Houston Lost and Unbuilt

Houston Lost and Unbuilt

Author: Steven R. Strom

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0292773528

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Driven by an almost fanatical desire for whatever is new, "modern," and likely to make money, Houston is constantly in the process of remaking itself. Few structures remain from the nineteenth century, and even much of the twentieth-century built environment has fallen before the wrecking ball of "progress." Indeed, the demolition of older buildings in Houston can be compared to the destruction of cityscapes such as Berlin, Warsaw, and Tokyo in World War II. But because this wholesale restructuring of Houston's built environment has happened in peacetime, historically minded people have only recently sounded an alarm over what is being lost and the toll this destruction is taking on Houstonians' sense of place. Houston Lost and Unbuilt presents an extensive catalogue of twentieth-century public and commercial buildings that have been lost forever, as well as an intriguing selection of buildings that never made it off the drawing board. The lost buildings (or lost interiors of buildings) span a wide range, from civic gathering places such as the Houston Municipal Auditorium and the Astrodome to commercial enterprises such as the Foley Brothers, Sears Roebuck, and Sakowitz department stores to "Theatre Row" downtown to neighborhoods such as Fourth Ward/Freedmen's Town. Steven Strom's introductions and photo captions describe each significant building's contribution to the civic life of Houston. The "unbuilt" section of the book includes numerous previously unpublished architectural renderings of proposed projects such as a multi-building city center, monorail, and people mover system, all which reflect Houston's fascination with the future and optimism that technology will solve all of the city's problems.


Lost Restaurants of Houston

Lost Restaurants of Houston

Author: Paul Galvani

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-05-27

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1439664617

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Stories of immigration, culture-clash . . . and old-fashioned hard work are told through the history of Houston’s long-gone, but still-beloved restaurants.” —Yesterday’s America With more than fourteen thousand eating establishments covering seventy different ethnic cuisines, Houston is a foodie town. But even in a place where eating out is a way of life and restaurants come and go, there were some iconic spots that earned a special place in the hearts and stomachs of locals. Maxim’s taught overnight millionaires how to handle meals that came with three forks. The Trader Vic’s at the Shamrock offered dedicated homebodies a chance for the exotic, and Sonny Look’s Sirloin Inn maintained the reputation of a city of steakhouses. From Alfred’s Delicatessen to Youngblood’s Fried Chicken, Paul and Christiane Galvani celebrate the stories and recipes of Houston’s fondly remembered tastemakers. “In the book, the Galvanis share Houston’s history and love of food. They take the reader on the banks of the bayou when the city received its first inhabitants before time hopping from the Original Mexican Restaurant to The Original Kelley’s Steakhouse. Other stops include Alfred’s Delicatessen and the San Jacinto Inn.” —Houston Business Journal


Lost Houston

Lost Houston

Author: William Dylan Powell

Publisher: Rizzoli Publications

Published: 2016-02-15

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1910496758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A look at how the buildings, streets, and institutions that comprise Houston's cityscape have changed dramatically over the years, and the many that were lost along the waySince its founding in 1836, Houston has become America's fourth largest city. It was a hardscrabble life for the early settlers, but first King Cotton brought wealth to the local economy and then the Lucas Gusher at the Spindletop oilfield made Houston the capital of the American oil and gas business. The old Texas State Capitol was demolished and replaced by the old Rice Hotel, which was then replaced by the 1913 Rice Hotel that stands today. Baseball has been played at Buffalo Stadium, Colt Stadium, and the "EighthWonder" the Astrodome before settling at MinuteMaid Park. The Astros' ballpark occupies the space once occupied by Union Station's platforms and the Houston-to-Dallas Texas Rocket train, both lost to time and progress. Sites include: Camp Logan, Carnegie Colored Library, Houston Chronicle Building. The Binz Building, Original Texas State Capitol, Original Rice Hotel, Old City Hall, Moorish Federal Building, Felix Mexican Restaurant, S.H. Kress and Co., Union Station, Grand Central Station, Trailblazer Monorail, Houston Light Guard Armoury, Luna Park, Metropolitan Theatre, Magnolia Brewery, Streetcars on Heights Boulevard, Waldo Mansion, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Shamrock Hotel, NFL and NBL at the Astrodome, Houston Municipal Air Terminal, and the Sam Houston Coliseum.


