one you see here front and slightly off-center and another at the back of the 5,000-sq.-ft. property. Each has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, accented throughout by stained glass and staged for the listing with wine glasses. The price for the two of ’em? $319,000.

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Historic Preservation
05/09/13 10:30am

Newly Historic Renovated Permitting Center To Hold Preservation Workshops on Renovating Historic Buildings

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Houston Landmarks, Institutional Buildings, Old Sixth Ward, Public Buildings, Washington Ave
4 Comments

All that hard work installing new wind turbines and solar panels and employee vegetable gardens at the Houston Permitting Center — or even the talk about building a hot dog stand inside — hasn’t seem to have affected its historic status, since the former Butler Brothers Building on Washington Ave in the Old Sixth Ward was given a protected landmark designation yesterday. And what does the newly historic and well-preserved Permitting Center plan to do with this street cred? Why, host historic preservation fairs, of course!

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Old Sixth Ward
05/01/13 2:45pm

Introducing the Washington Ave Parking District

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Parking, Streets, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor
11 Comments

Those light-blue dots? That’s where you’ll be able to pay to park now on Washington Ave. The city’s first Parking Benefit District (or PBD) went live as of this morning, with dozens of these pay-to-stay meters installed between Westcott and Houston that will charge you about a buck an hour between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m.

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Old Sixth Ward
04/29/13 11:00am

The Glow That’s Gone Missing from Washington Ave

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Renovations, Signage, Washington Ave
7 Comments

Hey! What happened to that neon sign at Huston’s Drugs? Artist Chris Bramel, who’s working to renovate the former pharmacy on Washington in the Old Sixth Ward into a space where he can live and work, explains: “The sign was claimed by the original owner and he’s going to hang it at his house or ranch.” To deal with the emptiness, Bramel is having a replacement sign built for him, he says, “and I will have that thing lighting up the street every night.”

Photos: Allyn West

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Apartments
02/12/13 2:00pm

Artist Renovating, Moving Into Washington Ave.’s Old Huston’s Drugs

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Old Sixth Ward, Proposed Developments, Renovations
12 Comments

The lights are coming back on inside the old Huston’s Drugs at 2119 Washington Ave.: Long for sale, the stout mid-century building was purchased at the end of December by Houston-based artist Chris Bramel, who tells Swamplot he is renovating the interior that’s still partially stocked with apothecary bottles and swivel-stools lined up in front of an old soda fountain into an art gallery, shared studio space, and apartment for himself.

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Home Design
06/18/12 4:35pm

An MC2 Townhome from Circa Y2K

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Houston Architects, Interiors, Old Sixth Ward, Townhomes
9 Comments

These twin townhomes look a bit steely-eyed beneath heavy-lidded, cantilevered roofs. They share skyline views of downtown from their double-decker balconies and storefront windows laced with Mondrian-style tracery. However, only 1 of these by-the-bayou units designed by MC2 Architects is for sale. It’s the one just a tad closer to downtown (above, at right). Last month, the asking price on this April listing dropped $30K to $549,000.

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Old Sixth Ward
04/16/12 1:29pm

Bayou Trail Bike Route Signs Built for Two

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Signage
12 Comments

These signs, in versions specially designed for both taller and shorter readers, are now posted on the north side of the recently revamped Buffalo Bayou trail just before it ducks under Memorial Dr., a reader informs Swamplot. Just in case the message isn’t clear: This trail is a bike route. Two sets of double signs are posted, for trailgoers in each direction.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

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Bayous and Waterways
02/02/12 7:06pm

Comment of the Day: Licked Clean by Millions of Cockroaches

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Comments, Critters, Old Sixth Ward, Quicklink
1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: LICKED CLEAN BY MILLIONS OF COCKROACHES “Roaches? I didn’t leave them out. I just didn’t see any — as in, not one. No living creatures at all, except us humans. The place smelled clean, like fresh water. I wonder where those roaches went…. and (ugh) what they were eating down there in the ’80s.” [Lisa Gray, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Cockroaches Found That Cistern First]

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Attractions
02/01/12 11:24pm

Comment of the Day: The Cockroaches Found That Cistern First

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Comments, Critters, Old Sixth Ward, Quicklink
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE COCKROACHES FOUND THAT CISTERN FIRST “Back in ’83 until about ’85 my buddies Colin Mazzola, Keith Tashima and myself would go down an open hatch into that thing — they closed it up sometime around ’86 or ’87 — this was back when jogging around the North side os Allen Parkway (near the celemetaries) was a little sketchy — people hanging out in the park near/under the Memorial Dr underpasses — anyway, what Lisa Gray left out was the 10 million roaches down there — we couldn’t hang out there for long — you couldn’t sit down or hang — BUT it was really cool and I remember being totally amazed that the City had an underground aqueduct/storm sewer overflow (yes it flooded and was impossible to go down the ladder) that was open and pretty much abandoned.” [David Beebe, commenting on Poking Around in Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement]

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Attractions
01/30/12 11:22pm

Comment of the Day: The Houston Music Underground

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Comments, Old Sixth Ward, Quicklink
1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HOUSTON MUSIC UNDERGROUND “it sounds really really cool, but aside from asking Pauline Oliveros to re-record her Deep Listening album i can’t think of a single thing that would make good use of an abandoned cistern.” [joel, commenting on Poking Around in Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement]

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Attractions
01/30/12 4:22pm

Poking Around in Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement

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Old Sixth Ward, Quicklink
17 Comments

POKING AROUND IN BUFFALO BAYOU’S ABANDONED BASEMENT Lisa Gray finds echoes, art, and a few dramatic rays of light in the giant abandoned 1927 underground reservoir near the Buffalo Bayou at Sabine St., under the planned site of a new outdoor performance pavilion: “The question now, of course, is what to do with the Cistern. [Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Guy] Hagstette says that everyone now agrees it won’t be used for parking or storage. But what should it be? How should the public have access to it? And how will it be paid for? (The Cistern was discovered after the Buffalo Bayou Project had budgeted all its Shepherd-to-Sabine money for other projects.) When we reached the far end of the Cistern, we left the ledge, walking down concrete stairs to the muddy floor. The silty red mud, Shanley explained, was composed of iron and other minerals that long ago settled out of the reservoir’s water. Every now and then, a drop of condensed water from the ceiling would hit the soft mud, and the tiny sound would echo. Shanley shone his flashlight on the ground, examining the droplets’ marks. ‘It’s like the surface of Mars,’ he said.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Site plan for Water Music Place on top of reservoir: Buffalo Bayou Partnership

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