Downtown Houston in November 2022 (TX 08)

In November (2022), I wandered around downtown Houston. Everything is so modern, big, and overwhelming, it was hard to find the type of subject matter I like. Thanksgiving Day was gloomy but also uncrowded compared to normal. Here are a few scenes from the area near the Amtrak station and around Buffalo Bayou just north of downtown.

Amtrak

Bail bonds, a ubiquitous part of the American justice system, 1418 Washington Avenue

I found some 1981 negatives of Washington Avenue. Stand-by for a future post.

Houston's decidedly uninspiring Amtrak station (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Waiting for the train, Houston Amtrak station

Houston once had three passenger railroad stations. Only one remains, the magnificent 1911 Union Station. The main concourse of the former railroad station has been reused as a clubhouse, cafe, team store, office space, and lobby at Minute Maid Park (previously known as Enron Field until the financial scandal). They did a superb job of refurbishing the elegant entry hall. 

Today, Houston, once the railroad hub of the southern United States, has one uninspiring Amtrak station. The waiting room looks like a bus station. But, if you are energetic, you can take the sleeper all the way to Los Angeles. 

I arrived at the Amtrak station before the eastbound train was scheduled to arrive. When it rolled into the station, it was pulling two private rail cars at the end of the Amtrak cars. Then another locomotive pulled these two private cars away and shunted them to a siding, connecting them to a third private car. The elegant way to travel.

Downtown and Buffalo Bayou

Apartment blocks east of the Gulf Freeway (I-45) (250mm Sonnar lens)

Houston now has hundreds of residential units downtown. Compared to the 1980s, when I recall the downtown being mostly commercial, the city has become trendy.  

Buffalo Bayou and University of Houston Downtown (Panatomic-X film, 50mm Distagon lens, orange filter, 1/8 ƒ/11.5)

The University of Houston Downtown occupies the 1930 Merchants and Manufacturers Building. The building is over the site of Allen's Landing, where the Allen brothers landed and established the city of Houston in 1836. The bridge in the distance is the Main Street viaduct.

“Main Street viaduct, Houston, Texas, 1910,” Houston Waterways, accessed April 5, 2023, https://digitalprojects.rice.edu/wrc/waterways/items/show/1310.

Under the Main Street viaduct (80mm Planar-CB lens, 3-sec. ƒ/4.0½)

This 1910 concrete arch bridge carries the tram as well as cars over Buffalo Bayou. Despite the no camping signs, a group of homeless were camped there. They shared space with Muscovy ducks, who waddled around without concern. 

Waiting for the tram, view south towards downtown Houston (50mm Distagon lens)

Victorian House on Hamilton Street - being moved? (80mm Planar-CB lens, 1/15 ƒ/4.0½)

Third Ward

The MacGregor Tire Shop - but I'll pass (80mm, yellow filter, 1/30 ƒ/8)

Fourth Ward

No shopping today, 1122 West Grey (Fuji Acros film, Leica M2, 50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens, 1/250 ƒ/5.6)

There are still bits and pieces of an older Houston on West Grey, but most of it has been redeveloped with modern condominiums. I have negatives from this area from the early 1980s when it was more "earthy." Another project to scan....

Corrugated metal warehouse, 1515 Spring Street (Panatomic-X film, 80mm Planar-CB lens)

This interesting warehouse and the store above are remnants of older structures in the Fourth Ward. Not many are left. I will write more about the wards in a future article.

Texas Medical Center

Room with a view: Greenbriar Drive and the Houston METRORail (250mm Sonnar lens)

The area south of the Texas Medical Center is commercial and rather uninspiring. But hundreds of apartments and temporary residential units cater to medical patients. Huge parking lots serve thousands medical staff. But it is a food desert if you can't stomach fast food. Fortunately, Rice Village and its amazing restaurants are only two miles away. 

The METRORail tram can take you to the Medical Center, Hermann Park, the Museum District, with its 19 museums, or all the way downtown. METRORail is free if you are over 70.