Lost, Texas

Lost, Texas

Author: Bronson Dorsey

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2018-04-24

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1623496179

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Lost, Texas: Photographs of Forgotten Buildings, Bronson Dorsey takes us on a tour of old, abandoned buildings in Texas that evoke the mystique of bygone days and shifting population patterns. With a skilled photographer’s eye, he captures the character of these buildings, mostly tucked away in the far corners of rural Texas—though, surprisingly, some of his finds are in the midst of thriving communities, even, in one case, the Dallas metroplex. Most of the buildings are abandoned and in a state of decay, though a handful have been repurposed as museums, residences, or other functional structures. Encompassing all regions of the state, from the Piney Woods to the Panhandle, the images in Lost, Texas evoke distinctive memories of the past. They grant a sense of how those who preceded us lived and how the Texas of earlier days became the Texas of today. Some of the historic sites include a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Beeville, a lumberyard built over two generations, a beautiful, mission-style schoolhouse raised in a small farming community, the skeleton of a boomtown gas station near the Yates oilfield, and what remains of the only silver mining operation in Texas. With Dorsey as a guide, readers may explore these hidden and neglected gems and learn the basic facts of their origins and intended uses, as well as the principal reasons for their demise. Along the way and in the background, he quietly makes the case for preserving these buildings that, while no longer central to the ongoing function of their communities, still serve as important emblems of the past.


Ship of Ghosts

Ship of Ghosts

Author: James D. Hornfischer

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2009-03-25

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 0307490882

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Son, we’re going to Hell." The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death. Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home. In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail. Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.


Innocence Lost

Innocence Lost

Author: Carlton Stowers

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Published: 2004-05-16

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1466835834

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Undercover officer George Raffield's job was to pose as a student in the small town of Midlothian, Texas and infiltrate the high school drug ring. When Raffield's cover became suspect, word spread through a small circle of friends that the young officer would pay with his life. No one stopped it. On a rainy fall evening in 1987, Raffield was lured to an isolated field. Three bullets were fired-one unloaded into his skull. The baby-faced killer, Greg Knighten, stole eighteen dollars from Raffield's wallet, divided it among his two young accomplices, and calmly said, "it's done." With chilling detail, Carlton Stowers illuminates a dark corner of America's heartland and the children who hide there. What he found was an alienated subculture of drug abuse, the occult, and an unfathomable teenage rage that exploded at point blank range on a shocking night of lost innocence...


Vanished Texas Coast, The: Lost Port Towns, Mysterious Shipwrecks and Other True Tales

Vanished Texas Coast, The: Lost Port Towns, Mysterious Shipwrecks and Other True Tales

Author: Mark Lardas

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1467149853

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

People may associate Texas with cattle drives and oil derricks, but the sea has shaped the state's history as dramatically as it has delineated its coastline. Some of that history has vanished into the Gulf, whether it is an abandoned port town or a gale-tossed treasure fleet. Revisit the shipwreck that put Texas on the map. Add La Salle's lost colony, the Texas Navy's forgotten steamship and Galveston's overlooked 1915 hurricane to the navigational charts. From the submarines of Seawolf Park to the concrete tanker beached off Pelican Island, author Mark Lardas scours the coast to salvage the secrets of its sunken heritage.


The Lost Artist

The Lost Artist

Author: Eric J. Houston

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-04-19

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 9781545569887

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A 13-year-old Jewish boy escapes Nazi Germany to become the highest decorated WW II Palestinian soldier in the British Army. 2010: a top Israeli computer scientist searches for the favorite artist of her youth. From the rise of the Nazi Party through the formation of the State of Israel, across a sea of time to present day, their worlds collide ..."--Page 4 of cover.


The Secret

The Secret

Author: Byron Preiss

Publisher: ibooks

Published: 2016-10-05

Total Pages: 1

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.


No Color Is My Kind

No Color Is My Kind

Author: Thomas R. Cole

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2012-04-09

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 029274367X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

No Color Is My Kind is an uncommon chronicle of identity, fate, and compassion as two men—one Jewish and one African American—set out to rediscover a life lost to manic depression and alcoholism. In 1984, Thomas Cole discovered Eldrewey Stearns in a Galveston psychiatric hospital. Stearns, a fifty-two-year-old black man, complained that although he felt very important, no one understood him. Over the course of the next decade, Cole and Stearns, in a tumultuous and often painful collaboration, recovered Stearns’ life before his slide into madness—as a young boy in Galveston and San Augustine and as a civil rights leader and lawyer who sparked Houston’s desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963. While other southern cities rocked with violence, Houston integrated its public accommodations peacefully. In these pages appear figures such as Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leon Jaworski, and Dan Rather, all of whom—along with Stearns—maneuvered and conspired to integrate the city quickly and calmly. Weaving the tragic story of a charismatic and deeply troubled leader into the record of a major historic event, Cole also explores his emotionally charged collaboration with Stearns. Their poignant relationship sheds powerful and healing light on contemporary race relations in America, and especially on issues of power, authority, and mental illness.