Here’s where we’ll get rid of the structures standing in our way:
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Tag: Demolitions
“Soon!” You can almost hear this dormant excavator warning the Montrose Fiesta. The first one started sneaking up on the strip center at Dunlavy and W. Alabama back in March, but it wasn’t until late last week that the permits were granted and the real smashing began. The Fiesta closed for good almost exactly a year ago, not long after the H-E-B Montrose Market went up across the street where the Wilshire Village apartments once stood. Fittingly, developer Marvy Finger has said he plans to replace the soon-to-be-felled grocery store with apartments.
More shots of the carnage:
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Taking a few antiques off Dunlavy, plus another big break for Universal Life:
Though we still don’t know exactly what’s replacing it, the Macy’s on Main is now well on its way to becoming nothing. The Downtown block where the Kenneth Franzheim brick box stands is bound by Main, Dallas, Travis, and Lamar. That’s now owned by 1110 Main Partners, an entity connected to Hilcorp; a source there told Swamplot about a month ago that Hilcorp employees had been shown a rendering of a “a regular looking office building tower over 20 stories high†to be built here, but that rendering hasn’t surfaced — so far. This photo shows part of the former Foley’s overhang as though bitten into by a wide-mouth excavator. And a few more shots of the demolition:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO DUSTING 
“Looking at that house on Deal, I think, as I often do with the daily demolitions: that looks so wonderfully easy to keep clean. You’d have a little time to sit and drink iced tea on that side entry porch. Where others see a space to fill — and I realize that’s the better impulse, ultimately, to want to build something, even something as hideous as the house across the street — I just see time. That’s the direction my thoughts take 7665 days of housework later.” [luciaphile, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Deal and No Deal] Illustration: Lulu
How about a little clubbing in the night? — and perhaps a few more Houston pastimes we can turn into things of the past.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Making more room out of the showroom. Then it’ll be time to unwind:
Signed up for disappearance and transformation, before Independence Day:
If you knock them regularly, you get to know the tipping point — by feel.
A reader sends in this photo of the Oak Forest Mobil at Ella and 1201 W. 43rd St., the death sentence of which was published in the Daily Demolition Report last Thursday. Once the station’s torn down, reports the reader, a Berryhill Baja Grill will be built on this corner; that’s according to a post the reader saw on the members-only Oak Forest Homeowners Association Facebook page. A bit more evidence: A since-deleted brief that appeared in the Houston Chronicle in March 2012 notes that Berryhill had been granted a sales permit at this address.
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Running on Empty
Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ODE TO THE FAMILY GAS STATION, RECENTLY DEPARTED 
“Yes, it was a sad day. I’ll have a hard time driving down 14th street from now on. I shed a few tears seeing it knocked down. To the [commenter] who suggested it be moved to the park –– it was offered but no takers.
Grandpa’s dad owned the property and grandpa Fred Schauer began running the station when he was a kid (before he was 16 I think). I remember when he got his 50 years Gulf pin. He ran the station from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week. But then Gulf stopped delivering to independents who couldn’t support giant tankers and giant loads of gas. That was the beginning of the end. My uncle ran it with some generic gas for a few years after that but the gas market had irrevocably changed.
That station has been closed for many years now and despite the quaint ideas how it might be used (I’ve had a few myself), the business realities today are different. (Just ask the MAM’s ladies what renovations are required for a permanent location for a snowcone shop and you’ll soon understand.)
Both Fred and Hazel have been gone for many years now and the property passed on. This isn’t about greedy real estate developers just realities. Property values soar, taxes soar, maintenance soars, and land use changes. People don’t buy an expensive piece of land to live in a 1100 sf house. The two small adjoining houses will be demolished as well and I’m sure I’ll morbidly drive over to see.
I’m sure the new owners will build a lovely home, and I sincerely hope they’re happy there.” [twyla davis, commenting on The End for the Historic Heights Schauer Filling Station?] Illustration: Lulu