Port of Houston

The Port of Houston is an immense economic engine for Texas and the USA. It is the second largest port in Dollar terms in the USA, after Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. Annually, some 22,000 deep-draft ships come in and use the 50-mile Houston Ship Canal and the Port's complex of wharfs, terminals, and refineries. The Houston Ship Canal needs regular (almost constant) dredging from its opening at the Gulf of Mexico mouth at Galveston, across Galveston Bay, and up the Buffalo Bayou. My 1981 car (still in use) came in through Houston. 

Take the free tour of the Port of Houston. Cruise right by these immense freighters. 

This ends out somewhat random wandering around Houston in November and early December. Thank you all for riding along! Click any photograph to see it enlarged. Most of these photographs are from my Hasselblad 501CM medium format camera.

Footloose in Houston in the early-1980s (TX 01)

Blog note

Dear Readers, this will be the start of a series on Houston and south Texas. I have hundreds of negatives from my previous life when I lived in Houston but will never have time to scan them all. Two months in Houston in late 2022 gave me a chance to explore the city again. There is so much to see!

I photographed in the Texas Panhandle in the past as part of my Route 66 project, at the Rio Grande border and Big Bend, and in Galveston. If interested, please type "Texas" in the search box. I will start numbering this new series to keep track of these SE Texas posts. Texas is endlessly fascinating. Enjoy the ride! 

Introduction

In the early-1980s, I worked in the oil industry and lived in West University Place, a quiet enclave within Houston, Texas. Having moved from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, Houston was a culture shock for us (more so than Athens, Seattle, Providence, and any number of other cities). Houston was a new, noisy, vibrant, flashy, and disorganized city, so different from staid and traditional 350-year-old Boston or 3000-year-old Athens. West University Place was perfect, an established neighborhood with mature trees and handsome mid-century cottages within walking distance to restaurants, stores, and Rice University.

Our comfortable little home in West University Place, still extant but different paint. It had genuine wood floors and plaster walls. (Kodachrome 25 slide)

Downtown Houston

When I was in town (meaning not offshore), I explored and took pictures. Having a "real" job, I bought a Rolleiflex 3.5E camera at Southside Camera Center (long gone) and updated my 35mm equipment. I also took two full-semester photography classes at University of Houston from Dr. Suzanne Bloom. Here are a few examples from my early explorations.

The Houston skyline in 1980 from Glenwood Cemetery (Nikon 105mm ƒ/2.5 lens, Panatomic-X film)

Glenwood Cemetery is still a peaceful green relief from the highways and noise of the city. Today, many more skyscrapers fill the sky. I will show a recent picture from the same location later. 

In 1982, downtown Houston still had the look of "old American city" with grungy discount shops, loan stores, old-line clothing shops, and mature companies dating back before WWII.

Main Street view north

Elegant professional ladies with Samsonite briefcases. Wearing stockings? 

Cheerful gents

Main Street was boisterous and busy during the day. But after about 6 pm, Houston rolled down the shutters and the inner city became quiet. Few people lived downtown then, and office workers drove off to the suburbs. Today (2022), the downtown has apartments and restaurants, and the warehouse district just east of downtown is being redeveloped with very nice townhouses.

Abruptly, in typical Houston style, a furious rain storm engulfed us. What fun.

I took these 1982 photographs on Kodak Panatomic-X film with my Rollei 35S compact camera. I bought it in September of 1981 for $141 at Southwestern Camera, possibly at 1416 Main Street (now a parking lot). Rollei had just gone through bankruptcy and reorganization, and Southwestern was selling off their stock of Rollei products. This little camera, with its excellent 40mm ƒ/2.8 Sonnar lens, served me well for many years, especially when I was traveling. I convinced two coworkers to also buy Rolleis. 

In 1982, you could still buy a brand new twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex 2.8F or 3.5F from the New York vendors. Why didn't I jump on the opportunity?

You will see more Houston photographs in the future. 

Rollei 35S with 40mm ƒ/2.8 Sonnar lens, body made in Singapore (from Wikipedia). It used 30mm filters, which were hard to find.

