The hair-razing story of how a little bird from Pittsburgh brought Houston its signature domed sports stadium. From the last-ever episode of Super Chicken, first aired in 1967. With a special appearance by the Houston Barber Supply Warehouse.
Video: Youtube via Mike McGuff
OLD BONES ORDERED OUT OF THE WAY OF THE GRAND PARKWAY 
District judge Reece Rondon has given TxDOT the go-ahead to remove 2 sets of prehistoric human remains contractors found over the summer in the path of Grand Parkway’s Segment E — as well as any additional gravesites contractors encounter nearby. The bones and bone fragments — some estimated to be as much as 9,000 years old — were discovered on the northern bank of Cypress Creek, less than 3 miles south of where the Grand Parkway will intersect US 290. According to documents submitted to the court, investigators had been aware since 1996 of an extensive archeological site in that location. The Harris County Historical Commission had requested that TxDOT delay the project to allow more study of the artifacts; it is appealing the ruling. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of gravesite: abc13
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW BIG WAS THE SHAMROCK HOTEL SWIMMING POOL AGAIN? “They didn’t have boat races. We did do waterski shows there for several years.” [gary, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Shamrock Hotel Shine and Fall]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHAMROCK HOTEL SHINE AND FALL “Wasn’t the greatest building, because Frank Lloyd Wright said so? The same guy who hated every skyscraper in New York City? This was Houston’s most famous landmark before the Astrodome. It was what people around the country thought of when they thought of the city. The point of the Frank Lloyd Wright story should be that the nation’s most famous architect HAD to make a visit there and give his opinion, it was that renowned. It captured a whole era of the city’s history — its rollicking, mid-century, oil-rich extravagance — better than any other building. But it made sense to tear it down because, gosh, it would have required renovating and updating. Oh, and the ceiling heights were low! With that reasoning, any historic building in the world would be torn down at some point.” [Mike, commenting on The Park Where Houston Architecture Critics Go To Sharpen Their Chops]
THE PARK WHERE HOUSTON ARCHITECTURE CRITICS GO TO SHARPEN THEIR CHOPS 
From Ben Koush’s new building-by-building history of the Texas Medical Center (which now apparently has more square footage than Downtown): “In 1991 the Gus S. and Lyndall F. Wortham Park was dedicated on part of the site of Shamrock Hotel. (The rest of the site is a giant parking lot.) It was designed by Philip Johnson’s ex-partner John Burgee and features water jets, columns that appear to be taken from a freeway overpass and vine covered pergolas. It makes a nice, very secluded place to take a nap during the afternoon since it is always deserted.” [OffCite; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE KIDS “. . . Let me be clear. I know exactly where I live and knew where I was moving to 8 years ago. And contrary to what assumptions have been made, I love where I live and am proud of where I live. I love the history behind it. There are great people who live in all parts of this neighborhood all the way down the street to where crack is being sold. When I read this article the first thing that pops into my head is ‘park=kids=hangout.’ I am actually glad that they’re doing what they’re doing instead of putting up yet another apartment complex. The more green and conservation and beautification, the better. A park is a park, meaning where people will congregate which also means kids. Understand that when I posted this comment, I was fresh off of witnessing kids stealing a man’s phone and he being helpless to get it back. And the kids live in this neighborhood. Which just refreshed my memory of my neighbor getting his windows busted out while driving to his house by kids that live in this neighborhood who thought it would be fun to throw rocks at cars driving down the street. I think to when I was riding my scooter and kids that live in this neighborhood thought it would be fun to throw rocks at me while I was driving down the street almost causing me to wreck. I am aware that crime happens in every neighborhood. And despite the 3 instances I just wrote about I have no desire to move. I am happy to see historical sites preserved. In fact there were plans to pave some of the streets here, including mine. As many broken peices of brick there that makes it a pain on any car to drive over, the bricks are staying and will be preserved and I’m so glad! . . .” [Holly, commenting on New Fourth Ward Park of the Open Church]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BABY, PLEASE DON’T GO DOWN THE BULK FOODS AISLE “That’s Lightnin’s corner. HELL NO!!!” [SYMWAFA, commenting on Conquering Flag of Whole Foods Market, Planted in the Third Ward]
THE PASSING OF THAT PLANNING COMMISSION LADY Kay Crooker, an outspoken longtime member of Houston’s city planning commission, died earlier this week. She was a fixture on the commission from 1984 to 2009, acting as a consistent advocate for what she viewed as the integrity of Houston neighborhoods. Part of her legacy: landscaping requirements encoded in the “tree and shrub” ordinance the city approved in 1991, as well as its more recent expansions. And hundreds of negotiated niceties added to developments where her approval was required. [Legacy; more info]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SEPARATED AT DEATH? 
“The demolition photo makes the Turnberry building resemble that good old, lamented avant-garde 1980s Best Showroom in south Houston . . . the one that from day one looked as if part of it were being demolished, right down to its “loose†bricks . . .” [sabine waugh, commenting on Knocking Down Houston’s Turnberry Tower Without Even Building It] Photo: SITE
HOUSTON’S WAREHOUSED ROCKETSHIP 
Comparing it to displays of Saturn rockets in Florida and Alabama, space historian Dwayne Day finds Space Center Houston’s model of the Apollo program leftover parked in a Johnson Space Center shed structure and looking somewhat forlorn: “. . . the building containing the Saturn V is starting to deteriorate. Interior insulation is starting to crack and peel, showing considerable degradation from my last visit a year ago. This simply reinforces the impression that the Saturn V is being stored in a big garage. Houston has had the Saturn V for decades. It has housed it indoors for almost seven years, and yet the city has not improved the presentation or shown any indication that it intends to display the Saturn V with any of the affection and intelligence that the Kennedy and Huntsville communities have given to their Saturn Vs. If you look at what Houston has done it is hard not to wonder if they would have treated a shuttle orbiter with the same indifference.” [Space Review; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Dwayne Day
OLD DEAD PEOPLE BLOCKING PROGRESS OF GRAND PARKWAY 
Texas’s department of transportation is requesting permission to remove 4 bone fragments found buried in the Katy Prairie — in the path of what will eventually be the largest-circumference ring road ever constructed around a U.S. city. The bones, believed to represent the remains of several people, are at least 2,000 years old, which would make them older than any human body parts previously discovered in the Harris County area. They were unearthed by construction workers. As a result, construction of a portion of Segment E of the Grand Parkway, which will connect I-10 to U.S. Hwy. 290 through acres of uninhabited grasslands, has been halted. TxDOT’s application asks for “expedited removal” of the remains so that work can continue. [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Deeya Maple
Here’s an idea: How about buying that old rundown Houston house where President Lyndon Johnson lived in the early 1930s that nobody seems to want, then trying flip it for more than twice the price? Great idea, but you got beaten to it.
The 1904 farmhouse-style structure on the corner of Hawthorne and Garrott in the Westmoreland Historic District was snatched up for less than $285,000 this past March — about a year after it first went up for sale (for a significantly higher price). As of mid-June the home is back on the MLS, with a few photos of the renovation-in-progress to spur interest. What could the would-be flippers do to the place that would bring in a price around, say . . . $619,900?
The latest creation of Julia Gabriel, Houston’s favorite doomed-building-backpack artist, focuses on the long-vacant Ben Milam Hotel at the corner of Crawford and Texas downtown, left alone as a long-foul-ball target outside Minute Maid Park since — well, at least since the days of Enron Field. Before then, Gabriel notes, it was Houston’s first-ever fully air-conditioned hotel, the first in the city to have a TeeVee in every room, and the first to feature a rooftop swimming pool.
The artist’s rendition of a now-vanished Westheimer duplex-turned-antique store (featured on Swamplot last month) required just a single bag with straps. But to capture the ghostly spirit of the Ben Milam at 1717 Texas Ave., she needed 13 separate packs, bags, totes, and purses. Pinned to a wall, they follow the contours of a photo Gabriel snapped of the structure’s north face back in March (at top). Attached to the backs of you and your dozen-closest friends, though, who could figure out that secret history? Here’s a video of Gabriel foreshadowing the inevitable demolition of architect Joseph Finger’s 1928 creation, by showing how her own assemblage comes apart, bag by bag:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CHOOSING WHICH HISTORY TO PRESERVE “I don’t understand how we’re supposed to decide which moment of time in history we are all supposed to value more than all the other moments in history. A vacant lot is actually much closer to the historical use of this site. It was vacant for millions of years before someone built a farm there. Many decades later someone decided the farm had to go to make room for a house. Several more decades pass and someone else wants to use the site for a bigger house. To argue over the type of house best suited for this lot seems silly. I propose that we use eminent domain to condemn every non-agricultural structure that currently exists more than one mile from Allen’s Landing. Let’s bulldoze them all and write zoning laws that allow only farm, ranch or wildlife use for everything else within the city limits. We can all move into downtown high rises that are super duper dense, walkable and mixed use. And we’ll have a choo choo train on every street and ban cars. Yippeee!!!!!!!!!!” [Bernard, commenting on A Brief Illustrated Guide to Bungalow Removal]
“It was very eerie to see the stern deck of the ship so close to the water,” writes Swamplot reader J.W. Lodge IV, who visited the leaking Battleship Texas by boat yesterday, and who notes that a news story from Friday linked to in this morning’s Headlines post — which claimed that the dual-world-war veteran parked by the San Jacinto Monument had been repaired and reopened — seemed a bit off. “As far as I can tell they’ve got a long way to go with the pumps,” he reports. The ship was reopened for tours on Saturday, but beginning that evening more problems developed. As of this morning, about 1,500 gallons of ship-channel water were pouring in each minute, from 2 separate areas of new leaks in the vessel’s rear port side. Also developing in the water around the ship: an oil sheen.
Photo from Sunday: J.W. Lodge IV