Lost Small-town Store: Main Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

For much of the 20th century, many people did not have automobiles, and all towns had local stores to supply staples and groceries. Vicksburg had many of these small stores, but most have disappeared over the years. Williams Gro was at 1620 Main Street. I recall seeing the little shop, but it had been closed for years.

Finally in 2010, the city inspector condemned it along with the house next door. Oddly, both had the address 1620. The spray paint number is the indication that the building has been condemned and that the backhoe will soon crush the hulk.    

Note the Winston sign indicating opening hours and the Holsum bread sign. Holsum had a distributor in Vicksburg years ago.

Technical note: I recently bought an early-2000s Minolta Dimage Scan Multi medium-format scanner. With some manipulation, I got it to work on a Windows 7 computer. I have started testing it with my 6x9 cm 120-size Kodak Panatomic-X negatives, which I expose in a Fujifilm GW690II rangefinder camera (also sometimes known as the "Texas Leica"). This is a big beast of a camera with an astonishing lens. The scans at 2820 dots per inch yield a 100 mb TIFF file. But at that level of detail, I can see lint, flecks of dirt, and non-development spots (probably from bubbles), so it takes some time to retouch the flaws. Dear Readers, in the future, you will see more black and white files from the Texas Leica as I scan my archives.

Lost Houses: Lower Main Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Dear Readers, happy and prosperous 2015 to you all.

Main Street is one of Vicksburg's historic streets, and the waterfront and hill near the Yazoo Canal (formerly the main stem of the Mississippi River) is one of the earliest areas to be settled in the 1800s. Sadly, we have lost many of the old houses from this district over the years.

I recall that in the 1980s and early 1990s, the square building at the corner of Main and Washington Streets was a local corner grocery store. Unfortunately, I never photographed the interior.

But the good news is that Rusty's Riverfront Grill now occupies the site (901 Washington Street). This is a success story - an old building with a new life. It has been renovated and expanded.

The next building uphill is a garage at 714 Main Street.

716 Main was an old-fashioned house that had been empty for some time and, as of mid-2014, was being deconstructed. In the second picture, you can see right through the left wall.
June 2015 update: this building has been demolished.

718 Main is in good condition and was occupied in late 2014.

No. 722 is a duplex with plaster or concrete siding made to look like limestone. The brick building in the left distance is the Jackson Street Community Center. That was the former site of a YMCA (click the link).

On the next block east (uphill), the shotgun shacks at nos. 802 and 804 were demolished years ago. This photograph (a Kodachrome slide) is from 2000.

Across the street, at 807 Main, there was once a big 2-story building. I did not pay much attention until I saw the demolition crew at work in February of 1998. These photographs were also Kodachrome slides taken with a Leica camera and 35mm Summicron lens.

At 808, the building had the concrete (or plaster?) siding shaped to look like limestone blocks.

So it goes; slowly but surely, more structures are being removed than built. Vicksburg has more grassy lots than even 20 years ago. Is this the fate of small towns in America?

St. Mary's Catholic Church, Vicksburg, Mississippi

St. Mary's Catholic Church is at the corner of Main and 2nd North Streets, in the historic part of Vicksburg east of the Courthouse and south of Old Jackson Road.

As you can see, this building is relatively modern (1923). Did this structure replace an older church? Possibly a reader can provide information.

St. Mary's operates a large parish hall, which resembles an old hangar.

What interested me most about the property was the old rectory, an 1800s wood structure on a flat lot south of the church.  To me, it looks like an old schoolhouse, but the priest told me that the schoolhouse was demolished many years ago, and the white building was the rectory.

It is a handsome old building, and I wish they could restore it.

This is the view from the church property looking east along Jackson Street. Did the lower garden once have an orchard or vegetable garden? In the early 1900s, many schools grew their own food - how times have changed. Can you imagine a contemporary student working in the fields?

Update January 2018: the rectory has been demolished. I do not know the exact date. That is sad.

Photographs taken with a Panasonic G1 digital camera, tripod-mounted.